U.K. PARURESIS TRUST: Feedback on Manchester follow-up workshop Nov 2012

Two years on from a beginners' workshop, I got round to signing up for a follow-up. Very glad I did - it's a different but equally positive experience. The first time, for me at least, was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster, but also "life-changing" would not be an exaggeration. No matter how much in recent years could be read and rationally digested from this website and elsewhere, it was actually meeting and sharing the workshop experience with a group of decent, normal people who suffer from the same difficulty that really turned the corner for me. But, back on your own, that initial lift can begin to wear off a bit, especially if you haven't, like me, been as assiduous as you originally intended in keeping up a routine for improvement. The follow-up workshop is a more relaxed affair, because you're not carrying the same weight of baggage and anxiety as before, but for me it's provided the boost I needed to get back into making more progress, and particularly working on eliminating those safety behaviours one by one.

The best thing, though, about the workshops for me is still just the informal contact with other people who have travelled the AP road. My beginners' workshop wasn't just a fluke, once again you couldn't wish to meet a nicer or more mutually supportive bunch of people with ordinary and interesting lives, jobs and so forth ... who just happen also to have paruresis.

I know the workshop has given me the confidence to make further progress, so a big thank you again from me to all the other participants, everyone who supports UKPT, and especially of course to Andrew whose continuing efforts make all this possible.