On Breaking the Cycle​

 

 

(Denisa Petriș – in the photo on the left, the person at 12:00 o’clock – shares their thoughts upon participating in the Erasmus+ training course “Break the Cycle”, Samobor, Croatia, April 2024)

“Sexism and hate speech are extremely pervasive societal problems and learning to counter them can be essential, especially when working with young and queer people who are directly affected by the hateful narratives spread throughout our communities. 

As a psychotherapist, I often witness the struggles of women and queer people in the therapy room and the way they stem from systemic injustice. As an AFAB queer person myself, I  want to live in a community that acknowledges and respects me. Minority distress is something we as a society have to alleviate by fostering solidarity and healing within the community and to do so we need to be ready to challenge our own beliefs, acknowledge our own bias, understand the broader, systemic nature of the issue and choose, with intentionality and agency, to stand along with our less privileged counterparts. 

With the extensive knowledge and guidance of our trainers, Andreja, Ümit and Leon, we learned how to identify hateful narratives in our day-to-day lives and create alternative ones that challenge and dismantle beliefs and attitudes stemming from the oppressive patriarchal culture we are immersed in. The hands-on guided discovery and learning process they provided, as well as the appeal to meme culture and contemporary media has made the process both fun and rewarding. 

We are also extremely grateful to the other international team members who shared their experiences and views on the topic, enriching our perspective on sexism and its cultural nuances. By the end of the project, we all felt a lot more equipped to tackle sexism and address it within the broader context of systemic oppression.

Needless to say, the project was a very valuable opportunity for building meaningful friendships and borderless connections. I am actually writing this article from Thessaloniki, sitting on the couch of a Greek friend I made in this Erasmus project. I am very grateful for the chance I got to meet like-minded people and I genuinely think that this is a priceless aspect of participating in Erasmus+ projects.”