Exploring the potential positive and protective aspects of anger can help clients accept their feelings and learn to regain control in safe, healthy ways.
Tag: anger
Viewing anger as a messenger rather than an adversary can help clients decouple it from shame, unpack its origins, explore related feelings and gain self-awareness.
Early in my career, “anger management” with clients involved a set of techniques such as deep breathing and the development of varied coping skills. While those are certainly important areas on which to focus, I was missing a piece of the puzzle at the time that is also critical in managing anger.
“We can do more as counselors by providing these clients with behavioral support as they work to change. We must give the clients real, behavioral techniques that they can use in the moment.”
In the early days, Caroline, a 14-year-old girl, started each session with a chin thrust indignantly at her counselor. She wanted to be seen as a warrior, and she offered answers that were blunt as a sledgehammer. And why should she drop her defenses? She had seen too many adults
“O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave …” is a favorite line in our country’s National Anthem because it seems to simultaneously confirm our current liberties and challenge us to answer how relevant this symbol still is. In light of the events of the past year — horrific shootings,
“Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to,” wrote Harriet Lerner in The Dance of Anger, her seminal book about anger and intimate relationships first published in 1985. Lerner told millions of readers — in the counseling field and beyond — that our anger is a tool alerting us that