Questions about speech therapy (UK specific)

Questions about speech therapy (UK specific) I'm a college student who has never had (nor has access to, given my location in a third world country) any form of speech therapy before. But I'll be moving abroad in a few days, to the UK, and the city I'm moving to has good therapists in the region. I will finally be seeking the help I always needed. So I had some questions regarding therapy. (i) Is there any benefit of going the private therapy route rather than NHS? The private ones are around £100 per session, and the costs will add up pretty quick since one would probably go for a few months. (ii) When people say "doing therapy for X months/years", how frequently are sessions booked? Like is it once a week or once/twice a month? Going private might be out of my budget depending on the frequency of sessions. (iii) How does the NHS therapy thing work? Does the GP straightaway refer me to a specialist and regardless of how many sessions I go to, I don't pay anything? Has anyone here tried it? (iv) Did speech therapy help you guys? I am really happy that I will finally be a place where the default response to stutter is not to laugh and mock the person, and that I'll get qualified professional help. :)