About Gillian

Dr Gillian Zavos, CPSP

I enjoy using evidence-based practice to help people who stutter. I’m kind and thoughtful but also observant and direct. I like applying my knowledge and experience to each client. We are all variously similar and different, and this is what makes my job so interesting.

Although I don’t stutter, I have a family history of stuttering. I’ve seen the complexities of evidence-based stuttering treatments in our busy modern lives. I’ve also seen the ramifications of living your life with stuttering and without professional support to either live well with it or to address it.

I trained to be a speech pathologist in Australia. My qualifications are a degree in speech pathology, with first class honours, from the University of Newcastle, as well as a doctor of philosophy research degree (PhD) from the Faculty of Science at the University of Technology, Sydney. The PhD is why I can use the title of Dr. I am not a medical doctor, such as a GP or paediatrician. Speech pathology degrees mostly involve study of linguistics and psychology; general health science is included along with neuroscience, and head and neck anatomy and physiology.

In my PhD I used electroencephalography to study the neural processing of children who stutter, while speaking, including after stuttering treatment. I remain very interested in the neurophysiology of stuttering, particularly the recent randomised controlled trials in which transcranial direct current stimulation (a type of non-invasive brain stimulation) was used to ameliorate stuttering in adults.

I am accredited with the professional body for speech pathologists, Speech Pathology Australia. Ongoing professional development qualifies me as a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). Outside of my professional life, I’m with my family. I love to learn. I think learning new and difficult skills helps me begin to appreciate learning to speak without stuttering. I relax by reading fiction, chatting with friends or spending time in nature.