Anger Management and Counselling in Burlington, ON.

Anger management counseling can help to identify stressors and learn the steps to stay calm in the face of anger. The goal is to handle tense situations in more constructive and positive ways by reducing the emotional and physical arousal that anger can cause. It will provide the tools to take back your life and resolve the triggers that result in unplanned anger reactions.

Anger management is about anger understanding first. Why are we angry? I will help clients' seeking assistance with anger by creating a safe space to explore the anger, to process it, and understand it. We can't seek to manage it if we don't understand what is really happening for us. Through pattern exploration of experiences with anger, we can process and navigate the emotion and work together to manage it.

Together, we will gain insight into the root of your anger and the purpose that it serves in your life. We will empower you to learn more about yourself when you experience anger and decide how you choose to respond to this emotion. I employ an integrative approach in my practice working alongside clients within an empathetic and supportive dynamic.

Anger can be upsetting not only for the one receiving it but also for the one expressing it. Although we can believe that someone "makes" us angry it is usually our own trigger that fires off. We express anger not just because we feel we have a right to be angry but because we use anger as a way of self protection. It says "back off and leave me alone." Understanding your angry pain can free you from it's grip. I have helped many clients with this difficulty through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and inner child approaches that have proven to be successful in the treatment of anger.

In 30 years of helping people, I have found that how we handle our feelings is a major contributor to our joy, pleasure and success in life, not just in relationships but pursuing our work and our goals as well. Anger can be a powerful motivator or an obstacle in getting what we want. I have an approach for understanding the healthy purpose of anger, and becoming aware of and in control of your natural physiological arousal process so that your angry behavior can stop getting in the way of what you really want. You can obtain the tools and resources to work with this arousal process, giving you more choices and chances to succeed, rather than letting anger take away those choices.

I believe that anger is an emotion that in and of itself is not wrong. However, the actions that result from our anger can be negative. I help people understand their anger, where it came from, and why they deal with situations the way they do. Once a person has that knowledge, I help them to find healthy solutions to deal with the anger they feel by teaching them body language skills, communication and listening skills, and the freedom that comes from forgiveness.

One of the most common complaints I hear from parents is that their child never listens. “No matter what it is they just don’t hear me. I yell and scream and plead but it’s like I am talking to a brick wall.” Most of the time the way the message is delivered is more important than the message itself. Adults and children alike tend to close themselves off from loud and intrusive tones of voice. I help parents understand that perhaps the best way to get their kids to listen and behave is by first changing their attitudes towards the situation. Engaging in a parenting paradigm shift is a great way to start their journey and I can help with this process.

Anger is a completely normal, often healthy human emotion. But if it gets beyond your control, it can be very destructive in your work and interpersonal relationships and can drastically devastate the quality of your life. Fortunately, anger can be 'managed' which is very different than 'suppressing' it. Unexpressed anger leads to a host of other problems including high blood pressure. However, when we learn how to 'manage' our anger, we can learn to diminish both the emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes. We can learn to avoid triggers and develop strategies. We can learn how to problem solve, change our thinking and relax our bodies.

Anger is a normal natural feeling at times in ones life, however, it can be paralyzing when it is expressed in a destructive manner. Like most feelings it is never right or wrong to feel angry, but how we behave because of it can be right or wrong. By understanding the underlying causes of anger, an individual can learn a more positive way of handling their negative feelings, which will make one feel better about themselves and their relationships.

Anger is often thought of as a negative emotion, but I like to think of Anger as the part of you that loves you and wants to stand up for you when you’ve experienced something “unfair.” Anger does not always make the best decisions about when to stand up for you, so I work collaboratively with clients to identify and explore how anger shows up in their lives, and to strengthen and develop strategies to minimize the impact it has on living the life you want to live. Book a free consultation to learn more about my approach and explore if we are a good fit.

I have spent hundreds of hours working with clients who struggle with managing anger/rage. There are specific, step-by-step techniques that can be taught, that are very effective at helping people deal with this issue. Based on reports from clients I have worked with, I have found that if clients are committed to their process, most people make significant improvement within 6-12 sessions. Drawing from polyvagal theory, AEDP and mindfulness techniques, clients can learn healthy ways to manage and experience their anger.

Being angry when something goes wrong, or somebody annoys you is completely normal. The question is: do you like to feel that way? Sometimes the anger is extraordinarily strong, and it can make you lose control. Do you like the consequences of being angry? - headaches, regrets of words you said, and actions you did? Anger is complicated and it often has deep roots. For this reason, it can be difficult to “just control it”. My experience of working with jail inmates shows that digging deeper into the past can help to find connections between trigger events and such strong reactions. When you have better understanding of your anger, the reaction can change and no strong control will be needed.

Anger is a difficult emotion to control once it gets started. Stopping anger is like stopping a runaway train after it has a full head of steam. Managing one of the most powerful emotions takes preparation, awareness and containment skills. I have personally written the book on the Eight Steps to Conquering Chronic Anger. It is used monthly at our centre in anger management classes. Anger can be conquered!

Anger management is a series of preventative and reactionary steps that help us regulate our emotions. While anger management is about executing these skills, the successful implementation depends on a foundational understanding of what anger is and how it operates in one’s life. Without understanding angers unique roots for each individual, anger management techniques become especially challenging to implement. My approach to anger management involves establishing a foundational understanding of anger by examining personal underlying fears and needs. With this foundation set, the individual is able to integrate a personal understanding of anger consistently with strategies and techniques.

Our experiences of anger vary greatly. While I don't offer therapy services for anger management, at Psychotherapy Collective, our online clinic, we have many therapists who offer support for clients seeking help with anger. Visit our website to schedule a free 15-minute consultation with a therapist who specializes in anger management https://www.psychotherapycollective.ca/areas-of-focus/anger