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Protect Your Mind, Stay in Control, Respond with Confidence

Handling Toxic People Training Half Day

Toxic people can be found at work or at home. To lift themselves up, they push others down. If you’ve ever felt undermined, belittled, or drained by someone’s toxic behaviour, this course is for you.

Available as live online training via Microsoft Teams, or as bespoke in-house training tailored to your organisation.

★★★★★
"The training course content was really superb and engaging; I will use a lot of these concepts in my daily work. The best course I have been on in a very long time." - Helen Eaton, ASDA
Quality Training
Established 1997
3 CPD Hours
Delivery Options Upcoming Dates

Course Overview

What is a Toxic Person and Why Do They Matter?

Toxic people can be found at work or at home. To lift themselves up, they push others down. They use sarcasm, their status and authority to intimidate, and their presence can reduce confidence, harm teamwork and lower motivation in everyone around them.

This course addresses toxic behaviour from two angles. First, behavioural control: what to say and do when faced with toxic behaviour so you can respond calmly and assertively rather than react. Second, emotional defence: how to protect your mental state and self-confidence so that toxic people cannot get into your mind.

By the end of this half-day course, you will have practical, immediately usable tools for dealing with toxic people in any setting, whether they are a colleague, a manager, a customer or someone in your personal life. If you want to know exactly how to handle them, calmly and confidently, book your place below.

Core Skills

The Key Skills Covered

This course is structured around two interconnected skill sets. Developing both gives you the confidence and composure to handle toxic behaviour without it affecting your performance or wellbeing.

  1. 1

    Recognising Toxic Behaviour

    Identify the specific patterns of behaviour that define a toxic person, including the use of sarcasm, status and intimidation. Understanding what toxic people do and why they do it is the essential first step in dealing with them effectively.

  2. 2

    Behavioural Control

    Learn what to say and do when faced with toxic behaviour. Develop a clear, structured response that keeps you rational and assertive rather than reactive or emotional, and practise scripting difficult interactions in advance so you are prepared rather than caught off guard.

  3. 3

    Emotional Defence

    Build the internal defences that prevent toxic people from affecting your confidence and mental state. Learn how to maintain self-belief under pressure so that the negativity of others does not erode your performance or wellbeing.

  4. 4

    Emotional Resilience

    Develop the emotional strength to remain calm and composed when provoked. Understand why certain reactions make things worse and learn to choose a response that protects your dignity and keeps the situation under control.

  5. 5

    Assertiveness Under Pressure

    Assert your position clearly and calmly without becoming aggressive or passive. Learn to hold your ground when someone attempts to intimidate, belittle or undermine you, and to communicate with quiet authority in difficult situations.

  6. 6

    Combining Action and Emotion

    Bring together the behavioural and emotional techniques into a single, integrated approach. Responding effectively on the outside while remaining strong on the inside is the complete solution to handling toxic people in any context.

Who Is This Course For?

Who Should Attend This Handling Toxic People Course?

Suitable for anyone who has to deal with toxic, difficult or undermining behaviour at work or in their personal life.

Employees Dealing with Toxic Managers

Protect your confidence and professionalism when a manager uses intimidation or sarcasm to control.

Managers Handling Toxic Team Members

Address toxic behaviour within your team before it damages morale, performance and working culture.

Customer-Facing Staff

Stay calm and composed when dealing with aggressive, hostile or manipulative customers or clients.

Anyone Affected by Toxic Behaviour

Gain practical tools to handle toxic individuals with calm and confidence, at work or at home.

Also beneficial for HR professionals managing toxic workplace dynamics, team members dealing with a difficult colleague, and customer-facing staff who regularly encounter hostile or unreasonable behaviour.

Course Agenda

Handling Toxic People Course Details

AM

Morning Session • Recognising toxicity, building your response and strengthening your defences

Learn to identify toxic behaviour and its impact, develop clear and assertive responses, understand why some reactions make things worse, and build the emotional defences that protect your confidence and mental state.

The session opens by examining what defines a toxic person and distinguishing toxic behaviour from ordinary rudeness or conflict. Toxic people typically use sarcasm, status and authority to control others, pushing others down to lift themselves up. By understanding these patterns precisely, you can recognise toxic behaviour as soon as it occurs rather than being drawn into it before you realise what is happening. Clear identification is the starting point for an effective response.
Exposure to toxic behaviour has measurable effects on your psychological state. Confidence decreases, motivation drops and even basic decision-making becomes harder when you are regularly undermined, belittled or subjected to persistent negativity. This topic examines the mechanisms by which toxic behaviour causes this damage, so you understand exactly what you are dealing with and why your emotional defences matter as much as your behavioural responses.
This is the practical core of the course. You will learn a clear, structured approach for responding to toxic behaviour in the moment, including how to use objective language rather than emotional reactions, how to remain assertive without becoming aggressive, and how to script your responses in advance so you are prepared rather than caught off guard. Practice through exercises helps you identify which approaches feel most natural and where you want to develop further.
Not every instinctive response to toxic behaviour is a helpful one. Reacting with anger, becoming passive or trying to justify yourself to someone who has no intention of listening are common responses that typically escalate the situation. This topic identifies the reactions that give toxic people more power and explains why they make things worse. More importantly, it gives you the alternative responses that reduce toxic behaviour rather than rewarding it.
Emotional defence is the second pillar of this course. Behavioural techniques alone are not enough if the toxic person is still damaging your self-confidence, mood and sense of self-worth. This topic teaches you how to build internal resilience so that the negativity, sarcasm and intimidation of toxic people cannot penetrate your mental state. You will learn specific techniques for protecting your self-image and maintaining emotional stability under sustained pressure.
The final topic of the session brings the two approaches together into a single, integrated framework. Responding effectively on the outside while remaining strong on the inside is the complete solution. You will practise applying both the behavioural and emotional tools in realistic scenarios and leave with a clear, personal action plan identifying what you will do differently as soon as you return to work. Post-course support, including three months of free telephone coaching, is available as you implement your plan.

