- If the school is not able to protect your child, consult your family doctor, speak to your local professional association of psychologists and request someone who is professionally skilled at helping children and adolescents deal with bullying.
- Treatment is quick and takes around four – six sessions on average.
- Avoid any therapist who tells your child, “Walk away, do nothing, tell them to stop’ There is no evidence this works, (just ask your child,). Besides, you would not dare to tell them to walk away from a bear.
- When targets become angry, scared or upset they “make a bully happy! Likewise, if they showed their distress to an animal, it would attack. The core to treatment is teaching children how not to react when bullied, but to remain cool, focused and respond neutrally. They will immediately notice the bully’s embarrassment and their need to stop. Then other children are more likely to respect the target. Thus, managing bullies is a prerequisite for effective social skills!
- Treatment should-
- help targets deal with their distress and powerlessness,
- teach them how to block bullies
- train them how to build their social survival skills, and avoid being ostracised, learning how to become a nice, friendly, caring person and join a social group.
- Remember that there is more bullying out of school once they leave, thus all children require these lives social, survival skills.
- Refer “Bully Blocking” (JKP 2007)
- “Harry the bully blocker” (coming)
Training for therapists working with targets of school bullying
- Treating targets of school bullying is a new area.
- Believe it not, despite school bullying being a major cause of school distress for kids, there is no mention of school bullying in the DSM V, the “psychiatrists bible”.
- Bullying is caused by dysfunctional systems, at school or at work. It is further affected by individual personalities. Thus, treatment issues maybe complex.
- Bullying causes many individual injuries, including depression, anxiety disorders, panic attacks, post-traumatic stress disorder, physical symptoms, social difficulties and can change personality. It can cause epigenetic changes.
- Thus, the treating psychologist needs to be knowledgeable and skilled in many different areas, understand bullying and be able to provide short and long-term therapy and use a range of treatment methods, depending on their clients’ needs.
- Evelyn Field has worked as a therapist for many years and provides full day training for therapists in treating targets of school bullying or workplace bullying, they have been approved by the Australian Psychological Society, and can be used for professional development. You can consult her for advice on how to choose a treating professional.