Undercover Anti-Bullying Teams: Eliminate Bullying in as Little as 14 Days!

Course Description

When a young person describes bullying by peers, understanding the relational context helps clinicians consider what response may fit. This workshop introduces Undercover Anti-Bullying Teams (UABT), a school-based intervention informed by narrative practice that engages peer influence to change bullying relationships while honoring the knowledge, preferences, and agency of the student experiencing bullying.

Michelle Myers begins with an approach to distinguishing bullying from conflict, emphasizing patterns of behavior, impact, and power within relationships. Participants explore Interview with Care, a narrative conversation that positions young people as experts in their own experience and invites their account of the problem, its effects, and their hopes for something different.

The workshop then examines how UABT places the student’s voice and experience at the center of the intervention. The student ultimately decides which parts of their experience are shared with the team. Throughout progress monitoring, the student evaluates whether the intervention is helping and whether their experience at school is improving. Their feedback guides the team’s next steps and helps team members understand the difference their actions are making. Even when students report that bullying has stopped quickly, the team continues for at least two weeks to help new patterns of relating become established and to monitor whether improvements are sustained. This approach seeks to restore agency to a young person whose influence within peer relationships has been diminished, while engaging peers in taking responsibility for change.

Restorative Narrative Mediation provides a contrasting response for situations involving conflict where voluntary, safe participation is possible. Participants will explore its structure and line of questioning, including externalizing the problem, developing preferred relationship stories, and forming agreements for repair. Although this workshop illustrates a school-based adaptation, Narrative Mediation has broader applications to conflict among employees, couples, and family members. Participants will consider its relevance to their own settings.

Through case examples and discussion, clinicians consider how these approaches can inform their work even when they do not have authority to implement an intervention at school. Full implementation requires additional training and practice appropriate to the practitioner’s role and setting.

Instructor Information

Educational Goals

1. Develop an understanding of bullying within its relational and social context, including the influence of power and peer participation.
2. Explore how narrative inquiry can inform assessment and understanding of a young person’s experience.
3. Introduce the rationale and structure of Undercover Anti-Bullying Teams (UABT) and Restorative Narrative Mediation.
4. Strengthen clinicians’ ability to support young people and collaborate with caregivers and schools when intervention requires action outside the therapy room.

Measurable Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to identify three areas of inquiry when assessing possible bullying: Repeated or pervasive behavior, Intentionality and impact, and Power imbalance.
2. Participants will be able to describe the three components of Interview with Care: problem story, effects, and counterstory.
3. Participants will be able to describe the four phases of the UABT and explain the role of peer influence in the intervention.
4. Participants will be able to describe the main components of restorative narrative mediation and explain how voluntary participation and a relative balance of power inform whether mediation is appropriate.
5. Participants will be able to identify ways clinicians can collaborate with a school responding to a young person’s reported peer mistreatment.

Outline with Main Points for Each Topic (including times)

1. 9:45–9:55 AM · Understanding Bullying Through a Relational Lens — 10 minutes

   • Introduce workshop goals and scope.
   • Examine why some common responses to bullying may be ineffective.
   • Present a case involving a young person reporting bullying.
   • What can therapists do when they don’t work at the school?

2. 9:55–10:15 AM · Understanding the Problem: Assessment and Interview with Care — 20 minutes

   • Explore how to assess bullying: repeated or pervasive behavior, intentionality and impact, and power imbalance.
   • Introduce the Interview with Care: problem story, effects, and counterstory.
   • Examine externalizing language and its role in understanding relationships.
   • Consider how to select an intervention that matches the identified need.

3. 10:15–10:35 AM · Inside the Undercover Anti-Bullying Team (UABT) — 20 minutes

   • Introduce the four phases of the UABT intervention.
   • Examine how students decide what story is shared and evaluate whether the intervention is helping.
   • Explain the role of peer influence and invitations to contribute to change.
   • Illustrate the team conversation, progress monitoring, and celebration.

4. 10:35–11:00 AM · Restorative Narrative Mediation — 25 minutes

   • Explore conditions for a voluntary, safe joint conversation.
   • Introduce separate pre-meetings and the mediation process.
   • Illustrate questions that explore the problem’s effects and preferred relationships.
   • Discuss agreements, progress monitoring, and the relevance of the framework to therapy.

5. 11:00–11:05 AM · What Can Therapists Do When They Don’t Work at the School? — 5 minutes

   • Support the young person in describing experiences, concerns, and preferred outcomes.
   • Help caregivers communicate patterns and impact to school staff.
   • Develop questions for school collaboration with appropriate authorization.

6. 11:05–11:15 AM · Questions — 10 minutes

   • Address questions about the interventions and their application.

Total instructional time: 10 + 20 + 20 + 25 + 5 + 10 = 90 minutes / 60 = 1.5 CE hours

Signing in and out

• Sign in at the door between 9:30 AM and 9:45 AM.
• Sign out and complete this session’s evaluation at the door when it ends at 11:15 AM.
• Sign-in, sign-out and the evaluation are not part of the 1.5 CE hours.

References

• Ayashiro, H. (2022). Undercover anti-bullying team: An alternative approach to bullying in Japan. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 41(4), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1521/jsyt.2022.41.4.1
• Gaffney, H., Ttofi, M. M., & Farrington, D. P. (2021). Effectiveness of school-based programs to reduce bullying perpetration and victimization: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 17(2), Article e1143. https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1143
• Monk, G., & Winslade, J. (2013). When stories clash: Addressing conflict with narrative mediation. Taos Institute Publications.
• Williams, M., & Winslade, J. (2008). Using “undercover teams” to re-story bullying relationships. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 27(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1521/jsyt.2008.27.1.1
• Winslade, J., & Monk, G. (2008). Practicing narrative mediation: Loosening the grip of conflict. Jossey-Bass.
• Winslade, J., & Williams, M. (2012). Safe and peaceful schools: Addressing conflict and eliminating violence. Corwin.