Spice up your relationship and have a low-budget Valentine’s Day with a free candy gram from University Health Services and the Center for Family Services’ free relationship check-up.
People are expected to spend 5 percent less money on Valentine’s Day this year, according to the 2010 Brand Keys Valentine’s Day Index.
To help with this holiday budget cut and provide information on healthy relationships, UHS is hosting a healthy relationships booth from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Wednesday in front of the Student Union Bookstore. Students are welcome to stop and grab a heart-shaped sucker, complete with the keys to a healthy relationship, to give as a Valentine’s Day gift. The booth will also have a display board featuring healthy relationship tips and 10 dates under $10.
From 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, CFS will be having relationship checkups by appointment in room 101 in HES West. Any intimate couple can call CFS at 405-744-5058 to set up a time. Couples will show up 15 minutes before their appointment to answer 20 questions about financial issues, communication, children and parenting, household responsibilities, religion and marriage. The couple will then meet with two master-level therapist interns for 30 minutes to talk about their strengths and growth areas.
“Couples are looking for something to do around Valentine’s Day,” said Brianne Heckathorn, a therapist intern. “What’s better than enhancing your relationship?”
About 90 percent of respondents said they were observing Valentine’s Day this year, according to the Brand Keys Index. UHS and CFS are providing information to help make this typically romantic holiday that much more enjoyable for those participating.
The keys to a healthy relationship included on UHS’ candy grams are communication, reliability, honesty, respect, trust, humor, affection and intimacy.
“A healthy relationship to me is where you have a mutual respect for each individual, and then a mutual respect as a couple together,” said Kacey Luker, UHS health educator. “We want to make this booth more about your relationship verbally and how you treat each other. The candy gram can just be a cute little surprise for that day to show your gratitude for someone being in your life.”
CFS will provide a relationship check-up tip sheet to couples who attend a session. One of these tips is “each person contributes 50 percent to the relationship; however, each person is 100 percent responsible for their part in it.” Other tips included are bringing up problems without blame, speaking for yourself in an argument, and remembering all couples will have problems, but how a couple handles them will determine their happiness.
“These are things that a lot of couples don’t specifically consider,” said Courtney Palmer, a therapist intern. “We’re very much about education and helping people realize their relationship could be more enriched.”
UHS is also willing to provide more information than is at the booth about healthy relationships to students who have more questions.
“Students don’t usually correlate relationships with health, but we welcome students to come to UHS and ask questions anytime,” Luker said.
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