WWU voice clinician and educator publishes paper on the importance of trauma-responsive care

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WWU voice clinician and educator publishes paper on the importance of trauma-responsive care

June 15, 2026

by Mary Gallagher

WWU Communications

Yarrow Pospisil, a clinical educator in Western's Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, recently published an article in a professional journal outlining the importance and practice of a trauma-responsive approach, particularly in gender-affirming voice care.

Pospisil's "Advancing Trauma Responsiveness in Gender-Affirming Voice Care at a University Clinic" was published earlier this year in Perspectives of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association as part of the journal's Forum on Trauma.

At Western, Pospisil supervises graduate student voice care clinicians in the department's Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic. She guides them in bringing a sense of empowerment, safety, trust and collaboration to their work with clients like those who are working align their voice more closely with their gender identity.

"It can feel really vulnerable for people to open up and engage freely in that process," Pospisil said. "That's why we need to have an awareness of when those things are surfacing so that we can provide the kinds of counseling, coaching and co-regulatory experiences that people need in those moments. When they feel safe and connected in that therapeutic alliance they can really access their potential for learning."

Pospisil graduated in 1995 from Western with a master's degree in speech pathology/audiology and has spent 25 years at WWU as a clinician and educator. She is also a certified trainer in non-violent communication and maintains her own coaching and mediation practice.

Trauma responsiveness in the clinical voice care setting is an emerging aspect of the profession and an area in need of future research, Pospisil said.

"Over the years, it has become more clear to me that we need to be advancing our awareness of trauma and trauma-responsive practices for all populations we serve, not only the transgender and gender expansive community," she said. "We have had a lot of clients for whom mental health or lingering effects of trauma impact how well they can engage. For the transgender community in particular, there are all the social and political realities that we need to take seriously and be sensitive to."