Fluency is not a bad goal, and I would argue against anyone who says otherwise. It's not the only goal, though. As humans, we like to think we're rational, but we are still motivated by emotional concerns. In that sense, it's likely that you (and me) desire fluency because dysfluency is associated with unpleasant feelings, so the psychological motivation is to relieve those feelings. Logically, addressing the dysfluency should relieve those feelings. I'm not going to say you should simply strive to be happy instead of working on fluency because that would be to divorce emotions from what can inherently be a distressing phenomenon. My point is that there is more to the story than fluency. Some people hate the idea of acceptance, but it is the starting point in solving any problem. You need to accept reality before you can change it. Also, accepting that sometimes things will be horrible allows for some objectivity in dealing with causes of dysfluency. For example, you've had a bad phone call, lots of stuttering, feeling terrible, so rather than wishing it never happened, accept that it did and consider what factors were at play in the situation. Were you or the other person distracted? Were you anxious before the call started? Did something happen during the call that triggered anxiety? Did the other person remind you of that teacher you hated? Were you saying something you didn't believe? Any number of complications can lead to faltering speech, and being able to recognise your triggers gives you something to investigate. I stopped focusing on the specific sounds I would stutter on when I realised that those sounds would change, so there must be something deeper going on. Sure, there are some techniques or tricks that can help get words out when needed, but the real gold is in getting to the root of the problem. This might be slightly maladaptive thinking, or it might be deep psychological trauma. Whatever it is, you need to gain some objectivity to identify the root cause and deal with that, getting whatever professional help you might need. I have no idea what conventional speech therapy is like these days, because I gave up on it 25 years ago, and also gave up on alternative methods (like the McGuire program) because none of it addressed the psychological causes. There's probably a neurological component as well which may never be fixed, but you focus on what you *can* change. Edit: also, communication isn't just about fluency. Many fluent speakers are terrible communicators.