Shu Yi talks about her experience of
her student placement at City Lit
City Lit Speech Therapy collaborates with both
University College London and City University
speech and language therapy departments. Each
autumn and spring terms, we offer placements to
2 students on each of our stammering therapy
courses. These students are usually in the final
year of their speech and language therapy degree
course and thus have a valuable role to play in
assisting in the group. We also see this as an
important opportunity for students to learn
about stammering and therapy for stammering.
Team News
The Speech Therapy team welcomes a new
member to the part time tutor team:
We talk to Shu Yi who volunteers in the Thursday
Stage 1 evening class.
Nicola Sirman BA (Hons), MSc, MRCSLT, HCPC
registered
Nicola qualified as a speech
and language therapist in
2009 from City University,
London. She has since been
working in the NHS with
adults who stammer
alongside an adult
neurological caseload.
Nicola is very dedicated to
providing a service to adults who stammer and
has worked with clients individually and in
groups, including establishing an online support
group in one NHS Trust. Nicola has attended
additional counselling and mindfulness courses in
order to support her work with clients who
stammer. Nicola is a member of both the South
East and National Dysfluency Clinical Excellence
Networks and is a Research Champion for the
Royal College of Speech and Language therapists.
Nicola joined the team at City Lit in early 2015 as
a part-time tutor facilitating groups for adults
who stammer. In addition to her work at City Lit,
Nicola also works at University College London as
a Teaching Fellow on the MSc Speech and
Language Sciences course and she works clinically
for the NHS in Southampton.
Hello, Shu Yi. Could you tell us a little bit about
yourself?
I am a speech and language therapy student who
is in the final year of the 4-year undergraduate
course at UCL. I have come from Malaysia as an
international student to pursue this course.
When and how did you decide to become a
speech and language therapist?
I had not heard about speech and language
therapy until quite late. It first started off with an
interest in special education when I was 17. My
father introduced me to Torey Hayden’s books,
where she wrote about her real-life experiences
with teaching and counselling children with
special needs. In search of career opportunities in
this field, I found out about speech and language
therapy and the work that they do in special
education, and thought ‘hey, that could be fun’.
How have you found the speech and language
therapy degree course so far?
The course has been challenging and intense with
a constant stream of deadlines to meet.
Nonetheless, I enjoy the diversity of experience
this course has offered. Not only have I gained
valuable knowledge and skills through wonderful
lecturers and other speech therapists that I have
met throughout the years, the course have also
allowed me to develop myself as a person.
Student Forum
We want to hear from you!
We invite all our students, ex-students or
prospective students to submit letters,
articles, questions etc
Please email: speechtherapy@citylit.ac.uk
You are currently on a voluntary placement at
one of our evening classes for people who
stammer. How have you found this experience?
The best thing about it would be to witness the
students making gains and hear about the
positive impact they have been making in their
lives. It is both moving and inspiring. This
reaffirms why I want to work in the field of
speech and language therapy. I have enjoyed
being in the class made up of a friendly group of
people led in a relaxed manner by the speech
therapist, Cathinka.
Have you worked with people who stammer
before?
No. To be honest, I was slightly nervous about it
as I was coming as a person who has never
undergone what they experience on a day to day
basis. Stammering can be a very personal
experience and I appreciate the opportunity to be
allowed a glimpse into understanding how
stammering can be like for different people.
What are your plans once you graduate and
qualify as a speech therapist?
I plan to be involved in raising awareness of
speech and language needs. Communication
needs are easily overlooked, misunderstood, and
often avoided. By knowing and understanding is
the first step to inclusion and showing
constructive support. I hope to bring valuable
experiences that I have gained here in the UK
back to my home country.
Freshen up for Spring
or try something new!
We have great courses coming up
soon!
Please call us on 020 7492 2578 or email:
speechtherapy@citylit.ac.uk
Effective communication in the
workplace (XS312)
Develop your personal effectiveness at work:
work on issues such as using the telephone,
interview techniques, presentation skills and
communicating in meetings.
Date and time: April 20 – July 6 (Mondays, 10
weeks), 6-8pm. Fee: £135 (£82 concessions.)
Click here for more details
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for
people who stammer (XS311)
Learn to work more effectively with negative
thoughts and feelings through acceptance and
mindfulness work. Identify and move towards
goals and directions in your life.
Date and time: April 28 – July 7 (Tuesdays, 10
weeks), 6-8pm. Fee: £135 (£82 concessions.)
Click here for more details
Stammering management: an
intensive course for those with less
time (XS104)
Student Story
Colin shares his experience of
managing stammering in the
workplace
Each issue of our Newsletter features a ‘Student
Story’. We warmly welcome contributions from
current and ex-students of Speech Therapy at City
Lit. Share your experiences of stammering or
therapy or write a letter/email with your
thoughts on this month’s stories. Thank you to
Colin for sharing this ‘food for thought’.
Work on identifying your stammering, become
less sensitive about it and challenge negative
thoughts. Learn powerful strategies to help you
speak more easily and work on reducing
avoidance behaviours. This is our shortest
intensive course and includes two Saturdays.
Date and time: May 8 – May 16 (Friday to
Saturday only), June 15 – 17 (Mon – Wed), 10am
– 5pm. Fee: £349 (Senior £215, Concessions £81.)
Click here for more details
“As people who stammer, at work we’ve all been
there. As each person in the group is asked to
introduce themselves your internal worry
increases until it’s your turn as you’re next
“round the table”. You then stammer on your
name, or the company you work for, or both. You
see the look of horror in some of the other
people’s eyes, you feel humiliated, and you wish
the ground would open up and swallow you. I’d
be virtually fluent throughout the rest of the
meeting or course, so it was clear that words that
were personal to me were causing me the anxiety
and therefore increased the chances of
stammering when saying them. This description
of events happened to me over and over again
until one day I decided to open up and speak to
people at work about it.
I approached my manager and tried to explain
very openly about what was happening and how
it was making me feel. Unfortunately he didn’t
really understand and his initial reaction was one
of confused amusement I would say. I felt that I
was reliving similar conversations I’d had with
teachers years ago at school. Until, that is, I
mentioned that stammering is recognised by my
employer as a disability and that I had notified
the HR department that I have this disability. The
manager then agreed to speak to HR and see if
there was any training I could undertake, which in
turn led to me attending an invaluable course at
City Lit which in many ways changed my life.
My advice here then is to tick the “Disability
(speech)” box on your employment record. You
may not agree that you have a disability, but
letting your employer know that you have a
stammer means that you’ve done all you can to
make them aware. One day you may need extra
support as I did.
I learnt an incredible amount at the City Lit
course and tried to take as much as I could back
with me into the workplace. Now I tend to speak
to the meeting/course organiser beforehand and
ask them if there will be introductions at the
start, and if so can introduce myself first and I
explain why. Basically being the first to speak
takes a lot of the pressure off as I’m not waiting
my turn, watching other people speak with ease,
and letting the pressure build.
If I do stammer I’ll finish what I’m saying with
“and I have a stammer so it’d be helpful if you
could bear with me and let me finish what I’m
saying please”. In this way it’s “out there” and
you can move on to the important business of the
course or meeting.”
Colin Day