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Anger is an intense emotion. We have all felt it in our daily lives on a consistent basis. While we often associate it with negative emotions, it is important to understand that it serves its own purpose. We just need to learn how to use anger purposefully. Of course, if you feel like your anger is way out of your control and is making your life difficult. Then it’s a problem but you don’t have to worry. As with all issues, there are different types of anger management therapy you can take to keep your anger at bay. In this article, we will discuss anger management therapy, its types, and its techniques.
What is anger management therapy?
Anger management is a process through which you can identify what triggers your uncontrollable anger. Through this, you can train yourself to manage your anger in healthy and productive ways. Your therapist might use these 3 basic strategies to help you cope better:
- Relaxation: This can help you to calm down the emotional mind and the physiological arousal your body feels when you are extremely angry.
- Cognitive therapy: This can help you in learning how to change unhealthy or biased thinking patterns that can lead to anger.
- Social skills development: This can help you in learning new social skills and reduce destructive behaviors. You learn to think about the impact of your behavior on others around you.
Types of anger management therapy
Now, let’s move on to some of the different types of anger management therapies. You should find a therapist that specializes in this area. Then you can either choose to have individual one-on-one sessions that would give you more privacy. Other than that you can choose group sessions if you feel that you are more comfortable with a support group.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Anger management is mostly done through CBT. It involves 12 weekly sessions. Each session is about 90 minutes. CBT can help you in recognizing your triggering points for anger. It can help you in developing healthy coping mechanisms. You can learn to be more in control of your thoughts, behaviors, and actions in response to anger. CBT is often combined with other techniques to make it more effective.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)
This approach focuses on combining CBT with mindfulness and meditation. It can help you calm down and look at the bigger perspective.
Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)
This approach focuses on your rational and irrational beliefs and helps you in regulating your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Usually, those with anger issues tend to feel as if they were wronged and that their anger is justified. So it simply helps to restructure your beliefs into a more realistic and logical set of views.
Similarly, there is another form of CBT that can help if you have anger issues.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
In the case of frequent and severe angry outbursts, DBT can be quite effective. Your therapist can help you regain emotional control, increase your tolerance and practice effective communication in your relationships.
Some other therapies for Anger Management
Family Therapy
You can benefit more from this type of therapy if your main issue is family conflict. Oftentimes, anger issues can stem from a person’s childhood as anger is a learned behavior. So if your anger is specifically directed at one person. Or if you feel as though that one person is triggering your anger. You can work on resolving those issues and improving communication in your family relationships.
Psychodynamic Therapy
The Psychodynamic approach can help in identifying the underlying causes of your anger. You can get a deeper understanding of your emotions by exploring your unconscious mind. As a result, you can learn to change your unhealthy patterns.
Techniques used in Anger Management
Some techniques used in anger management therapy are as follows:
Adjusting Your Mentality and Attitude
Changing your thinking and altering your attitudes in relation to anger is also possible during therapy, especially when your therapist is using a CBT method. Your therapist will work with you to evaluate your attitudes and methods of thinking and to spot any thought patterns that can feed anger, such as obsessing, negative thinking, criticizing, fortune-telling, or distorting.
Additionally, your therapist will assist you in practicing altering your behavioral responses. They can help you mend and accept broken relationships, offer strategies for dealing with grief and disappointment, and encourage acceptance and sympathy.
Exploring Methods to Calm Anger
You can learn techniques to control your anger through avoidance or distraction during an anger management therapy session. Your therapist can assist you in figuring out how to deal with your anger. Role-playing provides an opportunity to practice techniques that help improve control, including assertiveness and clear communication.
Additionally, therapy can help you learn relaxation techniques and coping mechanisms like slow, breathing exercises, leaving the scene and coming back when you’ve calmed down, or utilizing calming imagery to lessen the severity of anger.
Understanding Triggers and Reactions
In therapy, you can learn more about the causes of your anger, the things that make you angry now and in the past, how you react to it, and how it affects your relationships and your well-being. You can discover, for instance, that shouting at your children is a result of hearing your parents shout at you or the conviction that yelling will guarantee the outcome of your goals.
Watch: [Anger Management Techniques]
Final Thoughts
Anger can be a scary thing if it becomes uncontrollable. However, everyone has to learn how to manage it. Some people can do it more easily than others. While some have a hard time dealing with these issues.
So if you are having problems, remember that it will take time and practice on your part to learn how to manage it properly. Getting an actual consultation with a mental health professional can really help you put things into perspective. Especially since at times, there are underlying issues for uncontrollable anger like mental health illnesses such as substance abuse or trauma, etc.
If you have a co-occurring mental health condition, it may be helpful for you and your mental health professional to figure out whether those disorders play a large role or how they might be treated most effectively in accordance with anger management.
Your mental healthcare professional will decide on a suitable treatment plan and if you need medication based on your co-occurring issues.
We hope that you found this article useful. If you want more ways to see how to manage your anger, check out our article on Anger Management: 7 Effective Strategies To Control Your Anger