Therapy to help you recover from bullying and rebuild confidence

Bullying does not stop in childhood. Adults face it at work, online, and in personal relationships, and it takes a real toll.

What does bullying look like for adults?

It is rarely as obvious as it was on a playground. Adult bullying tends to be repeated, targeted, and deniable: the manager who criticizes you in front of others and calls it feedback, the colleague who cuts you out of information, the group chat that turns on you, the relative who needles you at every gathering.

The American Psychological Association describes bullying as aggressive behavior that is repeated and involves an imbalance of power. That imbalance is why the usual advice to just ignore it so often fails. You cannot ignore someone who controls your schedule, your review, or your access to a room.

What does bullying do to your mental health?

Ongoing mistreatment is linked to anxiety, low mood, sleep problems, and a loss of confidence. It also produces a specific kind of exhaustion: the constant scanning, the rereading of emails, the mental replay of a single comment for days.

Struggling with these effects is a normal response to being treated badly. It is not evidence that you are too sensitive. That belief is usually one of the things the bullying installed, and it is worth challenging directly.

What does therapy for bullying involve?

The first session is an intake: what has been happening, how long it has gone on, and a 0 to 10 rating of the dread, rumination, and low mood. The second session is a psychosocial assessment that looks at your history across life stages for the patterns and strengths behind how you respond. In the third session you and your therapist build a treatment plan with goals tied to the bullying, plus one personal goal of your own.

From there, weekly sessions work the plan. We start with the immediate load: sleep, rumination, and the anxiety that spikes before contact with the person or the place. Getting the stress response down first makes everything else possible.

The work then moves to the beliefs that mistreatment leaves behind, the quiet conclusions that you are not competent, not welcome, not worth defending. Cognitive behavioral therapy is used to test those conclusions against evidence rather than against fear.

Once a month you and your therapist review standardized measures together. Progress is tracked, not assumed, and the plan changes when the data says it should.

Can therapy help me decide what to do?

Yes, and this matters as much as the coping. Many people are stuck on the practical question: stay or leave, report or endure, respond or go quiet.

Therapy is a place to think that through with someone who is not inside the situation. Your therapist does not make the decision for you. They help you see your options clearly, weigh the real costs, and plan the conversation or the exit. Boundary skills are part of that: what to say, what to document, when to disengage.

How do I rebuild confidence after this?

Slowly, and through action. Confidence returns when you re-enter the situations you have been avoiding and find that you can handle them.

Your therapist helps you do that in steps you choose, not in one leap. Recovery is not about proving anything to the person who mistreated you. It is about getting your voice, your sleep, and your sense of control back.

What about bullying online?

Online mistreatment follows you home, and that is what makes it different. There is no end of the workday, no closing of the office door. The phone in your pocket is the same phone the harassment arrives on.

The advice to simply log off is rarely practical when your work, your community, or your family lives in those channels. Therapy focuses on what you can control: how you limit exposure, how you handle the compulsion to check, and how much weight you give to strangers who know nothing about you.

Is it bullying if it is my family?

It can be. Repeated criticism, humiliation, or manipulation does not become acceptable because it comes from a relative.

Family situations are harder because leaving is not simple and the pattern has decades of history. Boundary work is usually the core of this: what you attend, what you answer, how long you stay, and what you refuse to discuss. Your therapist helps you build a plan you can hold at the next gathering, not just describe in session.

If you are ever in danger, safety comes first. Tell your therapist, and if you are in immediate danger, call 911.

How do I get started?

You can book online at any time, or call (646) 493-4007 if you want to talk to someone first. We are in-network with most major plans, and you can confirm your coverage before your first appointment.

We see clients in Jamaica, Queens, in Buffalo, and in Carmel, Indiana, with telehealth available at every location. Care is collaborative and paced to you.