subject: What Is Anger Management Therapy? [print this page] Anger is not wrongAnger is not wrong. It is a very normal emotion, but it is problematic when people express anger excessively at other people or even at themselves. Anger management therapy helps people when their anger has become damaging to the people around them or themselves.
Anger management therapy is the method by which somebody with too much or uncontrollable anger can control or reduce the causes, scale, and consequences of an angered emotional state.
Learning how to articulate your anger in a more assertive, but not aggressive, way is a successful method to deal with your angry emotions yourself. Counselling can also help you to do this. You will be able to express what you want without hurting other people's feelings and is a good healthy way to re-channel your anger.
Other anger management techniques are taking control of your breathing by inhaling deeply, from your diaphragm and exhaling slowly through your mouth. This will help to relax you. You can also use meditation or yoga to teach yourself how to relax. Conversely physical exertion will also calm you down. Go for a run or take a boxing class.
Becoming angry is not the answer. Once you accept this and see that your anger is not going to make you feel better and it certainly will not get rid of the problem you are half way there. Make a joke. Yes, laughing reduces anger or alternatively go and speak to somebody about how you feel. All of these things will help you control your anger.
Some people may prefer to seek professional anger management therapy if the methods of self-control are not effective enough. Cognitive Behavioral Therapies are often used for this purpose.
A great deal of the methods used in anger management therapy depend on CBT, which teaches people to evaluate the underlying thoughts and feelings creating excessive anger. This helps to retrain people to avoid pointless and wrong thoughts that have previously promoted angry behaviour and therefore control the urge to act in a destructive way. CBT is conducted in both individual and group therapy sessions.
