Your story reminds me of the years I worked for an agency providing services to people living with HIV/AIDS. Our clients were mostly all struggling with heroin addiction, and all my social worker colleagues (I was one of the few staffers without a degree in social work) spoke with that slow, calming voice you wrote about. I don't know if they learned it in school or just picked it from the cultural air.

A friend of mine there once showed me a few tricks to be able to talk like that without crossing a line into sounding condescending, so I guess it might be sort of an on-the-job-training thing.

Years later, when I made friends with a man who ran a nursing home, I observed him speaking to patients (and even family members) in that that same "human services" tone of voice.

Interseting!