Bullying

A child-focused cognitive behavioural therapy app that offers your child healthy ways to deal with bullying and teaches them to build trustworthy and more balanced friendships

Bullying is a significant problem among school-aged children, and at least 10-25 % of children will at some point experience bullying.

Bullying is when a person or a group is picking on someone for a more extended period. The victim may experience being terrorised and excluded from the group and being called names and beaten.

But bullying can be many other things: it can be directly or indirectly physical or psychological. Bullying often happens during school or on different social media platforms.

Those involved in the bullying often play more than one role. Your child can either be the bully or the target of bullying, but they can also be spectators to bullying, which means someone who partakes in the bullying by not telling an adult or interfering. Some children even play more than one role at once by being both a target of bullying and engaging in bullying others.

Maybe you aren’t fully aware of which role your child has in the bullying they are experiencing, or perhaps you are. Either way, MYiNNERME’s program on bullying helps you and your child clarify your child’s role in bullying to provide you with the advice you need to help your child deal with bullying in a new and more beneficial way.

Bullying is always unacceptable!

Everyone deserves to thrive and feel accepted for who they are. Whenever we observe bullying, we should interfere, and a child should never have to deal with bullying on their own – bullying affects the child, but it is the adults’ responsibility.

The programme is for the bully, the target of bullying, the spectator and their parents – MYiNNERME’s goal is to put an end to bullying. During the program, as an adult, you will be guided in preventing or putting an end to the bullying your child is experiencing.

Bullying can have significant consequences

Taking part in bullying, no matter what role your child plays can have consequences. Bullying is a strong indication that someone struggles with other problems and needs help beyond dealing with the bullying.

Most adults associate bullying with bad parenting, but the truth is that bullying is hardly ever done by one child acting independently, quite the opposite, and studies show that problems arise from within the child’s social circle. Therefore, to fully understand bullying, we must understand the fundamentals of the group dynamics that dominate within a group of children. Often, it’s caused by a fundamental need of belonging to a group.

Bullying can have future consequences for those involved, especially for the victim. It can impact the child’s formal education in school and on the child’s self-image. Many of those who are bullied will develop a negative self-image, so bullying victims have a high risk of developing depression and anxiety.

But the bully and the spectator are also at risk of suffering from the consequences of their actions later on in life. Many people say that they have been tormented by shame and guilt due to the bullying they took part in when they were younger. These emotions can be challenging to carry around, especially if it is no longer possible to correct your mistakes.

Turning a blind eye to bullying is the same as accepting that it is happening. We must regard bullying as a serious problem and put an end to it – every time.

To prevent the bullying from happening again, it will take a joint effort from the children involved in the bullying, their parents and their teachers or kindergarten teacher.

And even if we cannot force other people to act, we can work and ensure changes. MYiNNERME’s program on bullying focus on how you and your child can address the problems in the best way possible – no matter which part your child plays in the bullying. And We have taken everything we know about child psychology, teaching and digital communication to design an effective and flexible programme for you and your child.

The programme uses psychoeducation, cognitive behavioural exercises and diary writing.

Through psychoeducation, your child learns what bullying is, how it can feel and why it feels that way. Cognitive behavioural exercises, which is one of the most widely used methods in psychological treatment worldwide, guide your child in developing strategies that help them handle bullying. And through diary writing, your child gets in touch with their inner world while working on their thoughts and feelings.

The programme is divided into 16 sessions based on psychological research results and several years of clinical experience working with children and adolescents.

In the programme, you and your child learn about different issues such as:

• The difference between teasing and bullying, and about the different types of bullying
• The different roles one can have in bullying, and how you can clarify which role your child plays.
• Types of bullying and the reasons behind it
• How bullying can affect your child’s body, behaviour, thoughts and emotions
• How your child can use their thoughts as a tool to feel better about themselves.
• Why it is essential to talk to others about difficult things in life and how you can talk to your child about bullying.
• Different ways one can show they disapprove of bullying
• Focus on the fear of experiencing bullying again later on in life
• Healthy ways of interacting with others and learning about positive group dynamics, and ways to fight bullying from inside a group
• How to be a great friend to others
• How you as a parent can interfere and prevent or stop the bullying
• That it is essential to take breaks from all the problems now and then, and how to do so

The programme runs in two parallel tracks: one for your child and one for you. This way, you can support your child in their healthy development in the best possible way.