Scandinavian here, started stuttering when I was approximately 6 years old. Speech therapy is free so I could take advantage of that throughout my childhood/early teens. Was mostly just good for confidence, but I guess that it in turn helped my stuttering. I guess I have the same problem as you, blocking really is the worst, especially vowels in beginning of a sentence. Currently working serving/making juice to people, so get a lot of practice talking. I think developing my own speaking technique has worked better than therapy. Could have been worse, atleast I don't stutter when talking to women... Happy Holidays!