It is a sad fact that many of my clients report to having been bullied at some point in their lives, and whilst it is often true that bullying tends to occur mainly during childhood years in the playground, adults can suffer from being bullied too.

Listening to the comedian, Michael McIntyre on ‘Desert Island Discs’ the other day, I was astonished to find out that he has been the target of much hostility from other more ‘edgy’ comedians.   There seems to be something about his wholesome, family friendly act that they appear to dislike intensely, in fact one comedian, Stewart Lee described him as ‘spoon-feeding his audience warm diarrhoea’.   In fact at the British Comedy Awards earlier this year, McIntyre suffered relentless barracking from fellow comedians and he and his wife were shocked and distress at the extent of the nastiness of some of these comments.

To me, it is quite clear that their hostility is due to their own insecurity and relative lack of success and this is something that I explain to many of my clients that I see who have been bullied.   Very often the bullies can see something very special, different and talented that they themselves do not possess, and never will.   However, this sort of information, whilst comforting, may not be enough to make the person on the receiving end a whole lot better.  

Hypnotherapy and NLP can really be of help in this regard, by using techniques and suggestions which go directly to the sub-conscious mind to make the client feel confident, protected and strong – if you like, developing a really thick skin (or even shell in some cases!) which means that anything negative just bounces off, and no longer has the power to cause harm or distress.    These sorts of techniques can be particularly useful to children and what I often find is, that with this new-found confidence and resilience, the bullies soon tire of their stupid cowardly ways, as they no longer receive a response.

If your child (or maybe even yourself) is being bullied, do contact me in confidence to find out how I can help . My number is 01449 780352 or 0781 7158429, or wendy@wendychalk.co.uk.