Schools throughout the country are being required to implement anti-bully programs. Forty-four of our fifty states already have school anti-bully laws on the books, and New Jersey, in particular, has recently announced its determination to intensify its campaign against bullies. Bullying in the workplace is also becoming an issue of growing concern. Bullies have become a common topic in both the professional literature and the popular media. As a result, mental health professionals are becoming increasingly involved in the effort to make schools and society safe from bullies. Oddly, bullying seems to be have become an escalating problem during the same period that society has been fighting it the hardest!

If you are already involved in anti-bully initiatives, you have probably experienced frustration. No one comes to us for help complaining that they are bullies. Everyone who seeks help is a victim. If the problem is the bully, it means the problem is not the client. How can we help our clients solve their problems if, whenever they come to us for help, we need to make other people change? When we accuse people of being bullies, they usually deny it and often claim they are the true victims. When alleged bullies are referred to us for treatment they come against their will, making it very difficult to help them change.

If you have found the field of bullying confusing, you are not alone. In this unique presentation, you will learn that your perplexity is not your fault. It is caused by the very definition of bullying that has been given to us by the academic bullying experts, a definition by which either none of us or all of us are bullies. Furthermore, you will discover that the true problem we should be focusing on as mental health professionals is not bullies, but victims!

About the presenter: Nationally Certified School Psychologist Israel (Izzy) Kalman is Director of Bullies to Buddies, Inc. He has been a school psychologist and psychotherapist for over 30 years. Mr. Kalman is creator/author of the website www.Bullies2Buddies.com and of a variety of books and materials on bullying. His whole-school violence reduction program is called Victim-Proof Your School and  eliminates bullying by teaching people not to think like victims. He lectures full time on bullying and anger control to mental health professionals and educators throughout the country, and has the dubious distinction of being the world’s most vocal critic of the anti-bully movement.