When the Boss Is Bossy: How to Stay Grounded, Confident and Respected...

A bossy boss can change the entire atmosphere of a workplace. You may start doubting yourself, feel anxious before meetings, or lose your voice when you need it the most. Yet the problem is never only about the boss. It is about the emotional patterns inside you that get activated in the presence of authority, pressure and criticism.
This webinar explores how bossy behaviour interacts with your schemas and coping styles. We uncover why some people freeze, others collapse, others explode, and others work twice as hard to avoid conflict. Through the lens of Schema Therapy, we identify the patterns most often triggered by controlling or dismissive leaders, including subjugation, emotional deprivation, defectiveness, unrelenting standards and mistrust.
You will learn how to stay grounded when authority feels overwhelming, how to express your needs without fear, how to set boundaries that are respected and how to recover your confidence even in an aggressive environment. With practical tools, emotional grounding, and mirror-based practices, we explore not only how to survive under a bossy boss but also how to emerge stronger, clearer, and more in control of your own life.

***

# Programme

### 1. Understanding bossy behaviour

• What bossiness really is
• How controlling leadership affects the nervous system
• Why humans react strongly to dominance
• The emotional cost of working under pressure

### 2. Schema Therapy and Authority Figures

• Subjugation schema and the fear of speaking up
• Emotional Deprivation and the need for validation from authority
• Defectiveness and Shame, and why criticism hurts so deeply
• Mistrust and Abuse schema triggered by aggressive leadership
• Unrelenting Standards and perfectionism under pressure

### 3. Your coping styles at work

• Surrender, when you give up your voice
• Avoidance, when you disconnect or numb emotions
• Overcompensation, when you fight, rebel or become rigid
• How to recognise the style you use most often

### 4. Why bossy bosses activate childhood patterns

• The link between early caregivers and current supervisors
• How old emotional memories shape workplace reactions
• Why your body responds before your mind
• Understanding emotional flooding in work situations

### 5. Regulating yourself in real time

• Grounding techniques to stay calm during conflict
• How to pause without shutting down
• Restoring access to logical thinking under pressure
• Reducing fear of criticism

### 6. Reclaiming your voice and setting boundaries

• How to express your needs clearly
• How to negotiate without aggression
• How to resist intimidation without escalation
• Learning assertiveness that does not feel dangerous

### 7. Mirror-based work to recover inner authority

• Meeting your vulnerable part that feels powerless
• Strengthening the Healthy Adult identity
• Developing internal stability even in unstable environments
• Mirror-based exercises inspired by Mindful Interbeing Mirror Therapy

### 8. Creating long-term emotional resilience

• How to rebuild confidence
• How to protect your emotional energy
• How to evaluate when the workplace is still healthy for you
• Integrating routines that strengthen psychological stability

### 9. Final guided practice and Q&A

• A grounding and clarity-focused experiential exercise
• Unrecorded Zoom space for sharing and questions

***