There Must Be A Better Way® (Treating and Understanding Non-Suicidal Self-Injury), course feedback.
The Association for Psychological Therapies prides itself on the written feedback we receive for our courses. Below is just some of the great reviews the There Must Be A Better Way® (Treating and Understanding Non-Suicidal Self-Injury) training course has received.
"Brilliant course, gave good insight into how to better work with people who self-harm or any other issues. How to help them understand their actions."
Lianne Worgan, Nurse
"Very interesting, helpful and inspiring. I definitely recommend it to every mental health professional dealing with acute and also chronic patients."
Course Delegate (Speciality Doctor)
"Probably the most helpful and enjoyable course I have had the pleasure of attending. The course facilitator was fantastic, made us feel very relaxed and created a good learning environment. Top notch!!"
Course Delegate (CPN)
"It was the most organized and fruitful course I’ve ever had. Thank you so much."
Course Delegate (Psychiatrist)
"The course was excellent from start to finish. Good mix of didactic and experiential methods. Non-anxiety-provoking group exercises. Fun and uplifting. Very practical approach – something that relates well into practice."
Fiona Mackie, Speciality Doctor Psychiatrist
"I felt this course was excellent. It helped one to validate some of the things I do already and to learn new techniques and ways to interview patients. It was good to think about alternatives of how to better help patients and I believe it will definitely contribute to improve my practice and improve one of my patients."
Course Delegate (Doctor)
"Loved the course and would recommend it to everyone dealing with young people with "problems" struggling to manage their emotions."
Joy Bish, Course Delegate (Feedback taken 4 months after completing the course).
"I now feel I have gained confidence in supporting young people to work towards stopping self-harming."
Sarah, Olliver, Principal
"Extremely good course presented by someone obviously an expert in the field with a lot of everyday practical experience. Brilliant course!"
Jane Wilson, Residential Care Worker
"Course was very well presented and stimulating. It was delivered in a collaborative way and participation was encouraged at all times. It was also very insightful and relevant to my work."
Course Delegate
"One of the best courses I've ever attended."
Pawel Skraba, Senior RCW
"I really enjoyed this course. It was extremely well presented and professionally delivered. The balance of presentation and practical exercises was well judged. The content was highly relevant with examples drawn from case studies. The tutor had a warm, friendly and approachable style of delivery. The examples that the tutor used from her own practice experience was very relevant and enhanced the course delivery. The workbook provided a clear and structured method of delivering the course and I will refer to it for advice in the future."
Eddie McGee, Senior Educational Psychologist
"Excellent presentation throughout the whole course. The tutor was very informative and provided theories into the material in line with what area of discussion was explored. I have a greater understanding of self-harming and the process of intervention. Thank you very much, I have so much information in my head that I can now put into practice."
Course Delegate
"I have found the course to be very useful and will undoubtedly be using the knowledge I have gained throughout my future practice."
Victoria Raine, Social Worker
"I found this course such a refreshing change. The approach which the tutor used sat very well with my own ways of working and it was encouraging that the training validated the ways/approaches I have been using. The tutor was so very knowledgeable and personable. I really liked the way he 'normalized' patient's issues and used everyday examples. I was carried away on a journey which resulted in consolidation of my practice and discovering new skills and knowledge. Thank you."
Justine Barrett, Social Worker
"I found the course invaluable. The tutor presented the material in a stimulating and creative way that kept me engaged. I learnt new skills, I was able to reflect on my work and my interpersonal skills."
W. Goodban, Community Mental Health Nurse
"I feel this course has been invaluable to my future thinking about my practice. I wish I had it years ago because I found it very thought provoking, challenging and informative."
Patricia Ilett, Social Worker
"Really engaging tutor, one of the best courses I have been on in a long time."
Emma Willey, STR Worker
"This was an extremely interesting and informative course. The tutor was very engaging and kept us all on our toes! I feel that I now have an effective framework to follow with some of my clients who self harm. That is what I wanted to get from the course so I am very happy! I will be recommending this course to all of my colleagues."
Debra Bonnar, Social Worker
"Brilliant. I love it."
Course Delegate
"I have found the course particularly helpful as it has immediate relevance to work I am doing. I managed to formulate a draft plan for a self harm case I am working with. The tutor was exceptional - providing a personal and highly validating relationship with all participants. Thank you - loved the course."
Brian Willis, Educational Psychologist
"Fantastic course with a fantastic facilitator. All principles are relevant to practice and I feel certain that we will implement this within the service."
