“I really can’t recommend taking this course strongly enough, specifically to anyone experiencing anxiety and/or depression, …but really to anyone experiencing mental health difficulties, because it provides so much support, both in terms of course content and things like a sense of acceptance and belonging in a group environment.”
Thank you to this 2018 Living Life to the Full participant for writing a full review of their experience of the course. They give a great account of the supportive space our peer facilitators create and how transformative it can be to feel supported by others who have experienced similar challenges.
If you have an experience of a course or event you wish to share, just get in touch.
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Because I’m a master of the art of procrastination, it’s taken me months to get around to writing a review of Moray Wellbeing Hub’s LLTTF 8 week Course. Luckily said course teaches us to not beat ourselves up about things we find difficult, missed deadlines etc, and also explores concepts such as trying to break negativity spirals by trying to find positives instead of negatives.
With that in mind, I’m proud to present, mere weeks after I successfully completed it, a summary of my thoughts regarding Moray Wellbeing Hub’s delivery of Dr Chris Williams’s LLTTF Course.
My initial thoughts regarding the course centred around not wanting/ not feeling able to do it. It ticked a lot of my ‘avoid’ self-protective boxes, including but not limited to: interaction with a group of strangers; unfamiliar, enclosed space and admitting I have mental health issues (to strangers).
However, because I’d made commitments to do everything I could to get better, including following up recommendations from my GP and my Mental Health Support Worker – instead of allowing everything to build up into a massive deal in my head, until it became impossible to do anything except hide and make excuses – when the first session arrived I summoned all of my med-assisted courage and went. As is often the case, it turned out that there really was nothing to fear. I was amongst fellow mental health issue sufferers, but not in any remotely scary way, simply friendly similar folk who didn’t judge me, or try to test me, or push my boundaries.
We were all there to help ourselves and at the same time help each other, by interacting in a completely safe and stress-free, supportive environment. That’s what Peer-Support basically is, which seems obvious to me now, but before I experienced it even that apparently unthreatening term was not completely comfortable, because of its unfamiliarity, and my imagination’s ability to put a negative spin on practically anything if given the chance.
Everything was relaxed and informal and easy. In fact, at first, I found the workbooks to be phrased a little too simplistically for my liking. I felt like there was maybe some sort of vague implication that I was an idiot, that all people with mental health issues are inherently stupid. But when I thought about the range of people that the course is designed for, and even some of the poorly functioning mental conditions I’ve been in at times, I realised that it had to be written in this easy to grasp and follow way, in order to exclude the lowest possible number of potential participants.
Looking at things in a slightly different way, taking the time to challenge my initial perceptions of things, is something which is very important for me to do, and this was reinforced in the course content. That was probably the aspect of what was covered in the workbooks I liked the most, the fact that much of what we covered was familiar concepts and ideas because they were similar or even identical to things I already did as part of my own tried and trusted coping mechanisms, or habitual self-help routines. Although, the fact that the neat little set of workbooks was included in the tiny cost of the course was also a close contender for favourite aspect, being very definitely a big plus for me.
The Peer Support aspect was undoubtedly the best aspect of the non-content side of things. Being in a group of people with similar mental health experiences, most especially having training facilitators with similar mental health experiences, made a huge difference to my usual fears about seeming different and/ or being judged.
Chris, the initial peer-facilitator we had for the first few sessions, is perfectly suited to the role because he’s a natural leader, empath and all round nice guy. Totally non-judgemental, exceptionally good-natured and patient, and able to treat all and sundry with seemingly unconditional positive regard. Absolutely understands what sort of atmosphere and set-up people with mental health challenges require in order to engage with a program like LLTTF. Laurie-Ann, who joined him as co-facilitator-in-training after a couple of sessions, was also very well suited to the task, being always completely open and honest, friendly and tremendously good fun, always ready for a joke and a laugh, but without deviating too far from the course content. She certainly knew how to make those of us prone to swearing feel completely comfortable, on the odd occasion when we unthinkingly dropped in the f-bomb during a little therapeutic rant, or over-enthusiastic agreement with someone else’s.
As I’ve said, the fact that both of them have lived experience of mental health issues was something I found incredibly beneficial, because it removed so many potential barriers between them and me which my brain would otherwise have merrily spent a lot of course time constructing and then reinforcing.
I really can’t recommend taking this course strongly enough, specifically to anyone experiencing anxiety and/or depression, because those are my particular strong suits, but really to anyone experiencing mental health difficulties, because it provides so much support, both in terms of course content and things like a sense of acceptance and belonging in a group environment.
Finally, I must say thanks very much to Moray Wellbeing Hub for providing this brilliant service, they really are a wonderful organisation who deserve far greater recognition for the excellent work they do to help those in the local community who may be experiencing mental health difficulties, or who have lived experience of them.
