Working with adults who stammer: a course for speech and language therapists

Carolyn is a leading UK stammering specialist. She stammers herself and had life-changing therapy at City Lit. Following this she decided to train as a speech and language therapist (SLT) and feels privileged to have spent her career at City Lit. She helped develop what is probably the most comprehensive range of stammering therapy courses in the world. 2019 marked her 40th year as a City Lit tutor. She has a particular passion for working with people with interiorised stammering. In 2009 Carolyn qualified as a mindfulness teacher and has been a pioneer in terms of integrating mindfulness into stammering therapy courses. She is an experienced trainer and has helped to develop training programmes for SLTs in mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy and counselling skills. Carolyn has had many articles and chapters published and is a co-editor of Stammering Therapy from the Inside (2013). She has led training and therapy courses throughout the UK and has also taught in Europe, the US and New Zealand. In 2012 she was honoured to receive the International Fluency Association’s Clinician of Distinction award.

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