Dr. Kirstie Hughes

Kirstie is a South African-trained speech and language therapist and audiologist with more than 6 years of clinical experience across private and public healthcare. She holds qualifications from the University of the Witwatersrand and is licensed by both the Health Professions Council of South Africa and the Dubai Healthcare Authority. She is passionate about communication as a fundamental need and advocates strongly for its role in everyday life.

Kirstie specialises in complex neurological conditions affecting speech and swallowing. She works with adults recovering from stroke, brain injury and other neurological events, managing conditions such as aphasia (language loss), dysarthria (slurred speech) and dysphagia (swallowing difficulties). She also treats acquired speech disorders and fluency issues such as stammering, and has expertise in neonatal feeding disorders and paediatric speech-sound problems. Her approach is tailored to each patient, with support spanning acute hospital care, outpatient visits and home-based programmes.

Kirstie works closely with ICU teams and nursing staff to support patient recovery and independence at all levels of care. She is a good fit for patients needing specialist help with speech, language or swallowing after neurological illness or injury, as well as families seeking help with childhood speech development or fluency.