| |
| Applying SCm to single bullies The permanent five Phases of SCm have been conceived to treat bullying as a group phenomenon. My first approach (1973) was built on one main constituent: splitting perverted group dynamics by talks with individual group members. In these talks the bully suspect comes into contact with his fear of himself becoming attacked by other group members – and begins to dissociate himself from the of group cohesion. The question is now: can SCm also be used for treating single bullies? The answer is: in the affirmative, if one can bring in some of his victims (with mutual consent). The prerequisite is that one has exercised the skills of reaching participants in group bullying. (The dynamics of the group is simpler than any of its members – the reactions of the group members are triggered by a ”least common denominator” – a unifying malevolent pleasure in bullying. This simplicity makes the reactions of group members predictable – and easier to solve than tracking and treating the frustrations of a single offender.) My experience in training therapeutic mediation in role-plays has told me that even if the participants have intellectually understood the rule of constructive ignorance and the importance of listening (and immediate reinforcing the tiniest hint in the bully suspect’s talk that could be used in creating a shared solution) each therapeutic mediator needs to develop personal experience so that routines can emerge. These routines have to be founded on the simpler task of dealing with group bullying. My advice needs to be repeated: postpone your treatment of single bullies with SCm until you have established your own routines in dealing with bullying as group violence. I have published a book together with one of SCm practitioners in Sweden, Marie Liljenbrand-Skog "Trollen spricker" ("Demons vanish – when you take a closer look at them.") in which she describes the treatment of 8 cases of bullying where the bully, according to the teachers who passed on the cases to her, was a single trouble maker. While she was treating these cases we had telephone discussions and we found that her preceding experience in treating group bullying was indispensable. |