Both Kenny and Kerry come from the old coal mining towns that make up the bulk of Scotland’s industrial regions. They both know about the impact of poverty, the need to get away, the attraction of finding any escape route from the cycles of drugs, unemployment, violence and prison that ruled their childhoods. By sixteen Kenny had joined the army and Kerry had taken a £5 bus to the other end of Britain. They both wanted escape; a world with options. When I met them they were going through profound change. It often felt out of control. The narrative arc of the film shows them searching for tools to help them escape mental pain.

I have been privileged to know them both for the last six years. They have allowed me to join their home life, their wild swimming and trail riding adventures, and especially their ‘talking cure’ sessions, whether IEMT, gestalt, or NLP. Therapy was a concept ridiculed in the environment they come from. But for Kenny and Kerry it has been life changing. They have learnt to ‘get the brain working for you, not against you’. They have taken control of their pain. They are able to leave behind their traumas, and the resulting damaging behaviours. Their individual autonomy deepens as they re-create themselves, turning away from anger and shame, delusions and fear, until they finally train to become coaches themselves.