Question For The Poets

My friend Tom Daley, a really good poet and performer (read more of him here) is starting another one of his writing workshops in January. This is the second time he's asked me if I'd like to participate, and this time I said I probably will. I feel that I need something to revitalize my writing style, and this might be the thing. Still, I have reservations.

My memories of past workshops in graduate school are not very good ones. Too many clashing egos amongst writers trying to get noticed by the professors (myself included). The results from those workshop equated to about a half-dozen poems I am not embarassed to present and also weren't workshopped to the ground to become a hodge-podge of my inferior lines and lines I wouldn't have put in at gunpoint under normal circumstances.

Have other poets been in similar situations? If so, do you find a difference in workshops after the degree? Is it a positive difference?