How to End Unhealthy Relationships

Gr 7 Up—Relationships, both platonic and romantic, are explored in this short program. It focuses on what makes a relationship harmful and how to learn to recognize one and develop a plan to end it. Dysfunctional relationships are characterized as ones with a mismatch of power, a double standard, or a lack of trust, respect, and choice. Several middle and high school students give examples, and counselors comment as well. Other DVDs by this distributor (most notably Coping with Dating Violence and Abuse) deal more extensively with detrimental romantic relationships, but this program provides young people with concrete ways to look at their friendships as well. Young people often have no knowledge about how relationships are supposed to function and have extremely fragile and undeveloped self-esteem, so this short film may help with self-awareness. Students learn to identify the red flags of damaging relationships, and they are given practical advice about how they can be terminated.