Fluency shaping and/or block modification techniques

Fluency shaping and/or block modification techniques Hi I've noticed that in this subreddit, traditional SLP techniques are barely mentioned or discussed. Might be useful for fellow PWS to share your experience with fluency shaping (e.g. McGuire technique/costal breating, easy onset, continuous phonation, etc.) and/or block modification techniques (e.g. 'post-block', 'in-block', etc.), and how they've helped you or if you still succesfully use them today. Something I (as a person with a mild stutter with solely blocks/pauses) have used quite succesfully is 'soft contacts' (1), making sure breaths are not shallow (2) and when I block, just immediatly stop 'pushing' and carry on saying the rest of the word (3). 1. Most of us PWS face the most difficulty with words that start 'hard', e.g. words that begin with a p-, b-, etc. All these words require your lips to push together, and if you block, for air to build up behind your lips. This was my biggest kind of block I could 'produce', but funny enough it took me only a short time to just instead of trying to pronounce a perfect p- or b-, just creating the habit to let your lips barely (or very weakly) touch eachother. 2. I noticed that often, especially when I was stressed, my breathing was very shallow. This created additional muscle tension and thus more stutters. For me this was the biggest struggle. After years of building up fear, just relaxing and breathing 'normally' took me a while to consistently use while talking. What me helped is just doing breathing exercises daily, and stepping up my physical exercise. What I try not to do is, in contrast to the McGuire technique, is to forcefully take deep breaths in between words and speak when exhaling. Imo this type of speech sounds very unnatural and is probably too exhausting to keep using. 3. Something I was already somewhat using before, but mostly 'learnt' though the SSEP ([https://www.stammeringresearch.org/onlinecourse/thejump.htm](https://www.stammeringresearch.org/onlinecourse/thejump.htm)) is the so-called "Jump". We PWS tend to really try to 'finish' our blocks (c....offee), prolongations (ccc-offee) and repetitions (c-c-c-offee), while this isn't necessary. Instead of sticking to the stutter (that you have on the 'c'), just release the articulator muscles and say 'offee'. It sounds too simplistic and easy to be true and indeed takes some exercise and different mindset to 'just let go', but once you get the knack of it, it sounds very natural (after all, why would we need to repeat the 'c' if we've already said it once). This method works very well with (1), and over time has reduced my tendency to block in general. I went to two different SLPs when I was in my childhood and early teens, but tbh these have not helped me at all. As far as I recall they focussed a lot on teaching me fluency shaping methods (including the e.g. "mmyyy nnnnaaaamme iiiiiiissss ..." type of stretched syllable method), that sounded very unnatural and would sound even worse than talking with uncontrolled blocks. For a very long time (im now in my early 20s), I neglected my stuttering and wanted nothing to do, hear or read about it. But only after I started reading about it (as I wanted to finally start doing smt about it), is when I found the 'will' to work on it. I hope my story helps. Y.