My life was static and isolated due to social anxiety and depression; I imagine it as a mass of sheep fleece - so many tangled fibres with knots, debris, dirt, each fibre caught up with others not having any use or purpose.

The courses at New Leaf Recovery and Wellbeing College I attended prior to and the Student Development Programme have made sense of that chaos; combed out the knots, cleaned, sorted out and spun the threads into a workable yarn. I love crochet and have used this analogy to describe how the Programme has helped me.

I have enjoyed the process; feeling positivity, connections, motivation, encouragement, support and learning to understand my own thought processes that needed consideration and moderation. I feel more confident and worthwhile and have taken on work part time as a carer and am more involved in my local community.

I am able to engage socially more easily and have achieved goals on my development plan I never would have considered or had the courage to do prior to this course. I have the course handbook at hand to refer to when I feel the need and I can contact the College and enrol on available courses to refresh, top up and remind myself of how far I have come.

I am so very grateful for the opportunity to join the Student Development Programme and would encourage others to sign up. It really has turned my life around. Thank you to Geoffrey and Jeanette and all of New Leaf Recovery and Wellbeing College.