Bullying & Harassment
Bullying & Harassment
Most of us reasonably expect that our days of dealing with bullies ends when we leave school. Sadly, this isn’t always the case as adult bullying can be found in our offices, our families, our neighbourhoods and on social media sites.
Workplace Bullying
Bullying and harassment comes in many forms and in various circumstance and is present in the workplace where the protection of staff health and safety is ineffective. In many instances these types of work environment are considered ‘toxic’, and with an organisational culture of suspicion and hostility.
Examples of workplace bullying and harassment include;
⦁ Intentional isolation
⦁ Unwarranted monitoring or criticism of your work
⦁Taking credit for your ideas
⦁ Psychological harassment (playing mind games, ganging up on you)
⦁ Giving you pointless tasks unrelated to your job
⦁ Giving you impossible tasks that can’t be done
⦁ Changing your work roster to make it difficult for you
⦁ Intentionally holding back information you need to complete your work
⦁ Physical or sexual harassment ⦁ Gossiping/ negative comments designed to hurt, upset, humiliate and discredit
Cyberbullying and Harassment
Engagement in cyberbullying and harassment is prevalent across all social media networks and age groups. It is a unique and isolating experience and frequently includes predatory stalking behaviour defined using the F.O.U.R acronym – fixated, obsessive, unwanted and repeated behaviour. A recent article by the Law Society of Ireland highlights a ferocious increase in cyberbullying and online harassment over recent years as well as the very real, lifelong harm that it causes to the victims saying “the relentless and borderless nature of cyberbullying and harassment results in a unique kind of torment”. Daly, C. (2022) Wipe out, Web-surfers and online harm.
https://www.lawsociety.ie/gazette/in-depth/web-surfers-and-online-harm
Some examples of cyberbullying and harassment include:
⦁ The distribution of malicious material about you
⦁ Making inappropriate or malicious telephone calls to you
⦁ Exploiting online platforms for predatory stalking purposes
⦁ Mobbing: Sustained harassment campaigns
⦁ Doxing: publishing private or identifying information on the internet, typically with malicious intent
⦁ Trolling: types of negative comments designed to hurt, upset, humiliate and discredit someone
⦁ Revenge porn: sharing sexually explicit photographs or videos of an individual without their consent, or the threat there of
When our sense of emotional safety in the world is compromised, so too is our psychological health. All types of bullying and harassment can result in the target experiencing a trauma response. Symptoms of a trauma response include:
⦁ Difficulty making decisions
⦁ Feeling numb/Shocked (disassociated)
⦁ Sleep deprivation or oversleeping
⦁ Feeling overwhelmed
⦁ Harsh self-critique/ Self-negating
⦁ Stifled creativity
⦁ Feelings of hopelessness and depression
⦁ Isolation
⦁ Feelings of shame
⦁ Substance use or abuse
⦁ Fear and mistrust
⦁ Thoughts of self-harm, including suicide
How I Can Help
Bullying and harassment of any kind is insidious in nature and can result in the target feeling ‘gaslighted’ and isolated. Engaging in therapy and confiding your experience, your feelings, thoughts and natural reactions, in a safe and nurturing space is a first step in breaking the silence. Through working and thinking together, I will help you to begin making emotional and psychological sense of your experience and explore and develop creative strategies to unhook from the effects of bullying and harassment and refocus your attention back to your own needs, personal goals and creativity.