I real­ly enjoyed and took a lot away from the real­i­ty based train­ing (side­walk on Fis­gard St and John­son St Parkade). Matty’s act­ing was great and the sce­nar­ios were exact­ly what we deal with. I liked the ver­bal instruc­tion and cre­at­ing dif­fer­ent sce­nar­ios. Seemed hands on train­ing. Hap­py there wasn’t a bunch of note tak­ing. The enthu­si­asm from the instruc­tors kept me engaged through­out the train­ing. - Anony­mous

Great act­ing. Great sce­nar­ios. I liked going over the sce­nar­ios and what should be done. I like the con­cepts- safe, back­ing up, feet stag­gered. — Anony­mous

Lots of sce­nar­ios that we hope nev­er to encounter. I like the idea of doing sce­nar­ios while not in sit­u­a­tions and not at work. - Anony­mous

Remem­ber­ing to keep safe at all times. Kris’s awe­some work eth­ic that’s to the point. Matt’s act­ing is also good at mak­ing it all real­is­tic. - Anony­mous

It was great to have real sit­u­a­tions played on the street and parkades. I real­ized how unpre­pared I am for real aggres­sive sit­u­a­tions. I real­ly liked to be instruct­ed by a woman too because it is wise to see con­fi­dent female and to have exam­ples in front of my eyes. Kris is amaz­ing. Matt is real­ly fun­ny, so it helped to stay awake. — Anonymous

A good pre­sen­ta­tion and sce­nario act­ing. Good feed­back on the spot. Easy to lis­ten and relate to some­one who had been on the street deal­ing with sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions. More prac­ti­cal than the­o­ret­i­cal.- Anony­mous

Sce­nar­ios were good. Lots of good info. Good instruc­tion. - Anony­mous

Great pre­sen­ta­tion. Thank you! — Anonymous

Chris was awe­some. He engaged the room and was real­ly infor­ma­tive. — Anonymous

Thor­ough. Infor­ma­tive. Pos­i­tive. Knowl­edge­able. — Anonymous

Good real life exam­ples. “Dad” humour. Lis­tened well and val­i­dat­ed.- Anony­mous

Excel­lent first hand expe­ri­ence and sto­ries. — Anonymous

Not at all what I expect­ed. Great sem­i­nar. I real­ly liked how Chris gave excel­lent exam­ples. I real­ly liked that he did­n’t sug­ar coat things and used “real” lan­guage. Great tools to use at work and in real life. Thank you. — Anonymous

Chris is an engag­ing speak­er. Dos­es of humour keep it light but the police back­ground shows that he speaks from expe­ri­ence. I appre­ci­ate the focus on de-esca­la­tion, tips on how to be approachable/ understood/ like­able and that sim­ply lis­ten­ing can some­times be enough. — Anonymous

Excel­lent sem­i­nar. Great  local ref­er­ences and exam­ples. Great pace. Lots of time to absorb the mate­r­i­al. — Anonymous

Great job Chris. Enjoyed and learned some new mate­r­i­al to deal with aggres­sive peo­ple. - Anonymous

Great instruc­tor. Good to have Vic­to­ria prob­lems as exam­ples. Instruc­tor was well aware of our chal­lenges and the clients we deal with. Thank you! — Anony­mous

Facts fol­lowed up with rel­e­vant exam­ples. Relat­able info. - Anony­mous

I was very impressed with how much this course focused on empa­thy and under­stand­ing. - Anonymous

Loved the per­son­al sto­ries. Great speak­er. Great sense of humour. Good pac­ing. — Anonymous

Thank you for the vul­ner­a­ble sto­ry. Kind/warm. Fun­ny. Acknowl­edg­ing the swear­ing and acknowl­edg­ing us yelling. Self dep­re­cat­ing jokes were great for humour and rap­port. - Anony­mous

Great exam­ples. — Anonymous

Infor­ma­tive. Well paced. Rel­e­vant sto­ries. - Anony­mous

Great pre­sen­ta­tion. Very inter­ac­tive and relat­able. Thank you!

