Anger Management and Counselling in Oakville, ON.

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 not necessary an unhealthy emotion. It can give us energy, clarity, and move us toward much needed action. However, when anger becomes habitual it has the power to overtake us and derail our jobs, our relationships, and ultimately, our peace of mind. Anger management therapy is a process which involves self-discovery, emotional processing, stabilizing techniques, and often deep discussions regarding a client's family history and historical processing styles. Yes, anger can be all-consuming, but there is always hope for people who are willing to fight back when their emotions threaten to boil over and consume them.

Anger is an emotion that often comes up when we feel threatened, provoked or feel resentful about painful experiences. It is a normal emotion like any other. Imagine it to be a source of energy, and we need to find the safest way to diffuse, transform and use that energy efficiently. I can help you understand, manage and self-regulate your angry feelings, and that will empower you to better control angry reactions and turn them into solution focused responses.

In today’s cultural environment we have been taught to avoid anger as it is undesirable and needs to be tamed or suppressed. I believe that anger is an emotion that needs to be understood. Anger is a signal that something in our lives calls for attention. I won’t attempt to suppress or eradicate your anger. Instead, we'll lean into understanding its origins, your triggers, and the messages it has for you.

Anger is a natural human emotion and feeling angry does not necessarily mean you have a problem. Most people do get angry occasionally, after all, it is part of a range of natural responses that help us to survive and protect ourselves and others. Anger is helpful and appropriate when it gives us the courage to defend ourselves and those we love or appropriately warns others not to take advantage of us. It may also motivate and inspire us to fight injustice and take social action. Excessive anger is not useful either, in fact it is likely to have a negative effect on health (high stress, raised blood pressure and spoiled relationships. Learning about balance is the key!

Anger is the outward expression of internal pain. Often, it is easier to be angry than to feel painful emotions such as sadness, loss, and grief. However, working through the underlying foundations of anger is not easy. By recognizing and understanding the feelings driving your anger, we can help you resolve your anger issues and support positive change in your life.

Anger often comes from a negative place, but for some it is an easy way to express something else that is going on inside. Especially with younger clients, anger management is really about emotion management. With so many emotions it is often difficult to know at a young age how to make sense of everything going on internally. Thus, when I speak with children and youth who are displaying anger, first I seek to discover what it is they are angry about and then help them process the issues and determine if there is really something else they are feeling. Most importantly, I also teach my clients how to recognize different emotions and deal with them effectively.

In my experience of conducting the Men's Anti-violence groups, I can help with "self-regulation" of negative and highly charged feelings of anger and resentment, both in intimate family and work-related areas. My focus is to help people with a "hot-temper" or "short-fuse" by identifying and isolating feelings that may originate and reside in negative family dynamics where "injustice" and unfairness often are at the root of such "pent-up" unexpressed feelings. Or, you were "not allowed" to express such natural and valid feelings. Effective new "habits" are learned as are ways to "control" this reflexive and impulsive behaviour. I have seen positive and healthy change come about as a result.

Anger can feel like an emotional experience that we have no control over. In therapy, you can explore the root causes of anger and how it impacts your life, your experiences, and your relationships. You can learn skills to effectively respond to anger, ground yourself when feeling angry, and de-escalate when anger is impacting your relationships. I work with individuals, couples and families. Book a free consultation to explore if we are a good fit for therapy.

: We all have a right to feel and express our anger and yet sometimes anger can alienate us from the things we care about most, such as friends and family. We can also often feel judged because of the way we express our anger and this can make it harder to manage. In my work with individuals who experience anger, I provide a safe, supportive and non-judgmental space to begin to understand anger and learn new ways of expressing it. Reach out today to schedule a free 15-minute consultation to see if we are a good fit.

Anger is like a grumpy cat with a tiny umbrella in a thunderstorm - unpredictable, a bit irrational, and often best approached with caution and a sense of humour! If you've been told you have "anger issues", or can recognize that you "lose it" too often, counselling that focuses on anger management can be a big help. When I work with clients on anger management, I assist clients in identifying triggers, exploring underlying issues that are contributing to anger, and developing coping strategies to manage and express anger in a healthier way. The goal is to promote self-awareness, teach assertive communication skills and constructive emotional regulation.

Anger, frustration, rage, and reactivity overall, can make a person feel frustrated and powerless; when we have emotional outbursts of any kind they can feel so all-encompassing and make us feel like we are not in control of feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. In working with clients on their emotions I aim to primarily promote an understanding of why our emotional outbursts occur; once this has been established we begin to work on how to manage, mitigate, or change how these outbursts occur, or why we feel the way that we feel in the first place.

It can be difficult to control our emotions, especially in these challenging times. Anger can also be an expression of other emotions that are lying beneath the surface. Psychotherapy can help identify tools that work for you in learning to regulate your emotions, as well as approaching your anger with preventative strategies such as learning to recognize when you begin to feel angry, and regular activities that can help alleviate stress and build up your stress tolerance. You are not defined by your anger, and your anger doesn't control you. By learning to identify your triggers and the purpose your anger serves for you, therapy can help you make a shift bring more peace into your life.