Anti-Bullying Week 15 November – 19 November 2021 – this week is anti-bullying week. The Anti Bullying Alliance are the official organisers of Anti Bullying week.  The theme of this year’s campaign is one kind word. You can find out more about the Anti-Bullying Alliance and their theme this year by watching their video.

The pandemic of the last two years and the isolation that many of us have experienced has highlighted how important extending kindness to one another can be, how it can lift people up and create connection with others.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance are putting out a call to action for everyone to be proactive and offer kindness to those around them. These are their suggestions of what you can do.

• Ask if someone’s OK. Say you’re sorry. Just say hey.
• In a world that can sometimes feel like it’s filled with negativity, one kind word can provide a moment of hope. It can be a turning point. It can change someone’s perspective. It can change their day. It can change the course of a conversation and break the cycle of bullying.
• Best of all, one kind word leads to another. Kindness fuels kindness. So from the playground to Parliament, and from our phones to our homes, together, our actions can fire a chain reaction that powers positivity.
• It starts with one kind word. It starts today.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance also has some really useful free resources that you can download here.

When we talk about bullying, we often think about children, being bullied at school or in friendship groups. More recently we are talking about online bullying. We have all probably seen comments sections on social media where people have said all kinds of offensive things to other people they don’t even know. Perhaps you are thinking back to when you were a child and experienced bullying yourself. The truth is bullying can happen at any age in any setting, within your family, at work, within adult friendship groups, whatsapp groups, online, anywhere.

If you have been affected by bullying as a child it might be affecting you as an adult, or if you are experiencing bullying as an adult it might be impacting on your mental and emotional wellbeing. Exploring how you feel and how you can respond to bullying can be empowering. If you would like to talk to a professional about any of your experiences. If you would like to make an appointment with Paul for Counselling, please call 07843 813 537 or fill in the form on the Contact Page, if he doesn’t answer he is probably in a session, please leave him a message and he will call you back as soon as he can.