Stammering Therapy in London
Adult speech therapy to help you manage your stammer. Online speech therapy is also available!
Award-winning stammering therapy in London.
City Lit Speech Therapy is an international centre of excellence based in London. Our team of highly experienced specialist speech and language therapists lead a broad range of stammering therapy sessions, including intensive day-time sessions, and part-time evening/short stammering therapy workshops in Covent Garden, as well as a well providing a developed follow-up programme for ongoing support.
Running out of our centre of excellence in London. we have over 50 years’ experience in providing support for adults who stammer. Email us at speechtherapy@citylit.ac.uk to arrange an advisory session - this personal and free service will help you choose the right therapy for you.
Our approach
Our approach at City Lit is what is known as "stammering management" and is based on the work of two American speech and language therapists who also stammered, Charles Van Riper and Joseph Sheehan.
You enrol as students who engage in a process of learning. We believe that this encourages an active approach to change which is essential to successful stammering therapy.
Offering you the tools you need for long term change.
We believe it is important that you become your own therapist, so that by the end of a course they have a variety of tools for managing stammering.
Unlike some other stuttering therapy programmes, our therapy is not a 'quick fix'. Whilst it is possible to gain fluency relatively quickly, it is usually hard to maintain unless work is done also on the psychological aspects of stammering.
Addressing the psychological aspects of stuttering.
People who stammer often avoid speaking in a number of situations and often change words or swap sentences around in a bid to avoid stammering. As a rule, the more you avoid stammering, the more you fear it.
Stuttering behaviours may develop and change over time in an attempt to gain control of speech, but often this can result in increased tension-struggle.
Our approach to therapy is holistic and is designed to address all aspects of stammering - the feelings and attitudes as well as the speech - leading to more lasting change. We believe that trying to 'fight' your stammering is unhelpful and can be damaging in the long run.
Working on acceptance and openness leads to greater ease of speech.
Change is a process and takes time. Therapy is a partnership, but ultimately people only change by doing something different, not just by thinking or reading about it. Group therapy is often particularly beneficial.
Our Speech and Language Therapists
If you're looking for a speech therapist in London, our team of experienced Speech and Language Therapists have over 50 years’ experience in providing stammering therapy and support for adults who stammer or stutter. We offer a broad range of stammering therapy sessions delivered in small groups by qualified speech therapists. Learn more about our team below.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Contact us
For general enquiries please contact us on 020 4582 0419 or email us at speechtherapy@citylit.ac.uk
Email our team directly
Carolyn Cheasman
carolyn.cheasman@citylit.ac.uk
Vivien Grant-Jones
Hear Peter Hodson's journey with City Lit Speech Therapy.
- Stammering - affirming shared world buildingCourse start date: Fri 30 Jan 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Samantha SimpsonHistorically, stammering has been understood as a defect that needs to be fixed. Over the past two decades, therapists and people who stammer have looked beyond such aims and instead developed approaches to therapy that affirm stammering as a valid and respectable way of speaking. These stammering-affirming therapy approaches look to shift how people feel about and approach their stammer in daily life to build a shared world that respects and sees value in stammering.
Sam Simpson is a speech and language therapist, person-centred counsellor, supervisor and trainer (www.redefiningstammering.co.uk) living outside London, England. Sam has a particular interest in critical disability studies, stammering activism and what stammering can teach us about ourselves and the world, and actively promotes stammering-affirming therapy practices and culture. Together with Carolyn Cheasman and Rachel Everard, Sam co-edited 'Stammering Therapy from the Inside: New Perspectives on Working with Young People and Adults' in 2013, which set out to enrich professional accounts of contemporary stammering therapy by including clients as co-authors of therapy knowledge. Together with Patrick Campbell and Christopher Constantino, Sam co-edited 'Stammering Pride and Prejudice: Difference not Defect' in 2019. Combining personal narrative, art and disability theory, the book documents how society has historically disabled people who stammer and the diverse ways in which people are creating novel and exciting understandings of their speech. They are currently collaborating on the sequel. Sam is a founder member of Stuttering Commons (https://www.stutteringcommons.org/) an international education initiative aiming to deconstruct, unsettle and bend fluency privilege.
Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £149.00 - Stage 1 stammering therapyCourse start date: Tue 3 Feb 2026 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Amy StewartLearn strategies to help you speak more easily. You'll also work on becoming less sensitive about stammering, reducing avoidance strategies and developing self confidence. Designed specifically for people who stammer /stutter.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £181.00 Concession £52.00 - Interiorised stammering therapyCourse start date: Wed 4 Feb 2026 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Suzanna CooperIf you often manage to conceal your stammering (also known as stuttering), this course will help you to understand your particular type of stammering, reduce negative feelings, learn strategies to speak more easily and develop self confidence.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £181.00 Concession £52.00 - Counselling skills for recently qualified speech and language therapistsCourse start date: Wed 11 Feb 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Vivien Grant-JonesDevelop and practise a range of essential core counselling skills to help you work with emotional issues you will encounter as an SLT. You will receive feedback and learn through experience and reflective practice. This course is suitable for recently qualified therapists as well as therapists in training.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £129.00 - Embodied voice for people who (consistently or sometimes) speak too fastCourse start date: Wed 18 Feb 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Vivien Grant-JonesThis course will most benefit students who experience cluttering. Some features of cluttering are:
• Speaking quickly, often with rapid bursts of speech
• Some words being unclear or mis-pronounced
• Difficulties in explaining and conveying sequences of information
• Difficulties in being understood by the listener
Cluttering can be present as the only communication challenge or alongside stammering, dyslexia and/or ADHD (formal diagnosis is not required).
