My main goal was overcoming the fear of stuttering and the social anxiety associated with it. Speech therapy definitely helped with that. With each session, I opened up more and more. It got easier to talk about it. The moment that happened, I started seeing improvements outside of the sessions, as well. Speech therapy is a tool you can use, but it isn't mandatory - see the comment of MistakeElectronic571. No speech therapist is a magician that can pull fluency out of a hat. Improvement takes time. Without some determination, no therapy will be effective. Hope this helps!