As an academic in sociology who dreams of using her academic knowledge for a more peaceful world and as an explorer of various personal awareness techniques devoted to self-transformation towards a more peaceful self, I remember the excitement I felt when I came across NVC in a yoga studio in 2016. It was like finding the key I had been searching for for a very long time, a tool, a path that would integrate my two worlds. My NVC journey, from that point on, can be summarized as a journey towards self-integration rooted in nonviolence.
After I got my bachelor’s degree in political and administrative sciences in 2002, I wrote my master’s thesis on the concept of power, rethinking it from the gender perspective in the Department of Women’s Studies. Then, I found myself in the sociology department where I still work now. My PhD thesis was about Turkey's religious/secular tension. All through these years, I was looking for a different way of expressing what I discovered in my academic work that would let me use what I gathered in service of connection and peace.
The yoga TTC I completed in 2015 was also a threshold for me, motivating me to find a bridge between personal and social change. So, as I mentioned before, the NVC workshop I came across in a yoga studio gave me what I had been searching for. Soon after this encounter, I completed a yearly course with Vivet Alevi, met new trainers, went through some deep inner work, started sharing NVC, and slowly started transforming my academic work to be in integration with NVC.
In 2018, I started my certification journey, during which I became the mother of my lovely daughter, one of the best trainers in my journey. This period also made me realize the importance of children/ adult relations for transforming power dynamics in society. I completed my certification in IMAD 2024 Istanbul. Right now I teach an NVC course in my university besides courses like social inequality, introduction to politics, “religion, morality and politics”. At the same time, I offer trainings outside the university in various domains. I’m particularly interested in supporting social awareness in NVC work and bringing NVC perspective to social sciences.