Every­thing was great. Thank you!

As some­one who has worked in emer­gency ser­vices I can con­firm that this course is rel­e­vant and accu­rate to real world sce­nar­ios. I also appre­ci­ate that the instruc­tor has expe­ri­ence with what he is teach­ing which adds cred­i­bil­i­ty to his pre­sen­ta­tion. This was a great refresh­er and I think it is use­ful in our work­place. — Anonymous

Good pre­sen­ta­tion. Clear. Very rel­e­vant. — Anonymous

I admit, I was skep­ti­cal about receiv­ing this train­ing from a for­mer police offi­cer but I was pleas­ant­ly sur­prised with the focus on empa­thy and hear­ing the oth­er sides per­spec­tive. Thank you. — Anonymous

This course was so great! Last dis­cus­sion about coun­selling was very impact­ful and val­ued. Visu­als were great. Easy phras­es to remem­ber. Very help­ful for our jobs. — Anonymous

Pre­sen­ta­tion was great over­all. Humour helped things move on well. Lots of info. — Anonymous

Good infor­ma­tion. Good exam­ples. Encour­ag­ing envi­ron­ment. Expe­ri­enced instruc­tor. — Anonymous

Great info. Chris can relate to the work from his pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence as a police offi­cer. Great slides and com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the group. Good length of time for the course. Not too long. Not too short. — Anonymous

Very well pre­sent­ed. Vocal­ized well through room. Excel­lent exam­ples. Great inter­ac­tion with par­tic­i­pants. — Anonymous

Very infor­ma­tive. Great sto­ries. Prac­ti­cal exam­ples. — Anonymous

Very won­der­ful pre­sen­ta­tion. I enjoyed lis­ten­ing to the instruc­tors per­son­al expe­ri­ence that we could relate to emo­tion­al­ly. Great Pre­sen­ta­tion!- Anony­mous

Very use­ful. Cov­ered a lot of top­ics. Great engage­ment. Good use of exam­ples. Good par­tic­i­pa­tion. Help­ful tips. Lots of use­ful tools for iden­ti­fy­ing and de-esca­lat­ing con­flict before it becomes aggres­sive or vio­lent. — Anonymous

Engag­ing speak­er. Cool exam­ples. Rel­e­vant pos­si­ble sce­nar­ios to our work­place. — Anonymous

Good lis­ten­ing tac­tics. — Anonymous

Great con­tent. Deliv­ered a lot of infor­ma­tion in a short peri­od of time. Good staff engage­ment. — Anonymous

Very use­ful. Very engag­ing. Exam­ples were good but not over the top. Good sce­nar­ios. — Anonymous

Lots of real life exam­ples and pro­mot­ing dis­cus­sion. — Anonymous

Very well pre­sent­ed. Infor­ma­tive. Cap­ti­vat­ing. — Anonymous

Infor­ma­tion rel­e­vant to the job. Good anec­dotes. Love in-class par­tic­i­pa­tion. — Anonymous

Top­ics rel­e­vant to our work­place. Good deliv­ery. Instruc­tor demon­strates skills using ver­bal tech­niques. — Anonymous

I liked…Many great exam­ples. Do’s and don’ts. Aggres­sors and what to watch for. Lan­guage to use. — Anonymous

Inter­ac­tive. Ani­mat­ed and engag­ing. Exam­ples were prac­ti­cal for work set­ting and in gen­er­al can be applied across many sit­u­a­tions in life. Flow was a pace I liked. — Anonymous

I real­ly learned how to embrace fear and be chal­lenged. I like how it was all pre­sent­ed in a cap­ti­vat­ing way. It wast hard to focus, Every­thing will be help­ful for my per­son­al life too because I live alone. — Anonymous

Real­ly amaz­ing new tech­niques to use in var­i­ous sit­u­a­tions. Will def­i­nite­ly make me think more about how my actions/ reac­tions can affect oth­ers (ie. rest­ing bitch face). ‑Anony­mous

