Anyone done gradual withdrawal with toddler?

[Inthehighcastle]

DS 2.4 we have slipped into bad habits of letting him go to bed in our bed as he will drop off there in ten minutes, when he's in his own bed I can be sitting with him up to an hour. I have always had to sit next to him and let him hold my hand or hair for him to fall asleep.
Tonight I was determined he was going to bed in his own bed and I'm sticking to it now, resulted in me sitting there for an hour. He's very sensitive and I am absolutely not going to just put a stair gate accross his room and leave him to it as various people have suggested, I know he would just be inconsolable.
So I'm thinking the only way to change things now is gradual withdrawal but I don't know whether it will work as well on a very strong willed toddler who is in a bed now, not a cot.
If I could get him feeling secure enough in his own room that he's going into a proper sleep in 15 minutes or so (like he does in my bed) then I don't mind being in the room still, it's just these hour long bedtimes that are annoying me tbh.
Looking for anyone's experiences fixing toddler sleep with minimal distress basically.

We did it with a very strong willed 3 year old, took a while but worked brilliantly

We generally sit with dd (3yo) but I'm putting away washing / going to the toilet ie nipping in and out. At 2.4 she would have been springing out of bed the minute my back was turned, but she's finally given in and accepted bedtime means bedtime. Dropping the daytime nap was the turning point.

We're doing it at the moment with my 23 month old - 2 months in and he has fallen asleep on his own for the first time with me out the room for the past 2 nights. Last night I stayed in his room for about half an hour until he was really really sleepy then slowly left and stood behind the closed door. He cried and got out of bed, but was happy to be put back in bed and fell asleep immediately. Tonight I said night night, left very soon after he got into bed, but stood with my back to him outside his open door for 5 minutes, returned him to bed 3 times and then after 5 minutes pulled the door to, stood behind it and returned him to bed once, then sat for 5 minutes on the landing reading a book for another 5 minutes, telling him to get back in bed once. Success! I really thought we would be sitting in his room while he fell asleep for ever but it was just a phase and we're on the way out now.