Take the ‘Enemy’ out of Frenemy: Tools to Help Girls Solve Relational Aggression and Build Healthy Friendships

CPD

Handouts

Speaker

Susan Fee, M.Ed., NCC, LMHC Related seminars and products

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Susan Fee, M.Ed., NCC, LMHC, is a national speaker and author in private practice. She developed Circle of F.R.I.E.N.D.S., a curriculum and facilitator’s guide, to teach girls ages 8-14 how to build healthy friendships through assertive communication, conflict resolution, and resiliency. Susan has provided training on relational aggression for students, educational faculty, parents, and mental health professionals for the last 15 years, including 10 years speaking at the American Camp Association conference.

In 2016, she delivered a TEDxWWU talk on relational aggression. Susan is passionate about the use of storytelling in mental health and is the director of “The Brainchronicles,” a storytelling show for NAMI of Washington State. She’s a regular Seattle MOTH StorySLAM winner and has been featured on The Moth Radio Hour. Susan is a member of the American Counseling Association and board member of Washington Mental Health Counselor Association.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Susan Fee maintains a private practice and receives compensation as a presenter. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Susan Fee has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Objectives

1. Demonstrate the effects of adolescent brain development and technology in the escalation of relational aggression to inform client choices.
2. Utilize solution-focused interventions that can be applied in both group and individual sessions to evaluate healthy behaviour in friendships and cliques.
3. Implement coping strategies that apply to relational aggression situations in each developmental stage to decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression.
4. Design adult coaching strategies for parents, teachers, and coaches to use in response to relational aggression to increase client self-esteem and competency.

Outline

Interpreting Overt and Covert Behaviours

• Gender communication styles and friendship roles: Developmental stages
• Behaviourss of healthy relationships and trust development
• Clinical implications of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and eating disorders
• Adolescent brain development and hormonal changes
• Impact of social media as it relates to relational aggression

Cliques and Group Dynamics

• Common roles and behaviors in cliques
• Adult pitfalls and approaches to manage negative behaviours
• Solution-focused interventions to address conflict: Exercises and reproducible handouts
• Conversation strategies to increase assertiveness
• Passive, aggressive, and passive-aggressive communication styles: Role play examples

Coping Strategies for Relational Aggression

• Cultivate strengths during adversity to manage feelings of loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and depression
• Build awareness of brain/body development and physical manifestations of anxiety
• Teach signs of healthy friendships

Parent/Family Support for Girls

• Communication techniques to foster self-esteem
• Psycho-educational resources and exercises
• Should you ever call the other parent?
• Enabling versus supportive behavior
• Modeling friendship skills and social “homework”

Target Audience

• Teachers/School-Based Personnel
• School Counselors
• School Social Workers
• School Psychologists
• School Nurses
• Coaches
• School Administrators
• Licensed Professional Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Nurses
• Summer Camp Staff
• Clergy
• Probation Officers

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