[ Contents | Search | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Talking vs. Fighting
Date: 09 Oct 2012
Time: 09:39:57 -0500
Remote Name: 108.17.124.241
Kevin - I would highlight an important distinction in what you said... TALKING about options is important. Talking about options is not the same as advocating an option. As professionals in this field, I strongly believe that we should not advocate violence - ever. Others may disagree and they can post as they like, but I will not do it. That said, elsewhere in the book this excerpt comes from (as well as in the NSA booklet the four of us published in 2004, as well as in the paper that Bob, Bill, and I published in JFD in 2007, as well as in the paper Bill and Bob published in Seminars in 2002 I think, as well as in Bill's videos for the SFA, as well as in the dozens of trainings we all have provided to thousands of clinicians over the past several years), we have absolutely advocated *talking about* all possible responses. I think it is important for a child to have the opportunity to think through the consequences of various actions. In the brainstorming activity we wrote about in JFD, for example, there is the opportunity for the child to not only talk about physical reactions to bullying but also to act them out in a role play so he can work through, in gestalt fashion, the emotions, potential benefits, and responsibilities that go with such actions. This is the type of therapy that I feel a professional in our field should be involved in, and it does not involve any suggestion that the child should actually engage in a physical response. Again, each person must decide what is right for him, but we play a unique role - a trusted role, as you said - in helping kids understand their possible responses and develop proactive ways of minimizing bullying. S