Project of Tedu102: Hidden Forms of Violence in Romantic Relationships

In the TEDU102 course, we had to learn service learning and develop a project for the benefit of the community. Our lecturer was very good. In the first part of the lesson, we learned about the Sustainable Development Goals, why and how they were created, and how we can develop projects based on volunteering for the benefit of society. Then we formed our group and decided on the topic and name of our project. ‘Hidden Forms of Violence in Romantic Relationships: Building Awareness and Empowering TEDU Students’ As it is clear from the name of the project, we decided on a project on creating awareness about manipulation in romantic relationships. After our professor approved it, we started to develop the project and do literature reviews.

First of all, we had to measure the level of awareness in our school and for this, we applied the scaled questionnaire from Prof. Dr. Hasan YILMAZ's article Manipulation Scale in Human Relationships to the students in our university. In the meantime, we first contacted the psychology community of our school and then the Gender Equality centre. After learning that both organisations had busy schedules and could not cooperate with us, we contacted the Logos community and they said they could cooperate with us. Then we analysed the results of the survey with Eda Dönmezoğlu and put them into percentages. Rana Sengul prepared some posters to inform people in the school and Zeynep Nisa Çetin hung the posters in different parts of the school.

Afterwards, we determined a seminar time with the Logos community and asked Psk. Ebru Öztırak Güngör, who is currently actively doing relationship therapy in Vivere Psychology, to give a seminar on this subject for us, and she did not refuse us. In fact, we were planning to give our seminar face-to-face at school, but unfortunately we could not find a suitable space and time due to some date changes. Nevertheless, we recorded the seminar online and uploaded it to YouTube so that everyone can access it whenever they want and benefit from this valuable information. Afterwards, we presented our project with the poster we prepared at the festival organized at the school for the Tedu102 course, and it was very much appreciated.

The most difficult part of this project was coordinating with university clubs, producing effective content, and touching people while maintaining the sensitivity of the issue. Nevertheless, the positive feedback we received from the participants showed that all our efforts were worth it. Students stated that they started to notice unhealthy relationships thanks to the seminars we organized and the materials we shared. This awareness helped them to draw their own boundaries better, seek help, and support the people around them. This information made us realize some things too.

We have gained many important skills in this process. While improving our organizational and communication skills, we have also strengthened our problem-solving competencies in teamwork. Planning events, coordinating with speakers, and making social media announcements have provided me with valuable leadership and project management experience. One of the biggest challenges was organizing speakers by collaborating with various groups. Some organizations directed us to other groups, and our plans were delayed. However, we did not give up and found alternative solutions and used our contacts to speed up the process.

Another big challenge was the sensitive nature of the topic. Covert violence and emotional manipulation can be personal and challenging topics for many people. For this reason, we collaborated with mental health experts to create our content, using careful and supportive language to raise awareness and create a safe space.

This project not only gave us information about hidden violence but also taught us how to cope with challenges and contribute to society. Seeing that we have achieved much more than we initially thought has been the biggest source of motivation in this process.Frankly speaking, preparing this project has contributed a lot to me. I now feel better about teamwork; I think I have improved myself in terms of human relations and organizing an event. I am aware that manipulation in relationships happens from time to time in all of our lives, and I am more aware of this issue.

Prof. Dr. Hasan YILMAZ's article Manipulation Scale in Human Relationships:

You can access Vivere Psychology's website here: https://viverepsikoloji.com

Vivere Psychology's Instagram account here: @viverepsikoloji https://www.instagram.com/viverepsikoloji/

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