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

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Helping girls learn how to navigate friendships can be rewarding, but also time-consuming and emotionally exhausting for the clinician. The school environment is the most common arena for relational aggression to develop. Something as simple as choosing partners for a project, finding a seat on the bus or lunchroom, or playing at recess can erupt in drama. Pile on parent involvement and social media and situations can exponentially escalate.

Signs of relational aggression can manifest in several ways: increased conflict, social isolation, poor grades, decreased concentration, physical complaints of nausea, headaches, changes in weight, digestive problems, and sleep disturbance. Symptoms can develop into depression, anxiety, self-harm, and eating disorders.

Watch this recording and you’ll learn:

• Interventions to make individual sessions or groups more effective for each age and stage
• Skill-building activities that are visual, interactive, and memorable beyond talking and processing feelings
• Tools to teach girls how to regulate emotions, manage conflict, practice assertive communication, and improve stress management
• Strategies to reduce the negative impact of comments adult make and the way they respond (or don’t)

You’ll receive reproducible handouts, scripts and prompts, step-by-step intervention instructions, and examples of parent coaching sessions and will be equipped to teach girls the skills to manage conflict and form healthy bonds, thereby improving their mental health!

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 behavior 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.

Interpreting Overt and Covert Behaviors

• Gender communication styles and friendship roles: Developmental stages
• Behaviors 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 behaviors
• 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”