Good tem­po of speech. Good overview. Engag­ing instruc­tor. ‑Anony­mous

Infor­ma­tive. Fun learn­ing. Great sto­ries. Relat­able. (Instruc­tor) kept the pace and kept us on tar­get. Engag­ing. ‑Anony­mous

Talked about lots of real life sit­u­a­tions and strate­gies to de-esca­late. ‑Anony­mous

Thought the course was great! Dif­fer­ent tech­niques and rel­a­tive to what we do. ‑Anony­mous

Enjoyed expe­ri­ences from polic­ing career. Ver­bal judo tac­tics. Enjoyed audi­ence par­tic­i­pa­tion. ‑Anony­mous

Great ener­gy. Thanks! ‑Anony­mous

Enjoyed the lit­tle points for what can be used as bar­ri­ers to get between you and anoth­er per­son. I liked the “but” to change your mind­set. ‑Anony­mous

Liked the con­tact cov­er tech­niques. Ver­bal judo phras­es. ‑Anony­mous

Appre­ci­at­ed the depth bal­anced with focus on what’s impor­tant. ‑Anony­mous

Inter­ac­tive. Used our experiences/ sit­u­a­tions for exam­ples. ‑Anony­mous

Chris was great. Kept our atten­tion the whole time. Leaned a lot. Will be use­ful in my job. ‑Anony­mous

Appre­ci­ate your life expe­ri­ence sto­ries. They make it real. ‑Anony­mous

Learned new tech­niques. Engag­ing. Enjoyed dis­cus­sions. ‑Anony­mous

Real world exam­ples. Class dia­logue. Ver­bal judo. ‑Anony­mous

Very to the point pre­sen­ter. Well put togeth­er. ‑Anony­mous

Liked… every­thing. Learned lots! ‑Anony­mous

Real­ly good. Thank you. Thank you for the prac­ti­cal tools. -Anony­mous

Know­ing what to do when the ball gets hit to you. Thank you Chris. ‑Anony­mous

Chris was great. The pre­sen­ta­tion was well done. I know I will use this stuff in the work­place. ‑Anony­mous

Great con­tent. Very help­ful. Use­ful. Nice guy. Fun­ny! ‑Anony­mous

Liked… the pre­sen­ta­tion and ener­gy. ‑Anony­mous

All con­tent was valu­able. -Anony­mous

Good key points and strate­gies. -Anony­mous

Cov­ered a broad range of top­ics. ‑Anony­mous

Ver­bal­ly inter­ac­tive. Relat­able con­tent. Sto­ries to add con­text to a top­ic.-Anony­mous

I have found your tips and tricks to be help­ful. You pro­vid­ed great con­text and under­stand­ing. I’ve done mar­tial arts train­ing and found a lot of your skills aligned with pre­vi­ous knowl­edge. - Anony­mous

Engag­ing. Hon­est. Use­ful. Great! - Anony­mous

Some good info! Tools for aggres­sion was good. Fear- Chal­lenge- Awe­some! — Anony­mous

Engag­ing. All good as a remind­ed of how to deal with dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions. Learned some new tech­niques. - Anony­mous

Excel­lent job. You have the life long expe­ri­ence to run this course. You did­n’t make me feel like I should fear my job. — Anonymous

Lots of real exam­ples to make the point about and the­o­ries talked about. — Anonymous

Very infor­ma­tive. Thank you! - Anony­mous

Shar­ing per­son­al expe­ri­ences and mak­ing it rel­e­vant to the audi­ence. Talk­ing about stress response and its indi­vid­u­al­i­ty. Per­son­al tips such as remov­ing the ego from a con­ver­sa­tion. — Anonymous

Your pre­sen­ta­tion style is great! Loved the sto­ries. Made it real. Great job mak­ing the strate­gies applic­a­ble to our work­place. The por­tion on resilience is often over­looked- thank you for the great way you pre­sent­ed that.  — Anony­mous