Sally Brice, Team Leader
"The course has better equipped me to look at alternative ways / new ideas of helping our ladies who self-harm, particularly the validation aspects It has also confirmed that approaches I have previously used fit within the revamp model. Overall excellently presented, thought provoking and informative course with highly skilled facilitators. Thank you."
Sarah Taubman, HOC
"I have benefited massively from this training. I will adapt my newly learnt skills into my job role and feel my confidence has increased."
Laila Suleiman, Team Leader
"Course was packed with useful information and supportive strategies for work in a particularly distressing area. The pace was right and I was able to digest, reflect and integrate the information over the three days (and will continue to do so). The presenter was very good and use of relevant recent case scenarios was really useful and a great experiential process. I feel what I've learned will be of direct benefit to me in my work. Thank you!"
Colin Lambert, CPN
"This has been the best course I have been on in 25 years of nursing. The tutor had a fantastic way of bringing the subject to life. I feel armed with skills to be able to work effectively with a service user on taking this forward. Self harm no longer sends me running to the hills."
Christine Picton, Charge Nurse
"Fantastic course … more courses like this are needed for everyone working in mental health."
Laura Hampshire, RMN
"This course has helped me understand self harm. Really enjoyed the course. Very well presented."
Elaine Evans, Support Worker
"Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic! Great delivery that suits all learning styles."
Lesley White, Play Therapist
"Absolutely fabulous! Great delivery that suits all learning styles."
Sarah Cimikoglu, Nurse Specialist
"I enjoyed the course immensely. It is good to stretch my mind to understand new concepts."
Vanessa Ord, Senior Social Worker Specialist
"I have enjoyed every aspect of this course … will implement in my clinical work."
Shakira Dosunmu, RMN
"I enjoyed it a lot! … The best training I have been to."
Fretzie Saclamitao, Occupational Therapist
"The content of the course was extremely helpful and I learnt ways of dealing with the self harmers in a more constructive and therapeutic way."
Anupama Bussooa, CMHP
"Enjoyed the course and learning practical skills I can apply to my clinical practice. I wish we had more courses like these."
Caroline Lewis, Nurse Specialist
"Another excellent course from APT."
Daniel McConville, Charge Nurse
"Good approach to help look at way of working in more structured way. These helped increase own personal awareness and to try and look at self harm in a more understanding way from patients' views. Will be helpful in clinical area."
Gillian Wallace. Senior Nurse
"This course was excellent. It was relevant, very well structured and presented in a very engaging and reflective way. I never 'drifted off' once! Thank you."
Susan Brown. Consultant Psychiatrist
"I found the course both enjoyable and informative, very professionally presented. I will take back the information I have gained to my ward area and hope I can implement change to those patients who self harm."
Karen Martin, Staff Nurse
Course very enjoyable, very well presented. Amy was really helpful and realistic with scenarios. Will definitely use what I have learnt over the last 3 days in my working practice. Thank you!""
Dawn Nicol. Nurse
"Found the course well set out, minimal stress involved although enough to keep me alert and interested. With what I have learnt I will take it back to my work setting and share. Through time be able to use the 5 step programme successfully to help patients."
Eliz Fisher. Nurse
"Very interesting. Installs confidence when working with clients who self harm. Gives insight into why people self harm."
John Hyndman. Senior Nurse
"I enjoyed the course and believe I benefited from it in that it is relevant to the work I do. It was well presented, with good examples to work through. It both interesting and intrigued me … It really made me stop and think about patients that self harm and how powerful it is to them."
Lynne Doig. Staff Grade
"I found the course to be very informal. It was well presented, with ample opportunities being made available to comment, or to go over material again. The information given was clear, concise and above all understandable, which aided my learning process."
Gordon Hook. Senior Nurse
"Very interesting. It has changed my views on self harm. I like the 5 stage framework as it is very well structured. Hopefully I will gradually introduce it into the workplace so we can have a framework in place for people who self-harm."
Janice Hands. Staff Nurse
"It was excellent, everything about it, course and tutor, I enjoyed every moment, gained a lot, was an eye-opening course, bring more. Thank you so much."
Ntombizanele Lugongolo. HCA
"A very well presented professional course, one of the best I have attended in fact … The content was spot on."
Matthew Wallett. Occupational Therapist
"Very good presentation – good documentation. Very informative, I feel I have benefited a great deal and will be able to use what I have learned in practice."
