|
|
 |
APA Psychotherapy Training Videos are intended solely for educational purposes for mental health professionals. Viewers are expected to treat confidential material found herein according to strict professional guidelines. Unauthorized viewing is prohibited.
The approach used takes an integrative psychoeducational focus that grew out of more than 3 decades of professional development and that uses a layering of therapeutic models. This is the layering of models of counseling-therapy, from beginning to current: Humanistic —> Behavioral —> Social Learning —> Cognitive-Emotive —> Family Systems —> Integrative-Ecological There is a strong emphasis on skills learning, emotional support, cognitive reforming, and environmental management components. Aggression and bullying have a biological antecedent in coming from anger and survival experiences but are learned responses to the environment. They can be reactive and protective by providing defense, and they can be instrumental in helping individuals achieve goals. Behaviors that are learned can yield to more effective behaviors that are also learned, and the bullying prevention work focuses on helping people learn more effective skills in conflict resolution, anger management, problem solving, relationship enhancement, self-care, and community engagement. Skill development can occur through modeling, observational learning, and environmental management. In addition, moral development and others' perspective taking are components of reducing aggression and bullying; behavioral skill development can be used in an abusive and damaging manner without an appreciation of the need for respecting the dignity of others. Although the intervention demonstrated on the video focuses on work with an individual and his mother, the more common approach to reducing bullying and violence is through systemic interventions with schools and families with a prevention and early intervention emphasis. The goal is to teach teachers, other school personnel, students, families, and community persons effective means of preventing and reducing the problem, providing for a universal application (all students, all classrooms) of effective living skills, combined with a targeted intervention for students engaging in a high rate of bullying or victimization behavior. It was not possible to demonstrate the universal prevention model on this video, but this model is the primary approach for reducing bullying in schools and communities. The emphasis on the video is with an individual who has been both bullied by and aggressive toward others; the universal intervention approach attempts to engage bystanders-those not involved in bullying or victimization behaviors-to become involved to create a "just community" in which all are treated with respect and dignity. There will never be a sufficient number of teachers, counselors, psychologists, or others to stop all the potential aggression that can occur, so just as our neighborhoods have adopted "neighborhood watch" areas, so all students in schools must move from being the observer to taking action to stop the problem. The typical client would be a student who is bullying others, or who is the recipient of the bullying behaviors. It is imperative that adults become involved because those being victimized by bullies and aggressors lack the skills and resources to manage the problem effectively and may resort to increased avoidance or increased aggression to reduce or eliminate the problem. The universal school approach is less effective when working with "high-rate" aggressive students who have learned that they can only be effective in dealing with others when they are afraid or defeated; with high-rate aggressors, a family or individual approach is likely to be more effective. I would not recommend using this approach if there is no control or influence over the circumstances; to attempt to empower children who have been victimized by bullies without being able to provide protection and safety gives false promise of problem solving, and instead the resources should be spent on environmental change to bring about a community that will provide support for reducing violence and aggression. |
|
)
