BREAKING THE CYCLE
UNDERSTANDING, PREVENTING, AND TRANSFORMING ADULT BULLYING

A Psychodramatic Exploration of Personal, Professional, and Collective Trauma Related to Bullying

This workshop is offered as a single, stand-alone experiential session.
Participants who wish to explore their personal experiences more deeply may have the opportunity to continue with additional follow-up sessions or a series, depending on interest.

Bullying refers to repeated or patterned behaviors—verbal, emotional, relational, or digital—intended to intimidate, control, undermine, or harm another person.Bullying does not end in childhood. Adults experience bullying in families, workplaces, communities, professional settings, social media, and society at large. Today, these behaviors often appear under modern terms such as lateral violence, workplace aggression, relational aggression, psychological or emotional violence, micro-bullying, mobbing, gaslighting, and digital harassment.Many adults who engage in bullying behaviors do so from a place of unresolved trauma—having themselves once been bullied, marginalized, silenced, or shamed. This creates a painful and often unconscious cycle in which harm is passed from one person or group to another.This experiential two-hour workshop explores adult bullying as a personal, relational, and collective trauma. Using psychodramatic and Tele’Drama methods, participants will examine:

• The visible and invisible forms of adult bullying in contemporary life
• How unprocessed trauma, power, and role dynamics shape bullying behaviors
• The emotional, psychological, and professional impact of being bullied
• Bullying as a multi-layered experience—at home, at work, online, and in society
• How individuals can respond to aggression or exclusion without becoming bullies themselves

Through guided reflection and enactment of real-life dynamics, participants will explore:

• What triggers adult bullying behaviors
• How personal history influences reactions, coping, and survival strategies
• Which internal roles are activated when we feel attacked, dismissed, or excluded
• How to maintain dignity, agency, and boundaries while resisting the pull to retaliate

This workshop offers insight, emotional clarity, and practical tools for interrupting the bullying cycle—within oneself, within relationships, and within larger systems.
 LEARNING OBJECTIVESBy the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Identify contemporary forms of adult bullying across personal, professional, and digital contexts
• Recognize the role of unresolved trauma and power dynamics in bullying behaviors
• Understand internal role responses activated during experiences of bullying or exclusion
• Explore constructive, non-retaliatory strategies for responding to aggression
• Apply psychodramatic insights to interrupt bullying cycles at individual and systemic levels
   KEY CONCEPTS & MODERN TERMS ADDRESSED
• Lateral Violence
• Workplace Aggression
• Relational Aggression
• Psychological / Emotional Violence
• Micro-Bullying and Micro-Aggressions (when repeated with hostile intent)
• Digital Harassment / Cyberbullying (including social media)
• Mobbing
• Gaslighting as a bullying tactic
• Role-Based and Power-Based Bullying