Losing his voice was one of the first symptoms that Dan Lowen experienced when he got Parkinson’s disease, a progressive disease of the nervous system affecting an estimated 1 million Americans.
“I was teaching classes online and I found that my voice was getting weaker and weaker. It got to the point where I couldn’t teach anymore,” Lowen said during an interview at Northeastern’s Speech-Language and Hearing Center.
Today Lowen is one of scores of Parkinson’s patients rediscovering their voices through the SPEAK OUT! Therapy & Research Center at Northeastern University.
Launched a year and a half ago with a grant from Parkinson Voice Project, it’s the only Parkinson Voice Project designated SPEAK OUT! Therapy & Research Center in Massachusetts.
According to Lowen, the therapy delivers “instant results.”
“I walked into a session with very little voice and walked out with a full voice again. It’s a phenomenal program,” Lowen said.
Parkinson’s patients enroll in a four-week program that provides individual SPEAK OUT! Therapy twice a week, mainly by Zoom but sometimes in person. After that they meet in groups once a week online.
“In our first 12 months as the Massachusetts SPEAK OUT! Therapy & Research Center, we conducted 333 individual treatment sessions with Parkinson’s patients and completed 31 evaluations for new patients,” said Elizabeth Martin, a clinical professor and center director.
