City Lit Speech Therapy
Meet the team

Carolyn Cheasman BSc (Hons) Reg MRCSLT

Carolyn has worked as a speech and language therapist with adults who stammer since 1979. She stammers herself and prior to training as a therapist attended an intensive course at City Lit which she describes as a 'life-changing event'. Carolyn has a particular interest in interiorised stammering. As part of her work she has undertaken considerable counselling training.

She has trained to teach mindfulness and has completed a postgraduate diploma in teaching mindfulness-based approaches. Since completing this training, Carolyn has gone on to develop mindfulness courses  for people who stammer and speech and language therapists. Building on this and in partnership with her colleague, Rachel Everard, has offered many  acceptance and commitment therapy programmes for people who stammer and health professionals. She is an experienced supervisor of qualified speech and language therapists and has co-run many post-graduate training courses for therapists.

Carolyn was a founder member of the British Stammering Association and was one of its early advisors. She has been Chair of both national and regional Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists Clinical Excellence Networks in Disorders of Fluency. She has also been Chair of the Special Interest Group in Counselling. 

Together with Rachel Everard and Sam Simpson, in 2013 she co-edited a ground-breaking publication ‘Stammering therapy from the inside: new perspectives on working with young people and adults who stammer’.  Each chapter describes a particular approach to stammering and is written both from the perspective of the clinician and client.

Cathinka Guldberg BSc, MRCSLT and HCPC Registered

Cathinka joined the City Lit Speech Therapy Team as a full time tutor in 2014 following 25 years in the NHS. She has worked as a Speech and Language Therapist and a manager within a hospital and outpatient setting with a broad range of adult clients, including those who have had strokes and those who stammer. She has a lifelong passion and extensive experience of working with adults who stammer.

Cathinka also has a degree in Psychology and has completed a number of short courses on using psychological approaches, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness Based approaches, with people who stammer. Cathinka is a member of the South East and London Stammering Clinical Excellence Network and was one of the founding committee members of this professional group.

Vivien Grant-Jones

Vivien has been a part-time tutor for City Lit since 2009. In 2023 she gained the opportunity to be a Co-ordinating Tutor at City Lit. Vivien does not stammer herself but does experience cluttering (as part of her dyslexia). She has had a varied, diverse and creative career so far, the central thread being a personal and passionate pursuit to understand our individual and cultural relationship with fluency.

She feels very fortunate to be part of a long established and experienced team at City Lit. She has found the combination of City Lit’s environment (students attending adult education), City Lit’s approach and the group therapy setting a unique and ideal path for students to progress with their speech and wider life goals. Vivien qualified as a speech and language therapist in 2002. She has worked with children in a variety of settings including Sure Start Children Centres, community clinics and mainstream schools. From 2012 to 2018 she was St Paul’s Cathedral Choristers’ speech therapist.

Vivien also trained as a voice teacher (Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, 2005). She has taught voice at East 15 Acting School, Italia Conti, London School of Dramatic Art (LSDA) and she is currently the voice tutor for Buckinghamshire New University’s BA (Hons) Acting Programme. Combining her knowledge and experience Vivien has developed City Lit’s Embodied Voice course for adults who stammer.

In 2010 Vivien studied writing and directing at RADA (MA Text & Performance) which has supported both her professional and personal creative endeavours considerably.

Anita McKiernan BSc, MSc, Dip Coaching, Dip Counselling Skills, MRCSLT, MASLTIP, HCPC Registered.

Anita is a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist who joined City Lit as a part-time tutor in January 2019.

Anita works as an independent speech and language therapist with children, young people and adults with needs such as, Selective Mutism, Stammering, Voice Disorders, Autism and Speech and Language difficulties.  She spent several years working in the NHS, in clinical, supervisory and leadership roles.  

Anita is also a visiting lecturer and clinical tutor at City, University of London.  She is the current chair of the National Clinical Excellence Network in Selective Mutism (SM) and is also a member of the National and Regional Clinical Excellence Networks in Fluency. 

Anita has completed further qualifications in areas of Counselling and Coaching and has a particular interest in using a range of psychological approaches in her work. 

Anita’s engagement with and love of the Arts has been a lifelong theme and she greatly enjoys bringing creativity into her therapeutic work, including through art-making, music, movement, improvisation and poetry. She has written various songs and melodies for therapeutic use and continues to write poetry when the impulse strikes!  

Rachel Everard BA (Hons) MSc Reg MRCSLT

Rachel has stammered herself since a very early age and originally came to City Lit as a client in the early 1990s. Her experience of therapy and meeting other people who stammer was a turning-point in her life. She decided to change career and train as a speech and language therapist, she became involved in the British Stammering Association and her personal identity changed as she began to accept herself as somebody who stammers.

She strongly believes in empowering people who stammer and in the benefits of group therapy. Prior to joining the City Lit speech therapy team in 2001, Rachel worked as a speech and language therapist with children with a range of communication difficulties in community clinics, mainstream primary schools and at the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children. 

From 1999 to 2005 she was Chair of the British Stammering Association.  She is Past Treasurer of the International Fluency Association and current Treasurer of the National Clinical Excellence Network in Disorders of Fluency. She has recently completed a masters in applied research in human communication disorders at University College London.  As part of her studies, she carried out a piece of research looking into the effectiveness of the City Lit approach in working with adults who stammer. 

Together with Carolyn Cheasman and Sam Simpson, in 2013 she co-edited a ground-breaking publication ‘Stammering therapy from the inside: new perspectives on working with young people and adults who stammer’.  Each chapter describes a particular approach to stammering and is written both from the perspective of the clinician and client.