Abstract
The overarching goal of this project was to provide professional training for women who are facing challenges that stem from being a victim of nonviolent abuse in the form of verbal abuse and gaslighting. The more women are silently accepting verbal abuse as a normal part of everyday conversations, the gap between the existing academic knowledge and real-world practice will continue to grow. While a social change in normalizing public conversations on domestic violence, verbal abuse, and gaslighting has started to take place, misinformation and lack of education still exist. It is creating a disservice and is assisting in perpetuating an unhealthy culture of victim-blaming those who speak of their experience by disregarding the effects verbal abuse has on society. This project strives to provide an interactive lecture that creates an atmosphere that inspires an open discussion on a topic that is still considered taboo. By recognizing domestic violence and verbal abuse as a public health issue, this project provides adequate training and education on nonphysical violence in the form of verbal abuse and gaslighting, and finally, empowers women of all ages to recognize red flags and find their voice. The guiding statements for the training aimed at providing a new perception and palpable solutions to combat verbal abuse and gaslighting. The project’s curriculum examines what verbal abuse is, promotes awareness of the gap that exists between knowledge and practice, provides tools to recognize when verbal abuse is taking place and empowers women to speak up when they are being verbally assaulted. This project offers a unique combination of PowerPoint presentations and activities that provides a wide lens on verbal abuse and gaslighting which are common in everyday life and often disregarded as “Just talk” and proposes meaningful options for women to transform themselves from victims to thrivers.