Anger Management and Counselling in Gibbons, AB.

Anger is a natural emotional response that occurs when something that we value gets squashed or stepped on by the world around us. You may be experiencing a great deal of anger without fully understanding the thing that you value that is being squashed. I will work with you to discover understanding of your anger and to uncover the ways in which anger has become problematic in your life. I will walk with you on the path to overcoming the destructive impact of anger, and to resolve the situations which lead to unhelpful anger.

Anger is often an intense emotion that can be expressed in a healthy manner or a destructive way. We offer a safe place to explore the origins of anger, while focusing on healthy was to deal with anger. We recognize that deciding to reach out for help to address problems with anger is a difficult yet important step towards changing. We believe that with motivation and hard work people can develop healthy ways to deal with their feelings.

Anger is often misunderstood and equated with aggression. In fact, anger is a highly positive emotion which helps to define our boundaries and affirm our inner strengths. Therapy can make anger your friend by helping you to notice it, understand it and express it in a positive way. Most people need to be more angry rather than less. Anger cannot be controlled by bottling it up.

Anger can be a powerful messenger for change, signalling unmet needs or deeper emotions like hurt, powerlessness, injustice, or fear. Let’s slow down and explore this together to understand what is driving your anger and what it is truly telling you. In our sessions, I will provide tools and techniques to help you manage anger in healthy ways. More importantly, we will uncover the underlying feelings or situations that trigger your anger and explore what changes may be needed. My goal is to help you gain control, find peace, and express yourself more positively while fostering self-awareness and emotional balance.

Managing anger means managing your need to have things your way even if your way seems reasonable to you. It means questioning your sense of entitlement to having your way. Anger can be a strong communication to others that what one is angry about really matters. As an initial response it can be a powerful impetus to change but unless one takes some kind of action following the anger it will only serve to reinforce a sense of powerlessness. Anger can be a way to impose ones will. Sometimes people learn that this works in the short term but in the long term it never really does.

Anger management problems emerge from a social system where both genders are taught that expression of anger is inappropriate. Anger is one of seven basic human emotions and is in no way dangerous, unfeminine, or taboo. Explosive anger typically emerges when people attempt to keep their anger from others, holding it inside until they can no longer contain it. My approach is to model and practice graded expression of anger, and to help people modify the point(s) of view from which anger is seen to emerge.

A response to life's events falls upon a continuum from neutral to highly-reactive. At times anger, Gandhi called it "Righteous Indignation," is necessary to respond to injustices or inappropriate behaviours. However, uncontrolled, inappropriate anger is destructive to one's self and others. Mindfulness and Metta (Loving Kindness) meditations are excellent tools to deal with anger. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) also called Tapping, along with skillful use of affirmations can help to cool the fires of anger. The benefits of anger management lead to a regulating of emotions and thus a gaining of peace of mind, positive relationships, career and family security.

Anger is a normal emotion and has a place in a health life. However people often find that their anger feels out of control. Learning to manage all your emotions, including your anger, is a skill that you can learn at any age. If you are feeling like your anger is creating problems in your life and relationships contact me. We can discuss how you can learn the skills to manage your anger rather than let your anger manage you.

Anger is a very natural, normal reaction to certain triggers and life events. The thing that makes it seem like it's a bad thing is the way that react to it. Learning new skills to cope, emotionally regulate, and explore and work through the underlying issues regarding your anger will be helpful in your recovery process. Identifying the primary feelings behind the anger will also be the helpful to finding the source and healing.

Many of us have not been taught the tools and strategies that are needed to manage anger in a healthy and appropriate manner. While anger is a natural emotion, which can serve as a helpful signal that something is "just not right," it is often handled in a poor manner. I help people to see the maladaptive patterns and strategies they have been using to express their anger, and then replace these with healthier ones. We also work to unload built up frustration, resentment, and hurt, which often reaches a "breaking point" and needs to be resolved so that it does not come out as uncontrolled anger. By doing this, clients can reach a more peaceful place, and will come to see anger in a new way.

My approach as a therapist is client-centred, solution-focused, and relationship based. I believe you are the expert in your own life. Therapy can provide a space to explore life challenges, so you can create new meanings, hope and new beginnings. The alliance we form together in therapy can assist you to work through presenting issues, helping you to work toward reaching your individual potential. Based on the unique needs of the individual, I incorporate evidence-based therapy techniques into sessions such as cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).

I believe that anger is an emotion like any other emotion, joy, sadness, etc. Anger should not be managed; it should be felt and experience. If we give ourselves permission to be angry and to feel the underlying emotions that causes the anger, we are less likely to move into reactive states of anger. My approach to anger would be to "feel it" and be angry so that it does not have to be a scary emotion that has to be managed.

Our therapists are trained in strategies to help you effectively manage your anger and other difficult emotions, as well as improve communication skills for healthy relationships. Some of the strategies we use to help with anger management are: mindfulness, cognitive-behavioural therapy and solution focused approaches. Learn to regulate emotions and tap into a sense of peace and clam, even in the midst of life's storms!