This Discussion Board is for men who
find it difficult or impossible to urinate in a public or social situation. Women should use the women's Board.
The Board is maintained and moderated by the
U.K. Paruresis Trust. Registered Charity no: 1109541.
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Hi all. I attended the follow up workshop a few weeks ago & I cannot recommend it enough. I went on the first one a year ago & really needed another boost. Not only were all the guys in the group & great laugh but I also managed to go in a urinal standing right beside one of them within a few hrs of attending on the Friday. It is such a relief to sit in the hotel pub afterwards, talk about your funny & embarrassing situations & get real advice from others who can empathise. Plus normally when I am drinking in the pub I always try to naturally avoid going to the toilet at the same time as my friends, when at this workshop I was actually asking everyone in the group did they need to go to help me practice. It just makes me realise how sound all of the people with this condition are. We all have great senses of humour, we are all normal, happy guys with wives, girlfriends,children, hobbies. Everyone was so genuine & down to earth. So this problem is not the only thing we have in common. The course helped me to understand alot more about myself, my personality & the reason why I have PA. Because of this workshop I am finally going to tell my best friend (have not had the oppourtunity yet) I have also been practising more frequently & really feel there is light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks a million to the guys who give up there time to help us overcome our PA. Sorry for waffling on but if you are going to do one thing today, get in touch with Andrew & book a follow up course, or a beginners course. It will change your life !!! Ror (the Irish one)
I haven't been on the workshop but looking at how it works I would definitely recommend it. I am trained in CBT and have used it to treat myself successfully for paruresis. Although as a therapist I would love to help others overcome paruresis, the difficulty I would have is in creating a controlled environment for the desensitisation. The workshop offers the controlled environment and the principles of CBT that it uses are sound. I have treated many people for different anxiety disorders but I think if someone came to see me for paruresis I would probably direct them to the workshop. Good work guys keep it up.
Thank you very much for your generous recommendation and support. I agree with you that on the weekend workshop we can control the environment, as needed by each individual, very precisely.
However my frustration is that we cannot do what you can more easily do, which is to see the client regularly, say weekly, then fortnightly, then monthly etc in order to more closely support and advise on progress.
We do run Follow-up workshops, but this is an expensive and time-consuming way for clients to get what they need. I thought about one day workshops, but we would not be able to get the use of hotel rooms, which are needed for moderate and severe cases.
I suppose, thinking about it now, we could run a one day workshop for mild cases, i.e. those who need practise only in public toilets. Must think about that.
BTW would you be willing to email me to make contact? All on the usual confidential basis. I would appreciate it.