>*"Easy onset is the name of a strategy widely used in speech therapy that aims to do the opposite of applying force at the beginning of speech to improve fluency."* Agreed. Here is a description of easy onset: >*"Easy onset refers to starting words or phrases with a gentle, gradual airflow and light vocal cord vibration. Instead of forcefully pushing out sounds, the speaker softly eases into them, especially on vowel-initial words. This approach helps reduce tension and promotes smoother transitions between sounds, making speech feel more natural and controlled."* I think easy onset may work for some people but not for others. Personally, in my own experience, fluency-shaping techniques like easy onset haven’t improved my fluency—if anything, they had the opposite effect and increased my stuttering. **The point I’m trying to make is this:** I believe that easy onset, light articulatory touches, or muscle relaxation, or other such tricks, by themselves , do not influence or improve: 1. **Our automatic processes** 2. **Our fear-panic response** (i.e., the approach-avoidance conflict during the evaluation phase) Sure, if a speech therapist is convincing enough, these techniques might help some *people who stutter* bypass the **approach-avoidance cognitive conflict** I would think—essentially bypassing the subconscious negative evaluation of conditioned stimuli. But to me, this only proves that psychological effects (like the self-fulfilling prophecy) can influence how we perceive aversive **conditioned** stimuli. However, the key issue is that stutterers **usually cannot consciously regulate or control these effects** at will. Can you resonate with this? So, For example, in my case, I tried thru conditioning or emotional learning to convince my subconscious that “relaxing the speech muscles” should resolve the approach-avoidance conflict—but it was in vain, it has absolutely no effect because my subconscious was not swayed or convinced so the subconscious continues to negatively evaluate "relaxed muscle tension" to not execute speech movements (resulting a totally unnecessary stuttering block). Whereas, from my viewpoint, other stutterers seem to have been able to do so. Your thoughts?