Bullying

It’s heartbreaking to learn someone you care about is being bullied. It’s heartbreaking to be bullied.

You may have taken steps to stop the bullying from happening again. If you’re a parent of child who has been bullied, you may have given unconditional love to your child and advocated on their behalf. Does it feel like the situation is resolved but things aren’t better? Have you tried therapy? Art and play therapy can be gentle and creative ways to explore what your child experienced and is still dealing with emotionally. A child who has been bullied may mask feelings of self-doubt, body image issues, low self-esteem, crying, hopelessness, and more. Therapy can be that safe space to rebuild or strengthen those areas. Because a therapist is a new person in your child’s life, it presents a unique opportunity for your child to talk with someone who doesn’t know their story. Instead, your child can present their story to a trained compassionate professional who will listen and provide healing tools In an individualized way.

Adults, we get bullied too. Family, partners, children, coworkers can be bullied. We may not have anyone to advocate on our behalf. We may feel like we don’t have a voice, that we aren’t valued. We feel hopeless or lost. A therapist can “see” you and hear your story. Your therapist or psychologist can work with you to establish boundaries, strengthen communication skills, provide psycho-education, identify your support system, address issues of self-worth and more.

Bullies have a malicious way of seeing the parts of us we don’t want others see and putting them insensitively in the spotlight. Therapists see those same parts of us but handle them with care and compassion. Therapists support us to rebuild and reinvent stronger, more authentic versions of ourselves.

Written by:

Lauren Pena MFT, ATR, LMFT # 130687
lpena.ip@soultenders.com