Roger Sheldon was born in 1944 and, as a result of a £5 bet by a friend, began training in martial arts on 28 June 1974.  This was at the time he was managing a hi-fi and electrical shop in Sevenoaks town centre.  He became a member of the Za-Zen Karate club (Sevenoaks, Kent UK) under Jon Alexander and embarked upon a period of intensive study that has continued uninterrupted to this day.  He devoted a great deal of time to training and in 1976 was awarded the first degree black belt.

Roger quickly began to develop a deep interest in the nature of contemporary violence and its management.  In 1976, in response to a number of specific requests, he offered self-defence classes to the local community.  The classes were very successful.

Word got around and shortly afterwards Roger and his wife Ann (also a martial artist),  were approached by one Jilleen Cole who asked if they would be interested in providing self-defence training for District Nurses, as part of the District Nurse Course provided by Croydon College, Surrey.  Jilleen was employed by Croydon College as a course organizer and had been informed by a number of Roger's past self-defence students of his expertise and had read about Roger and Ann's school in the local newspapers.

Roger and Ann took Jilleen up on her offer.  The training they provided was received with enthusiasm and as a result they were engaged to provide such training on a regular basis. 

What was revealed on that very first course however, was a need for a very wide range of understandings and approaches.  While Roger's brief was to provide training that would equip the District nurses with personal safety skills whilst out and about in the community, it quickly became clear that they also had a perceived and actual need for improved skills for dealing with challenging and aggressive patients in their homes.  As a result Roger expanded the scope of the training by agreement with Jilleen and the College. 

Roger began to research and study methods of contemporary self-defence, conflict resolution, anger management, the nature of aggression and related themes.  What he learned was drawn into the training programme.  

It was not long before the Mid Kent College heard of Roger and Ann's activities in Croydon and engaged them to run similar courses.  All the while they were expanding and developing the training to meet the needs of the colleges and of the course participants.

In those days there was no management of aggression training as it is understood now.  Terms used today such as ‘challenging behaviour’ had not been coined.  Most practical training was provided by martial artists, police officers (mostly retired) and other such personnel.  Roger's methods were initially very much misunderstood for he wished to embrace all aspects of managing violence in a broad, holistic way to encompass everything from personal safety in the street and peaceful responses within the caring professions. 

Roger had ideas that he wanted to develop and sought support from a variety of bodies.  Many bodies were not ready to embrace his evolving philosophy.

In the meantime, Roger and Ann gained many contracts around the UK within health authorities, the prison and police services and other bodies to provide training for staff.  They went under the name of ‘Sheldon Self-Preservation Workshops’.  Much of their time was spent living away from home because their training was regarded as unique in its profession-oriented approach.  They discovered that they were very good at shifting the training emphasis to meet the perceived needs of differing organisations.

Eventually Roger and Ann were 'discovered' by John Goodlad and Shelagh Brewer, Training Officers for the Royal College of Nursing, London.  John and Shelagh were instrumental in really getting the ball rolling for them, and engaged them to travel all over the UK training their Health and Safety Officers.  So innovative were Roger's methods that he and Ann appeared on national TV news bulletins and magazines of the time.  They did much work with the RCN and much research.  Their methods evolved rapidly and they embarked upon Roger's ‘peaceful response’ programme.  Looking back to those days Roger says, "I am embarrassed remembering some of the things we got up to, but it was early days and there was nothing in the way of support.  Most of our learning came from the groups we taught and from the mass of data kept by the RCN.  I fondly remember spending hours and hours in the RCN library searching out and copying reams and reams of documentation, much of which I still have to this day, albeit having only a historical interest now."

Subsequently, Mr. Ernest Parkinson MBE of the Camberwell Health Authority at King’s College Hospital (also Chairman of the National Security Officers Association) approached Roger.  Ernest was inspired by Roger's approach and immediately entered into negotiations and discussion with him with a view to setting up a Train the Trainers programme for health authorities nationwide.  Roger and Ann staged their first five day Train the Trainers course in 1982 at the Normansby College, King’s College Hospital, Camberwell.

These were Roger and Ann's busiest times.  They worked seven days a week, fourteen to sixteen hours a day.  Development was rapid and they began to use the designation ‘Institute for Research into the Management of Aggression’ and the training package, ‘The Project 5 Peaceful Response Programme’.  Plans were underway for training videos and books.  Two video training companies expressed serious interest in Roger's programme.

Roger gradually discovered that course participants were unable or unwilling to recognize the ‘continuum of response’ options that we proposed and he was forced to abandon his very broad holistic approach within the caring professions because it was so misunderstood.  Eventually he pulled back and taught the full programme only at his headquarters in Riverhead, Kent.  Today, his internal Riverhead group studies a very broad base and has international connections.  Roger's training embraces (on a historical and contemporary basis), civil defence, law enforcement, social and health areas, and inter-personal relationships on as wide a basis as is needed to meet the needs of every of the group's members. 

