Trauma is a heavy word, and as such, it’s often associated with heavy experiences — violence, sexual abuse, warfare, injuries, and the like. However, trauma can occur as a result of everyday experiences, especially during our earlier years.

In this article, we’ll focus on how bullying and harassment – two schoolyard problems that are far too common – can lead to trauma. We’ll also discuss some holistic options that you can take advantage of in order to help manage these difficult issues.
 

What Is Bullying and Harassment?

Bullying and harassment are two similar forms of abuse that can take place between a victim and a perpetrator.

Bullying is often associated with school-age youth, however, it can occur at any age. Bullies are people who harass people verbally, physically, or emotionally. Harassment can take place in a number of different forms.

  • Verbal harassment is among the most common. Verbal harassment can take place in the form of name-calling or insulting. Spreading rumors can also be considered an indirect form of verbal harassment.
  • Physical harassment can occur in a number of different ways. Non-aggressive forms of physical harassment can include things like repeated non-consensual touch in either a sexual or non-sexual form, for example, poking someone in the shoulder repeatedly despite them asking you not to. Physical harassment can also take on more serious forms, such as physical violence. Bullies may harass someone on the schoolyard by throwing rocks or sticks at them, pulling their chairs out from under them, or full-out engaging them in fights.
  • Emotional harassment can result from a number of things. Bullies who spread rumors can be considered to be emotionally harassing someone. Bullies who also make an effort to degrade or slander someone’s name are engaging in verbal harassment.

 

How Can Bullying and Harassment Cause Trauma?

Bullying and harassment can lead to long-term mental damage in the form of trauma. This can happen for a number of reasons.

Verbal trauma can lead to someone developing a variety of problems with their self-esteem or self-image. Bullies often repeatedly slander their targets, which can lead them to developing unhealthy beliefs.

Physical abuse can lead to trauma as well. The victim may associate violence with people, situations, or environments that remind them of their bully. For example, someone who is physically bullied at a schoolyard may have reservations about attending school in the future.

Emotional bullying can also lead to far-ranging effects. People who are emotionally bullied often develop mental health problems like depression, anxiety, or self-esteem issues.

No matter what the type of bullying, it can lead to emotional and mental trauma. If you or a loved one are being bullied, it’s important to make sure that you put a stop to the bullying as soon as possible. After that, you should take steps to make sure that you can manage any damage that might have been done by the bully.
 

Managing Trauma from Bullying and Harassment

There are a number of different tools, techniques, and therapeutic practices that can be useful for helping someone overcome trauma from bullying and harassment. These are some of the most effective.
 

Somato-Emotional Repatterning

Somato-emotional repatterning is a very useful and diverse tool that is effective for treating a wide variety of different traumas.

Somato-emotional repatterning implements a variety of different holistic practices for helping to release trauma from both the mind and the body. Coaches will encourage their clients to make use of various eye movements as well as verbal cues to help them unlock, acknowledge, and overcome their trauma.

Somato-emotional repatterning is important because it helps people activate both the physical and psychological aspects of their trauma.
 

EMI

Eye movement integration, or EMI, is a very useful form of therapy that integrates one of the primary components that is also used with somato-emotional repatterning: the movement of our eyes.

EMI has a well-designed therapeutic approach that recognizes the way that our eye movements respond to the subconscious thoughts that we experience. This is said to be similar to the eye movements that we experience during REM sleep.

By understanding and analyzing these eye movements, coaches can help to develop a line of communication between patients and their subconscious mind. This allows them the opportunity to work through traumas.
 

NLP

NLP is a highly effective, proven therapy that can be used for helping people work through traumas, among other things. NLP stands for neuro-linguistic programming, and as the name suggests, it’s a way that people can use language to engage with their mind and behavior patterns – their neural networks.

NLP can be very useful for establishing a direct line of communication between people and their unconscious behavioral patterns. In doing this, people are able to overcome deeply-held belief patterns that are causing them problems – such as trauma.

Whatever the form of trauma, you don’t need to manage it alone. Contact my office and schedule a free consultation to see how holistic trauma recovery can help you and your loved ones! (805) 256-0372

Please follow and like us:
Trauma, Bullying and Harassment
Tagged on:                     
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
Share