>intention of my mind of trying not to stutter make me stutter. Scientists state that we cannot directly operate the movement of muscles ourselves. For example, if you move your legs when you are walking, are you yourself operating the neurons, blood flow, sending eletrical signals to specific brain parts that activate the muscle movement? Answer: no, human beings are not able to directly operate the movement of muscles. The only way we are able to move them, is by instructing/deciding to move them and the rest I mentioned will be operated automatically by the body's system. "***How does that relate to the intention to try to speak fluently?***" Answer: Both non-stutterers and people who stutter cannot directly operate the feedforward system. We block, if we stop with moving speech muscles. So, if we try to directly operate the speech muscles anyway, then it will not only fail to move speech muscles, but it will also lead to reinforcing sensory feedback, like we will monitor every step in the process in more detail (aka paying more attention to stuttering), we will track the outcome of speech and constantly locate the movement of speech muscles which may lead to: * feeling fear/doubt (of failing to try to speak fluently), and * 'a disruption' when we instruct to move speech muscles, causing a speech block Additionally, if we develop an unhelpful habit of: '*Trying to directly operate the movement of speech muscles*", then it could lead to reinforcing secondary characteristics, avoidance-behaviors, coping mechanisms and reinforcing overreliance on tricks and techniques from speech therapy (instead of putting complete faith in the forward flow of speech). Question: In your experience, what are you doing when you '*try to speak more fluently*'? "***Does trying to speak more fluent always lead to speech blocks?***" Answer: No, it will only lead to speech blocks if PWS apply unhelpful ways to try to speak more fluent. In non-stutterers 'trying to speak more fluent' (for example, when speaking a difficult foreign word) will often lead to more fluency. In other words, a helpful strategy will lead to more fluency, for example, a strategy that: * breaks the stutter cycle * reduces 'disruptions', or * reduces 'blaming disruptions that would normally stop us from instructing to move speech muscles' In my opinion, there are 100s of ways to break the stutter cycle and to outgrow stuttering. I recommend to approach the stutter cycle from all angles instead of only trying out one strategy.