It took David Nugent's wife to tell him "enough is enough" 10 years ago before he addressed his abusive nature.

While Mr Nugent, now 43, was not physically violent, he did not understand that his verbal and emotional abuse were just as damaging.

He finally sought help from a counsellor and quickly found the cause of his problem.

"Some of my upbringing was coming out in my relationship," Mr Nugent said.

The counselling was a success and he soon curbed his harmful habits, although it was not easy.

"Most men want to fix things and if we could all take a pill that'd be great," Mr Nugent said.

"It usually comes back to control any insecurites."

After rescuing his marriage, Mr Nugent has made it his mission to teach other men how to change their behaviour and stop hurting loved ones.

He founded the Heavy METAL - Men's Education Towards Anger and Life - group, which aims to show men different ways to express themselves other than through violence.

"Men use things like a light being left on as an excuse to explode," Mr Nugent said.

"We teach them that it's about 'me', not 'her'," he said.

Mr Nugent is bringing his program to the peninsula.

He said men who were violent and felt overwhelmed or looking for a better way of life should go along.

"The beauty of the program is that a guy can relate to it because it's not straight out of a textbook."

By Adrian Ballantyne