Senem Eren

Ok, I confess! I have a very colourful imagination and could be an Oscar contender when it comes to writing scenarios.

As a psychologist, I work with people who are both at their best and worst and can appreciate what can happen when humans make bad choices. It was this level of insight and knowledge that fuelled my fear of the dark. Yes! It’s true. I was fearful of the dark for years. Watching Freddy Kruger with no adult supervision at the age of 6 probably wasn’t helpful either.

I managed this fear of the dark and the unknown that comes with it so well. I just made sure I was never home alone in the evenings. Not that hard, when you live with a family of 8. When I made the decision to move to Turkey in 2015, on my own, of course my imagination went on over drive. I contemplated all the different ways I was going to get attacked, burgled, raped and murdered. I quickly realized that I could not afford to move overseas with this focus and mindset.

That’s where my good friend Fiona Skene came into the picture. She has over 30 years of experience as a self-defence instructor and is a 4 x Australian champion in Taekwondo. I started taking private lessons and played out all of my worst-case scenarios.

I came to understand the magnificence of God’s creation, how even the most strongest and built person has in-built physical vulnerabilities, how even the most petite person has incredible physical points of strength and how the right knowledge can mean you can disarm an opponent with one finger. The physical tools I learnt were actually a small part of my transformation. What really shifted was my psychology and mindset around safety.

The sense of security, certainty and safety I accessed in my training with Fiona was the key reason why I was able to travel and live on my own in Turkey with confidence for 18 months. My training got me out of some pretty sticky situations and quite frankly, saved my life on multiple occasions.

This information is powerful. It changes lives. That’s why I am so passionate about creating a platform for more people to access this knowledge and realize they have a choice. We can either let our fear inhibit us as we wait around hopelessly for something bad to happen or we can choose to move beyond the fear to proactively take control of our safety.