Treatment of Harassment Bullying in the workplace

Harassment in the workplace is recognized increasingly as a major problem that affects negatively employee productivity, morale, and mental health. Recently, the Province of Quebec became the first province in Canada to pass legislation making psychological harassment an indictable offence. No doubt other provinces including B.C. will follow this precedent.

I will describe a three-step model for treating harassment in the workplace, and illustrate this model with the clinical case of a woman experiencing harassment in the form of public criticism by her manager.

Approach to Treating Harassment

Within the framework of my primary approach, Voice Therapy, I subscribe to a step model of treating harassment therapeutically, which involves three steps or levels of intervention. In Step 1, the person experiencing the unwanted behavior confronts the person exhibiting the unwanted behavior in an assertive, responsible manner regarding stopping the unwanted behavior. If this does not resolve the problem, in Step 2, other resources are involved in stopping the unwanted behavior. If the problem remains unresolved, in Step 3, the person experiencing the unwanted behavior engages in a process of grieving to achieve resolution and to move on. This may or may not involve seeking employment elsewhere.

In the step model, there is a strong emphasis on resolving the harassment in Step 1. Resolving the issue at this level has the advantage of the person experiencing the unwanted behavior feeling a sense of efficacy by confronting and stopping the unwanted behavior. In Step 2, where other resources - such as a union, human resources department, or senior management - are involved, there is the possibility that the person experiencing the unwanted behavior will feel passive and dependent, while waiting for these resources to resolve the problem. If these resources respond inadequately, there is also the possibility that the person experiencing the unwanted behavior will
under go a "secondary wounding", an injury compounding the original harassment.

My working definition of harassment is any behavior that is experienced as unwanted and psychologically distressing. This definition gives priority to the inner experience of the person experiencing the unwanted behavior rather than on the correctness or incorrectness of the unwanted behavior. If an individual does not like a certain behavior, this therapeutic approach stresses that the individual is entitled fully to not like this behavior and to want it to stop. Rather than the individual focusing on whether the unwanted behavior is correct or incorrect, appropriate or inappropriate, this approach emphasizes the validity of the individual's experience of the behavior
as unwanted and distressing. In this way, an individual can hold on to his or her experience that the behavior is unwanted and distressing even if the other party rationalizes that the behavior is correct and appropriate.

To see a clinical case that describes my model of treating harassment, click on the the following heading:

Clinical Case: Woman Experiencing Public Belittlement and Criticism.