I definitely think there are 100s of stimuli (such as uncomfortable face expressions from listeners) that our subconscious could perceive as a need to reduce in order to execute speech. Such protection mechanism(s) that put limitations on our ability to express communication are probably difficult to address when trying to make progress towards stuttering remission. Difficult.. because I think most stimuli that are ultimately connected to FEAR (e.g., fear of judgements, fear of social rejection) are stimuli from which we cannot actually sense or recognize the fear during a stuttering moment. Yes, they are ultimately linked to FEAR, but it’s not the kind of fear that SLPs usually think of — at least that’s the way I view it. For example, I give you a personal example of my stutter experience. I speak mostly fluent with strangers and under authority stress, but stuttering might return among comfortable family who expect that I should stutter. Not because of conscious fear, but because of my idea (that I rely on): the looming expectation that I should stutter among familiar family members (because they expect it, they are okay with me stuttering — I believe they have the idea that I don’t need to do anything about stuttering: “stuttering is fine, accept stuttering”). This acceptance increases my protection mechanism to execute speech. So this leads to over regulating speech execution too much, and thus, I stutter more with familiar family. Yes, this “acceptance of stuttering” is ultimately linked to fear of social rejection (i.e., I I expect stuttering, so I feel the need to rely on the narrative that it’s okay to stutter and then follow up on it). So yes, it’s connected to fear of judgements, but it’s not the kind of fear I would consciously feel, sense, or notice. If SLPs say “if you don’t feel fear, then it’s random and unpredictable,” that misses this: my stutter mechanism can rely on stimuli equally linked to fear of judgement that do not require strong feelings of fear, so the stutter is not actually random — it’s driven by subtle, hard-to-sense stimuli. Your thoughts?