Appli­ca­tion of pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ences. Appro­pri­ate bal­ance of hard (assault) and soft (resilience) skills. Excel­lent com­mu­ni­ca­tion while pro­vid­ing knowl­edge and also leav­ing room for learn­ers expe­ri­ence. Applic­a­ble con­tent. Appre­ci­ate the oppor­tu­ni­ty to prac­tice “fear”. - Anonymous

Going over sce­nar­ios that you (Chris) have per­son­al­ly expe­ri­enced. Talk­ing about resilience and debrief­ing. All good info. Thank you. — Anonymous

Very infor­ma­tive. Great prac­ti­cal exam­ples. Inter­ac­tive and fun. Relat­ed every­thing that you could to the gar­dens. Felt per­son­al and not just like a sem­i­nar. — Anonymous

I thought the exam­ples given/ used were real­ly good and impact­ful. You did a good job of engag­ing all of our team mem­bers. You did a great job. Thank you for join­ing us today. — Anonymous

Real world appli­ca­tions. Iden­ti­fy­ing body lan­guage. Dis­cus­sion on out expe­ri­ences. — Anonymous

Engag­ing with giv­ing examples/ sto­ries. Get­ting out of our seats kept it inter­est­ing and hands on. — Anonymous

How to intro­duce your­self to come across as being like­able and help­ful. How to posi­tion your­self effec­tive­ly and approach in part­ners. — Anony­mous

Well pre­sent­ed, clear info. Effec­tive use of real sce­nar­ios. Pre­sent­ed had expe­ri­ence. Liked get­ting out of our seat to prac­tice things. Good con­ver­sa­tion over direct info. — Anony­mous

That you can change your mind­set by hav­ing a plan regard­ing per­son­al safe­ty. Lots of valu­able infor­ma­tion regard­ing spac­ing. - Anony­mous

Chris was great (ener­gy and knowl­edge). — Anonymous

Re: Real­i­ty Based Train­ing Sce­nar­ios. You guys are awe­some. — Anonymous

Re: Real­i­ty Based Train­ing Sce­nar­ios. Dis­tanc­ing was key. Hands up when inter­act­ing. Try not to talk in circles/ Get to your point. Not talk­ing down to vio­la­tors. Ask­ing the per­son how their day is going. Deep breath­ing. — Anony­mous

Re: Real­i­ty Based Train­ing Sce­nar­ios. I real­ly enjoyed the entire train­ing. Good instruc­tors with good humour. The sce­nar­ios were excel­lent. The instruc­tors were excel­lent.  — Anonymous

Re: Real­i­ty Based Train­ing Sce­nar­ios. Sce­nar­ios are a ver7y good idea. We should do them reg­u­lar­ly, like twice a year. Prac­tice dis­tance, hand posi­tion­ing, say­ing things like “you are scar­ing me” is some­thing I need to prac­tice. Small group like today and from same depart­ment was fan­tas­tic. I like the infor­ma­tion to looks for cam­eras and bus­es. — Anonymous

Re: Real­i­ty Based Train­ing Sce­nar­ios. Lots of chances to apply the skills and strate­gies cov­ered in class. Very focused and rel­e­vant to our posi­tion. Great to not only have instruc­tor feed­back but cri­tique from the expe­ri­enced ambas­sadors as well.  — Anonymous

Re: Real­i­ty Based Train­ing Sce­nar­ios. I would like you guys to con­tin­ue with the role plays own the streets. I like the train­ing and the com­fort zone. Main­tain­ing a safe dis­tance. Using a cell phone as a dis­trac­tion in dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions was a great point in the pre­sen­ta­tion. — Anonymous

Re: Real­i­ty Based Train­ing Sce­nar­ios. Great sce­nar­ios. Def­i­nite­ly found the empha­sis on space, stance/ body lan­guage help­ful. — Anonymous