Everyone experiences difficulty with anger at some point. Relationship stress, parenting issues, financial or work pressures, loss, sudden changes or transitions and trauma, all put enormous strain on your capacity to cope. The people who contact me for anger management are typically good, well-intentioned people who have had an incident or incidents that reveal that they have difficulty containing anger. My approach to anger management is not a specific programmed course, but it is both systematic and organic. Anger management can be done in individual therapy, within couples therapy or in one of my ongoing groups. Dealing with anger can also become part of a larger journey of personal growth where you develop emotional resilience, flexibility, responsiveness, empathy, joy, empowerment, satisfaction and aliveness. Here is some of what you will learn:
- Learn to lower your internal stress levels and get centered in yourself
- Learn to undo your anxiety — a primary hidden trigger of anger
- Learn to explore your feelings rather than act them out
- Learn to build an inner “container” to “hold” anger and other emotions
- Identify relationship cycles, old locked roles and internal stories that trigger your anger
- Learn the difference between complaining, outrage, attack/blame and assertiveness
- Learn the link between your depression and anger
- Identify old family and cultural patterns that influence your expression of anger
- Identify the link between trauma — physical, verbal or sexual, and anger
- Learn how to build positive emotions and how to repair misattunements in your relationships.
- Understand a map of system dynamics that operate in couples, families, groups and in the workplace that generate anger and other negative emotions. Learn to recognise patterns of scapegoating, competition, defiance/compliance and one-up/one down that undermine our relationships at home and the workplace.
- Learn essential survival communication skills, verbal hot buttons and cool downs
- Learn constructive approaches conflict resolution, negotiation and consensus building
- Recognize that you are not alone, that anger is a cultural and systemic issue and well as one of personal responsibility.
- Learn the universal phases of system development that all relationships encounter and is the source of our anger, but also can lead to deep personal and relational development and transformation.