This course will provide you with skills to become more aware and knowledgeable of your voice and speech. The course will also explore ways to develop effective listening and communication strategies.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £20.00 - Narrative therapy for speech and language therapistsCourse start date: Wed 18 Feb 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Anita McKiernanThis workshop introduces you to the theory underpinning narrative ways of working. Learn about key narrative ideas and practices including: externalising, re authoring, listening for alternative storylines, and develop skills in narrative questioning. Relevant for therapists working with a range of client groups.Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £149.00 - Public speaking for people who stammerCourse start date: Fri 27 Feb 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Vivien Grant-Jones, Anita McKiernanPresenting information clearly and effectively is vital to getting your message or opinion across. This two-day workshop is about developing key presentation skills and confidence when speaking to a group of people, whether it’s giving a formal or impromptu presentation, contributing to a meeting or taking part in a discussion.Full fee £79.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £16.00 - Working with adults who stammer: a course for speech and language therapists
Course start date: Mon 16 Mar 2026Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jenny YeatmanDesigned for speech and language therapists, this four-day interactive workshop will cover assessment and selection, stammering modification, interiorised stammering, cluttering, acquired stammering and an introduction to mindfulness. Opportunity to practise teaching techniques to clients included.
Note: this course runs on these days: March 16-18; and an online follow-up day on October 5.Full fee £599.00 Senior fee £599.00 Concession £599.00 - Open Stammering - Mindful Drawing Course start date: Wed 18 Mar 2026
Location on this date: Online
This course brings together adults who stammer to participate in an online Mindful Drawing event.
City Lit fosters a stammer affirming environment where stammering is welcomed in all its forms. We recognise the experience of stammering is individual. Our Open Stammering events are an opportunity to build connections and gain support in the stammering community through creative, collaborative endeavours.Full fee £39.00 Senior fee £27.00 Concession £8.00 - Advancing your practice for speech and language therapists Course start date: Fri 27 Mar 2026 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Carolyn Cheasman, Corinne Moffatt-SantosThis course is for speech and language therapists working with adults or young people who stammer wishing to develop their practice. It will provide opportunity to update your knowledge and learn from peers
Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £139.00 - ACT for people who stammer Course start date: Thu 30 Apr 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Carolyn Cheasman, Rachel EverardThis is a powerful approach to therapy. You'll learn to work more effectively with negative thoughts and feelings through acceptance and mindfulness work. You'll also learn how to identify, and move towards, valued goals and directions in your life.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £90.00 Concession £26.00 - Assertiveness for speech and language therapistsCourse start date: Wed 13 May 2026
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Vivien Grant-JonesDevelop your personal effectiveness by learning and practising some key assertiveness skills that are highly relevant in a range of situations including: attending an interview, working with clients, communicating with your manager/supervisor and contributing to an MDT meeting.Full fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £129.00 - Embodied voice for people who (sometimes or continuously) speak too fastCourse start date: Fri 15 May 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Vivien Grant-JonesThis course will most benefit students who experience cluttering. Some features of cluttering are: speaking quickly, often with rapid bursts of speech, some words being unclear or mis-pronounced, difficulties in explaining and conveying sequences of information, difficulties in being understood by the listener. Cluttering can be present as the only communication challenge or alongside stammering, dyslexia and/or ADHD (formal diagnosis is not required). This course will provide you with skills to become more aware and knowledgeable of your voice and speech.
Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £34.00 Concession £10.00 - Effective counselling skills for speech and language therapistsCourse start date: Mon 18 May 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Louise Hillyer, Anita McKiernan, Amy StewartDesigned for SLTs working with any client group, this interactive workshop will help you develop practical counselling skills. Topics include developing the therapeutic relationship, boundaries, ways of responding, paraphrasing, reflecting, questioning, immediacy, self disclosure and loss.Full fee £499.00 Senior fee £499.00 Concession £499.00 - Embodied Voice for people who stammerCourse start date: Mon 1 Jun 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Vivien Grant-JonesBecome knowledgeable about your own voice as an instrument and gain insights into how you currently use and relate to it. Identify what you like about your voice in a safe place to play with possibilities. Get to know your voice through engaging in creative, experiential voice work.
Designed specifically for people who stammer/stutter, this course places no interest or importance on fluency. Instead, it will introduce concepts and practical opportunities to cultivate skills to experience speaking in flow.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £20.00
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