Breaking
the
SILENCE SPEAK TOUR
An empowering speech designed to equip teens through engagement, strategies, and story telling with its unveiling truth about bullying, teen dating violence, and intimate partner abuse.
Could bullying be a precursor of abuse? When we look at typical bullying behaviour we often see a pattern begin to emerge between bullying and abuse. Teens with low self-esteem often resort to bullying and it's unfortunate this behaviour can on occasion persist through the length of a person's entire life. The violence used to get what they want could be a precursor to future abuse unless a dramatic intervention takes place. Stats on abuse and physical Violence: When there are no types of interventions made and children who have utilized violence make it to adulthood without a change they can often cause harm to others as they did even at a younger age. 22% of women and 15% of men have experienced some form of partner violence even in early-stage relationships between 1117 years of age. (Atlanta Georgia National Center for Injury Prevention, 2011) Teen dating violence affects more people than you may think with one in five high school students reporting being physically or sexually abused by a dating partner. Part of the explanation for this large percentage of female students experiencing abuse could be linked to bullying at an early stage.
Bullying can take on many different forms including: Social Bullying: Hurting someone's relationships or reputation by leaving them out of various events, talking behind their back or embarrassing them in public. Verbal bullying: Teasing and name calling as well as emotional abuse in taunting, comments and verbal sexual abuse can all be part of verbal bullying. Physical bullying: Physically hurting someone's possessions or body. This could mean taking or breaking of possessions, making rude hand gestures, kicking, pinching, scratching, pushing, spitting or hitting and more.
All of these forms of abuse can continue into a child adult life if some type of change is not made but it is the physical bullying that needs to be stopped to prevent serious injuries to younger children, teens and future relationships. If a “Bully� starts to develop habits for physical abuse and finds that physical abuse can help them to achieve their goals and to feel better about themselves by hurting others this type of behaviour will persist until a revelation is made.
How does abuse and bullying link? Abuse and bullying are linked in teens in a very precise way. We can see similarities all the way down the line from the main aspects of bullying to the symptoms experienced by the victims of abuse. Bullying can lead to a stronger prevalence of verbal abuse being a bully has discovered that taunting and threatening to cause harm can help them to achieve various objectives. This type of behaviour will only persist through relationships. Verbal abuse trends can continue when abuse sufferers often receive humiliation and belittling from their partner spreading rumours or embarrassing them in public. This is the same type of activity that happens with childhood bullying.
Victims of abuse are often isolated from their family and friends and this is the same type of bullying behaviour that we see from social bullying where children are left out of various social situations. Isolating a partner from groups also is a symptom of controlling behaviour which is a behaviour exploitation tactic used by many bullies to maximize the imbalance of power in relationships. Aggression and physical violence are also symptoms that persist between abuse and bullying. In an abusive relationship a partner may take possessions from someone they are in a relationship with or use physical violence to control them. To extend the link even further many aggressive partners often place the blame on physical violence on the victim just like a childhood bully would. With so many different links between bullying and adult abuse we can really start to see how bullying may be a precursor to problematic adult abuse. Harvard School of Public Health found individuals who are likely to perpetrate abusive behaviors against others may do so across childhood into adulthood. The study also reported a link between bullying at school and intimate partner violence.
Comparison Bullying
Abuse
Self-Esteem & Bullying Self-esteem is absolutely crucial to healthy human development. In order to break the cycle of aggression and violence addressing self-esteem issues is an important step in the process. Most of the decisions that a person with low self-esteem make are stemmed from constant self-doubt, a fear of rejection and looking for approval. Individuals with low self-esteem will often overreact to criticism, turn to anger, and manipulation. An individual with low self-esteem is much more likely to continue utilizing destructive techniques in order to get what they want.
With the right focus on building positive self-esteem, it’s possible to start eliminating some of these abusive or destructive behaviours to prevent them from persisting into the future relationships of an individual.
How can Breaking the Silence impact your teens? 1. Educate teens on inappropriate actions, bullying, and abuse and 2. Empower teens to speak up 3. Inform teens of the lingering pain left behind from bullying and abuse 4. Encourage teens to choose the results they want to see in life despite adversity 5. Safe territory to discuss a sensitive topic 6. Help students feel safe and secure to be themselves 7. Share healing techniques 8. Celebrate and encourage self-love
KIMESHA Kimesha Coleman is an Inspirational Speaker, Transformational Coach, and Author of the book titled “He Loves Me Not: Buried Tears of Betrayed Love�. Kimesha works with teens and women to help increase their self-esteem, cultivate decision making skills, and fine tune their self-approval through coaching and goal setting. Kimesha is a survivor of child abuse, teen dating violence, and domestic violence and specializes in working with others that have experienced some form of abuse.
www.coachingbykimesha.com
ADD VOICE
YOUR
ADD YOUR VOICE! Join the speak tour and help make your school, church, or organization become a healthier place to be. Schedule your organization today by emailing Kimesha Coleman at kc@coachingbykimesha.com to lock in your date. Need more details, don’t hesitate to ask for more information. You can also order Kimesha’s book He Loves Me Not: Buried Tears of Betrayed Love at a discounted price for this tour. Ask for details. Call (214) 854-2860 now!