Last week I attending a talk by Dr. Courtney Bird, a professor and Founding Director of the Michael and Tami Lang Stuttering Institute based at the University of Texas Austin. I'll summarize her main points during the talk. *"In a recent poll among speech therapists, only 6% reported that they feel confident with stuttering therapy. Why is speaking fluency so important?* *Communication is not defined by fluency. As long as it is, you will not dream, you will not speak when you want to speak, and you will not live your life to the fullest. Speaking fluently, or being fluent, means SAYING WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY, WHEN YOU WANT TO SAY IT.* *For the longest time, people who stutter have been reinforced to SPEAK FLUENTLY by family. friends, and even speech therapists. We are being forced to conform, which in turn magnifies our anxiety and negative self worth because we are either feel or are told we are FAILING every time we stutter.* *Conformity involves changing your behaviors in order to "fit in" with people around you which includes attempting to demonstrate behaviors in a particular way in order to be perceived as "normal" by the group.* *Conformity hinders personal progress, Conformity increases chance of depression, Conformity causes loss of identity, Conformity mitigates self-compassion, Conformity inhibits self acceptance, Conformity yields inferiority."* As a speech therapist I rarely address speaking fluency when working with people who stutter. I focus on communication fluency. I highly recommend looking in Avoidance Reduction Therapy (ARTS). [https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/avoidance-reduction-therapy-a-success-story/full/](https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/avoidance-reduction-therapy-a-success-story/full/) Additionally support groups are fantastic in fostering acceptance and can begin working on anxiety and trauma surrounding stuttering. I hope this helps.