G. Tinkler. Deputy Team Leader
"I really enjoyed the course and am looking forward to implementing some of the techniques used on the ward. It was well presented and had a good mixture of presentation and group work. The course material led to some interesting and useful discussions."
Anna Booth. Associate Practitioner
"Found the course very concise at a good level of understanding, and enough repetition and practical sessions to ensure full understanding. Very good balance of media, lecturing and group work which certainly assisted with maintaining interest. Overall an excellent course which has certainly given me more confidence in dealing with conversations etc. with people who self harm and plenty of opportunity to adapt to work with people with learning disabilities."
Michelle Judson. Occupational Therapist
"Well presented 3 days – enthusiastic delivery which kept interest up. Reinforced skills already used – with additional information. Thank you."
Esther Ball. Senior Occupational Therapist
"I felt the course was very relevant and I have left having more confidence to assist people who self harm. It has been presented in a way that I feel I could relate it to my other team members."
Helena Hayward. Occupational Therapist
"Relevant and appropriate course for me as I 'see' self harm to a certain degree."
Deborah Bissell. Occupational Therapist
"Very informative and well organized practical sessions where we could practice techniques to be used in clinical practice."
Paminder Phull. Occupational Therapy
"This was a very helpful course, I believe it will help direct my clinical practice in the future and as an OT I will be more confident in my approach to clients who self harm."
Kirsty Taylor. Occupational Therapist
"Excellent, really enjoyed the course and its content. Very well presented and informative. Will find this very useful in my work."
Joanne Hind-Pitcher. CPN
"Very good presentation which has enriched my knowledge and understanding of self harm."
Peter Toffah. A&E Liaison Nurse
"I found the course useful, stimulating and very relevant to the growing number of self harm referrals that come to our service."
Valarie Lindsey. Mental Health Practitioner
"I have benefited from the course as it is an area I deal with on a daily basis at work, group work was affective to correlate others experiences from different backgrounds."
Therese Carroll. A&E Liaison Nurse
"I found the course very beneficial, particularly re opportunity to work with colleagues from other work settings. It was useful to learn about methods/strategies to manage self harm."
Lee Grant. Senior Practitioner
"Well structured and easy to apply to day to day practice. Very good."
Davison Sibanda. A&E Nurse
"This course was very useful and I feel I have learned a lot during these three very intensive days. I also feel that I will be able to utilize this new information with my current client group. Teaching was of an extremely high standard. Thank you!"
Heini Auvinen-Daniels. CPN
"I would recommend it to anyone working in adult mental health settings."
Rajay Herkanaidu. Manager
"Attending this course has given me confidence in dealing with self harm in a more structured way."
Annie Shafiq. CPN
"The 3 days were very interesting, beneficial and enjoyable. I will keep an eye on other courses by APT. Thanks a lot."
Nathalie Blanchet Daughtry. Occupational Therapist
"I found the course very interesting and inspiring. It was useful to be able to practice the techniques in small groups through role play. I also thought that I could easily take these techniques and use them with other client groups than just with clients who self harm. I thought that was a very positive aspect of the course."
Heidi Hietenen. Assistant Psychologist
"I found the course very interesting and informative with information that I can use on a daily basis. I found it enjoyable and easy going."
Sarah Foster. CPN
"An excellent and worthwhile training event. It has raised my awareness and given me confidence in my ability to help clients who self harm."
Anne Cunningham - Community Nurse
"Excellent training, well presented and fun! I learnt a great deal about self harm and the 5 step model. Really motivated me to try out these new skills and am keen to embark on further training. Trainer was really engaging and made each section interesting."
Course Delegate, Social Worker
"This course has been needed for a long time and I'm sure many more will benefit from the course."
Michelle Fern. Senior Nurse
There Must be a Better Way™ (Treating and Understanding Non-Suicidal Self-Injury).
A 3-day course.
Stopping self harm and replacing it with something better.
The title of this course captures the philosophy behind it. Self-harm, though inexplicable to anyone who has never felt the urge to harm themselves, normally serves a very clear purpose. The secret of success is, therefore, to identify that purpose and achieve it in a less traumatic way. Simple in theory, far from simple in practice, this course examines exactly how to achieve it successfully.
Feedback Ratings.
We continuously monitor the quality of our training by obtaining feedback on the two key scales of relevance and presentation from every course delegate. Below are the average ratings for the last ten runnings of this course, which are updated periodically.
Face-to-Face
Presentation: 97%
Relevance: 95%
Online Live*
Presentation: 100%
Relevance: 97%
*This online live ratings are taken from the last two runnings of the course in this format.
