Counselor at Valencia’s West Campus, Adrian Manley presented four skill shops at the Osceola Campus on Monday, Feb. 6 called “Managing Family Relationships and School,” “Before You Say I Do,” “My Relationship With Me,” and “On the Rebound: Getting Over a Break-Up.”
Each skill shop focused on specific relationships; romantic, family, friend, and even relationships with oneself. Manley instructed students how to handle relationships, the hardships involved, and the break-ups that sometimes result.
Manley teaches the series of skill shops every semester at different Valencia campuses in order for students to learn how to manage relationships they have, or identify what was wrong with those they have had.
He wants students to learn from their past relationships, to grow from them and to understand why certain things happened.
For college students, it is often difficult to handle both a relationship and school. People put too much priority on their relationship, causing their school work to suffer. It can also happen the other way around, where students focus too much on school and lose a relationship. The “Managing Family Relationships and School,” skill shop revealed several ways to manage and balance both school and a relationship.
“Be honest with yourself about what you can handle. They (relationships) are hard work and it’s okay to focus on school and achieving personal goals,” said Manley.
In the “On the Rebound: Moving On” skill shop Manley said, “I’ve seen more ugly break-ups than mature ones.”
Often bad break-ups can lead to feelings of worthlessness, anger, self-blame and low self-esteem. In Manley’s “On the Rebound: Moving On,” skill shop, displayed in bold print was the phrase: “There is no set time for getting over a break-up, and it varies from person to person.”
He explained the signs that people show when they have yet to move on and described certain steps they can take in order reach closure.
“Love yourself enough to keep moving forward to bigger and better things,” Manley said after after being asked what piece of advice he would give students going through a break-up.
“He was helpful; he gave good insight,” said Victor Salcedo, student at Osceola Campus who went to the “My Relationship With Me” and “On the Rebound: Getting Over a Break-up” skill shops. “It helps to know the key things on how to deal with future break-ups and relationships. I can help friends through similar situations, also.”
“This helped me understand what I went through,” said Zashira Rodriguez, who had been through a hard break-up with her childhood sweetheart a few years ago that had taken her a long time to move on from. She is engaged now, and was just able to understand and process the pain she felt from years before by going through this work shop.
Even if a person has never had a problem in relationships, it’s nice to have knowledge on what to do in those situations; to have more of a level-headed outlook and to understand that these things do happen. No one can predict the future, and knowing how to deal with relational problems in advance can only help.
Manley will be teaching the relationship skill shops again next semester for any students willing and interested to attend.