In the caring professions, as Roger came to realize the full implications of his peaceful response philosophy, he gradually pulled out from the prison and police services and specialized exclusively within the caring professions, where his methods were best received. 

Then in the mid 1980’s Roger was hit with a particularly distressing occurrence – the advent of the ‘Control and Restraint’ programme.  Although the ‘Control and Restraint’ programme was developed by the physical education division of the Prison Service for the Prison Service, it’s invidious tentacles somehow quickly filtered through to the caring professions, assisted by high profile promotion.  While the programme may have had its uses within the Prison Service, it was, by its very nature, badly misplaced within the caring professions – yet everyone involved remained oblivious to the dangers.   

It was during these times that Roger's wife Ann was obliged to withdraw from the training programme in order to care for their two growing offspring.  Jilleen Cole moved to New Zealand and Ernest Parkinson retired and went to live in Cyprus.  John Goodlad of the RCN contracted a serious illness and died, and Shelagh Brewer moved on to new pastures where she was no longer able to support us. 

The ‘Contol and Restraint’ programme took hold and Roger was unable to gain training contracts easily in the face of this massive onslaught.  Then after a time, managers, particularly within the Learning Disabilities field began to see through the politics and started warming to Roger's approach again as if it was something new, even to the point of abandoning the term ‘control and restraint’ for his preferred ‘guiding and holding’ and embracing his ‘tactile communication’ philosophy.

The heady and frenetic days of Camberwell and the RCN never returned, but Roger survived.  This period gave him the opportunity to research the documents he had collated and to write additional philosophical aspects.  It was at this time he began to seriously re-examine his entire attitude regarding the importance of semantics and ‘right attitude’.  Recognising that his orientation and philosophy lay within the caring professions he stopped offering training to other services and specialized.  It was clear that his skill and expertise lay particularly within the mental health and learning disabilities fields and during the early 1990’s his work had swung to embrace these areas alone.

I.R.M.A. had been providing training for Ticehurst House Hospital in East Sussex since the beginning of the 1990's.  It deals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Head injuries, and Rehabilitation, having a young persons unit too.  In 1995 Roger was asked to set up a Train the Trainers programme for the hospital. 

It was from this programme that Project 5's most progressive and expert trainers came - Megan Davies and Maxine Burchett (see their website: http://www.irmatraining.co.uk/ ).  So enthusiastic were they with the philosophy and approach of the I.R.M.A. training programme that they eventually became full time independent trainers in their own right, promoting the Project 5 peaceful response system. 

Meg and Max are Registered Mental Nurses, with ENB 998 Qualifications and have over eighteen years experience of working in all fields of Psychiatry, including Elderly Mentally Ill, Adult Acute, Rehabilitation, Learning Disabilities, Brain Injury and eleven years with Children and Adolescents.

They have worked enthusiastically and closely with Roger for well over a decade now and have taken on the responsibility of running Project 5's ‘Train the Trainers’ programme.  Many Project 5 trainers come from a nursing background and are also trained in Manual Handling and First Aid.

In recent times I.R.M.A. has been working alongside NHS Trusts as well as Private Clinics, GP Surgeries and within Mental Health and Learning Disabilities fields, it provides on-site training for a large nursing organisation, as well as Social Services.  IRMA provides different levels of training for its staff as well as working with staff in EBD schools to look at issues such as Supervision and Group Support for staff.

The learning disability field in particular held the best opportunity for IRMA to promote its peaceful response programme, for they believed and still believe that the process of ‘restraint’ (a term Roger refuses to use) is very largely unnecessary within that field.  None of the Learning Disabled service users on IRMA's books requires to be held protectively.  IRMA is very proud of its record in promoting peaceful and caring response strategies to all who will listen and embrace its philosophy.  

In 2001 Roger received word that Jilleen Cole formerly of Croydon College was still working within the caring professions in New Zealand, Ernest Parkinson MBE formerly of Camberwell HA was still very active in his retirement in Cyprus and Shelagh Brewer formerly of RCN was still busy within the caring professions here in the UK.

The Masters programme is only promoted and taught at Riverhead to long term internal students.  There is also a tertiary training programme for the caring professions which was researched and developed by Megan, Maxine and Roger.

Roger has retained the name I.R.M.A. since the days of his association with the RCN and King’s College Hospital.  The term ‘institute’ carrying the legitimate sense of an organization for research, development and education.  Although once having identified the underlying principles regarding his science, he had remained consistent throughout, making his research workload comparatively light compared to the old days.

IRMA's trainers have gained enormous practical experience through providing management of violence training to professionals for many years and by working closely with people who display violent behaviour.

IRMA has had the support of the leading authorities in the world for over thirty years.  They have recognised IRMA's sincerity and dedication and acknowledged it as a capable and responsible organisation in its chosen field.  All IRMA trainers are eminently qualified to deliver such training independently.