Maria Södersten

Maria Södersten

Affiliated to Teaching/Tutoring | Docent
Visiting address: Blickagången 9 A, Enheten för logopedi F67, 14186 Stockholm
Postal address: H9 Klinisk vetenskap, intervention och teknik, H9 CLINTEC Logopedi, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • Adjunct professor at the Division of Speech and Language Pathology, Clintec,
    KI, employed by Karolinska University Hospital, the Functional Area Speech
    and Language Pathology as a speech language pathologist.
    My main field of interest within speech and language pathology is assessment
    and intervention of patients with different types of voice disorders and
    development of outcome measures for interventions such as voice therapy and
    phonosurgery. I got my PhD in 1994 at Karolinska Institutet with the thesis
    "Vocal fold closure during phonation - physiological, perceptual, and
    acoustic studies". I was a Fulbright fellow at Columbia University in New
    York 1983-1984, became associate professor at KI 2006 and adjunct professor
    at KI 2019.
    *Teaching area*
    Course director for "Voice Disorders" (6 credits) and Medicine 5 (4.5credits)
    as part of the speech and language pathology program at KI.
    Teacher/supervisor for students during their clinical placement training. Has
    been the course director for many free standing courses at advanced level.
    The most recent ones are "Voice and speech in transsexual individuals -
    assessment and intervention" (7.5 credits) and "Voice disorders and voice
    ergonomics" (7.5 p). I regularly supervise thesis projects and master's
    theses. I am currently co-supervisor to the doctoral student Joakim Körner
    Gustafsson and am planning for other doctoral students. I participate in
    teacher exchange within the ERASMUS program with University of Sheffield in
    England, Copenhagen University in Denmark and Åbo Akademi in Finland. I was
    recently a visiting professor at the University of Tampere.

Research

  • *Research areas*
    The research area "Voice and speech in persons with gender dysphoria"
    includes several projects. One is a prospective controlled treatment study of
    transwomen, people who are assigned male sex at birth and who identify
    themselves as women. Many need feminizing voice treatment to find a voice
    congruent with their gender identity. Some also need pitch-raising vocal fold
    surgery. The ongoing treatment study is carried out in collaboration with
    researchers at LaTrobe University in Australia. The purpose is to investigate
    effects and efficiency of feminizing voice therapy and identify predictors
    for good treatment results. Other projects are to develop questionnaires for
    both transwomen and transmen regarding their voice and communication in
    relationship to their gender identity. Studies about testosterone’s impact
    on the vocal folds and the voice are ongoing in collaboration with PhD Ulrika
    Nygren, and Professor Agneta Nordenskjöld.
    In the area ​​"Work-related voice disorders and voice ergonomics", voice
    use is studied with a portable voice accumulator, which can measure the
    speaker's voice activity, and the level of the noise in the environment up to
    a week's time. Voice data is stored in a database from which the covariation
    between voice usage, noise level and self-perceived voice problems can be
    mapped. Results have been presented in a thesis by Annika Szabo Portela
    (2017). The portable voice meter is also used in Joakim Körner Gustavsson's
    doctoral project, in which patients with Parkinson's disease are included.
    These patients have often very weak voices. A tactile feedback function is
    tested to help the patient to speak with a louder voice.

Articles

All other publications

Employments

  • Affiliated to Teaching/Tutoring, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, 2024-2027
  • Adjunct Professor, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, 2019-2024

Degrees and Education

  • Docent, Karolinska Institutet, 2006

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