Availability and Pricing

Delivery Options

Choose the delivery format that best fits your schedule and team.

All options deliver the same high-quality content.

Online Live Training

£160 +VAT

per delegate

Interactive live sessions delivered via Teams using our superior green-screen technology.

  • Same content as face-to-face
  • Learn from home or office
  • Delivered via MS Teams
  • Laptop or tablet with webcam
View Online Dates

Bespoke In-House

£2250+VAT

per training day

We come to you. Training delivered at your premises, tailored to your team's specific needs.

  • Your premises or online
  • Tailored to your organisation
  • Dates to suit your schedule
  • We can train in your timezone
Proposal PDF Request Callback

All Our Training Includes

Full Half Day of expert training delivered by an experienced trainer
CPD-endorsed course: 3 CPD training hours (plus 2-3 additional hours via post-course online learning)
Full digital interactive course notes
Official training certificate
Access to free additional training material via our post-course portal
3 months of free telephone coaching while you implement your learning

Questions? Call 020 3856 3037 or 01452 856091

Upcoming Dates

Next Available Course Dates

No upcoming dates are currently listed.
Please get in touch to enquire about availability.

Contact Us

Frequently Asked Questions

Course FAQs

You can book directly online via our course dates page, call us on 020 3856 3037, or make an enquiry and we will call you back. We accept payment by BACS, cheque or credit card. Once booked, you will receive a confirmation email with full joining instructions.
Yes. We can deliver this course exclusively for your team at your premises or online, on dates to suit you. Bespoke in-house training is priced per day rather than per delegate, making it cost-effective for groups of four or more. We can also tailor the content to address your organisation's specific challenges.
When dealing with toxic people, the main objective of stress management is to prevent the behaviour of others from damaging your own performance, confidence and wellbeing. Toxic people frequently generate stress through intimidation, sarcasm and persistent negativity. The goal is not to eliminate stress entirely but to build the emotional defences and rational responses that stop toxic behaviour from getting into your mind. This course provides both the behavioural and emotional tools to achieve that objective.
Toxic people create stress in several distinct ways. Interpersonal stress arises from direct confrontation, sarcasm or belittling comments. Status stress occurs when someone in a position of authority uses that authority to intimidate or control. Social stress results from toxic people damaging your reputation or relationships within a team. Chronic low-level stress builds up through repeated exposure to negativity, undermining remarks or hostile body language. This course addresses all of these forms by giving you both a behavioural response and an emotional defence for each type.
Yes, the training is highly interactive. Sessions include group discussions, exercises, case studies and individual action planning. The trainer actively teaches expert content rather than simply facilitating discussion, so delegates leave with structured knowledge they can apply immediately. The style is engaging and practical throughout.
Common signs include a persistent drop in self-confidence when dealing with a particular individual, increased anxiety before interactions with them, a tendency to second-guess decisions you would normally make confidently, reduced motivation or enjoyment at work, and physical signs of stress such as tension or disrupted sleep. If contact with one individual consistently leaves you feeling drained, belittled or less capable, that person is likely having a toxic effect on you. This course is specifically designed to address that situation.
Delegates come from a wide range of industries, roles and circumstances. Some attend because they are dealing with a specific toxic colleague or manager and need practical tools immediately. Others attend because they work in environments where difficult, aggressive or manipulative behaviour is common and they want to build their general resilience and confidence. Some come because they have noticed a drop in their own performance or mood and want to understand and address its cause. What all delegates share is a desire to handle toxic behaviour with greater calm, clarity and confidence.
Live online sessions are available in two half-day slots. The morning session runs from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and the afternoon session runs from 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm (UK time). You will receive full joining instructions on booking, including a link to convert the session time to your local timezone if you are based outside the UK.

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On This Page

  1. 1 Course Overview
  2. 2 Key Skills
  3. 3 Who Should Attend
  4. 4 Course Agenda
  5. 5 Delivery Options
  6. 6 Upcoming Dates
  7. 7 FAQs

Book This Course

Online Live Training £160 +VAT
Bespoke In-House £2250 +VAT/day
Book Open Course Enquire About In-House

Questions? Call us on

020 3856 3037
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Customer Reviews

What Delegates Say About This Course

Trustpilot
Read Our Customer Reviews
★★★★★

"The course content was very good. Initially worried it might be a bit 'airy-fairy' and not very practical, but I have learnt a lot, particularly the conflict wrong box/ right box. I feel a lot of it will be easy and do-able to put into practice."

Vikki Poole

The Binding Site

★★★★★

"Course content was extremely useful, will help me develop in my new role, providing me with tools to deal with situations as they arise. The trainer's presentation was very good, each section explained thoroughly."

Helen Burston

West Mercia Constabulary

★★★★★

"Very clear and informative and will no doubt assist in future conflict situations. It will help me be clearer and approach situations with greater direction and purpose"

Leigh Upton

Evo-Soft Ltd

Related Reading

Ready to Handle Toxic People with Confidence?

Book a place on our next live online session, or speak to us about tailored in-house delivery for your team.

Book Open Course Enquire about In-House

Or speak to a member of our team directly:

020 3856 3037 01452 856091