Counseling for Teenage Bullying

Once considered a rite of passage for children and adolescents bullying has taken center stage thanks for to far reaching public awareness campaigns. The fact is both victims and bullies are at higher risk to develop a variety of mental and emotional health issues such as depression, anxiety, and drug abuse than children who have not been bullied or do not bully.

Bullied Teenagers

The effects of bullying can incredibly intense and can even lead to profound depression and suicide.  One of the main goals of adolescence is establishing meaningful connections with your peers.  For some teenagers this essential process is made painfully impossible because of abuse from other teenagers. Bullying takes place in many forms including physically, verbally, and socially. 

Some teenagers are particularly vulnerable to this type of abuse.   In these cases counseling therapy can help teenagers understand why they have such a strong reaction to it and can increase their self-esteem.  This enables them to act to defend themselves against it and elicit appropriate help from others to stop the bullying.  Once bullying issues are resolved teenagers can feel free to continue their normal psychological development in relative peace. 

Teenagers Who Are Bullies

Bullying isn’t just bad for the person being bullied.  It’s bad for the bully too.  Teenagers who are bullies are developing antisocial characteristics that can have a very destructive influence on their adult lives.  Bullies are usually acting out their angry feelings because they have difficulty expressing them and can put down other teenagers in an effort to boost their own fragile self-esteem.  Counseling therapy can help bullies recognize the true source of their anger and problematic self-image and enable them to form relationships based on respect and trust.

Read more about bullying on Miami Teen Counseling's blog.

Consultation

Whether you have a teenager that is a victim or bullying or a bully themselves give Miguel Brown a call at 786-664-7426 to see how counseling can help. If you prefer to visit in person request a Consultation by filling out the form to the right.

By Miguel Brown