I wish there was a course to give women the confidence and practical advice and support needed to leave their hopeless/selfish/controlling men..

[LiffeyAnnaLivia]

I can't believe how many women put up with SO much nonsense.

I lived with a shit for years and thought I couldn't leave. I thought leaving was what braver women than me would do, or women who were better looking and had a chance of meeting somebody else, or women who had more financial independence than I had.... so I know all the excuses. I'm not judging. It just makes me really sad. There are a lot of unhappy women in shit relationships.

there is isn't the, the Freedom course?

I've been thinking the same LAL, I also want to post a thread asking who has nice DP's who are NOT controlling and abusive, because it seems like a scary number of them are.

I've been thinking the same LAL, I also want to post a thread asking who has nice DP's who are NOT controlling and abusive, because it seems like a scary number of them are.

Do you have a link TotalChaos?

Is there such a course? I wish I'd known about it. I wanted to leave my x when I was 9 wks pregnant and I didn't have the strength to do it til the baby was 16 months old.

www.freedomprogramme.co.uk/freedomprogramme/index.cfm

Click on 'Mr Wrong or Mr Right'.

£450 though! I needed every penny when I left because x was so mean and controlling with money. No way could I have cobbled together and spent £450 on a course. NOr disappeared to attend a course called 'Freedom' ay! x would never have allowed that.

oh I didn't realise they charged so much for it

Isn't the #450 for training to be come a course teacher?

having been doing a google, and the courses running in my area appear to be free, they seem to be put on by police or council.

You can self-refer to get yourself on the Women's Aid Pattern Changing course. Its brilliant. I found it brilliant anyway. It's free. There is a free creche too. Only 14 places per course (where I am) tho they do run a few courses each year.

Contact Women's Aid to find out more. You need to have been in an abusive relationship to get on it - physical/emotional/mental financial..it's not just for women who have been physically abused is what I mean.

It lasts 14 weeks - a two and a half hour session every week (the one I took). Teaches you an awful lot but most empowering of all, you are with other women who have been in shit, abusive or controlling or mind-freaking relationships and that is what's so wonderful - you see all ages, all walks of life, all levels of education, some now single mums (like me), others not. Professional women, others on the breadline, the lot. But all with the same thing in common: why oh why oh why did I put up with that bollox and how can I stop myself falling for it again?

All the girls on my course were fantastic. You end up sort of loving each other because we were all, actually, quite strong ironically. But you also also become proud to be YOU. You don't want to fail each other when you have finished the course by falling back into the old patterns.

It's not psychobabble. It's about having confidence and spotting the tricksters and understanding why you might have got into/put up with the controlling/abusive people in your life. It gives you back your 'real you'

What a wonderful idea! That Freedom programme looks brilliant.
If only I'd known about that 6 years ago. There is a programme based where I used to live with ex, but ended up fleeing to London anyways. None of that FP based here though, which I am very surprised about.

Victim Support referred me to a wonderful DV survivors group called 'Sunflowers' and they were based in Leytonstone and we used to meet once a week.

Still never got the counselling though.