"I have found the course to be very helpful"

I have struggled with controlling my anger for as long as I can remember, and being in my mid 30s, it became a much bigger problem, causing problems with my marriage, parenting, work, and general every day life.

After struggling with anger outbursts, and failing to control it, I sought help from inclusion. I was pointed toward the emotional regulation course. 

Overall, I have found the course to be very helpful. It has given me the tools to not only manage my anger, but to realise that the underlying emotion is actually a different one, and anger is my response. I've got a long way to go in understanding my emotional responses to tough situations, but I feel positive now that I can do that.

The skills that I have learned have caused more emotional issues, in that I am now aware of emotions I had been suppressing, but this is a massive door opener, in that I can now work on this further myself.

Initially I found it difficult to participate in the group, as there was another member I found particularly triggering. This was resolved by my leaving the course until they had finished, and coming back to start again. I am glad I was able to do this, as it was much easier to focus the second time around.

I definitely think that this course is a valuable one to be offered, and I wish I had been able to access it sooner.

There are however, some things I disliked:

Firstly, I was given the impression that the group works better with more participants, which may well be true, I never saw the alternative. However, I found that it was very disruptive on occasion, when a participant would go off on a tangent about something, that might be loosely related to the subject, but ended up being just a worm hole. This happened a fair bit. This can't be avoided if someone just starts speaking, but it wasn't cut off quickly enough, if at all, in my opinion. It is a course, we are there to learn self help skills, and nobody is learning when the tutor/therapist cannot speak about the actually course topic.

Secondly, I didn't like the way the questionnaires were worded. I spent the first 5 months thinking that "upset" meant sad. Sadness is not an emotion I connect with, so I was just sort of guessing the answers most of the time. Perhaps a reword might be considered, or an explanation of the term?

Thirdly, the pace was slow for me. I found it difficult to stay focused at such a slow pace. This is my personal learning preference, and I'm aware that the opposite is true for others, not everyone likes the same pace. This is just my experience.