Anger

Maybe you have recognized that everyone tiptoes around you, fearing your angry outbursts, or your partner and your loved ones have started to distance themselves from you because of it. Maybe you are here because you need to take a court mandated Anger Management course and aren’t sure how that would help. Or maybe you have finally had enough of losing control over your temper and constantly having to fix the damage done.

We at HHC empathize with what you are going through. Anger is one of our most basic emotions and yet most of us are never taught how to express anger healthily. We are told to shut it down and to play nice, which leads to the anger going underground and blowing up like a volcano when we least expect it.

Anger expressed with self-awareness can be a handy tool to guard and enforce our boundaries, to stand up for what we feel is right and to respectfully do the right thing.

Often there are other repressed feelings that are hiding beneath the anger. We might get angry to ensure that these feelings stay hidden, as there may be a sense of shame and guilt in expressing them.

 

At HHC we explore anger in three ways:

1. Symptoms Management – learning techniques to improve your impulse control and to self-regulate your emotions, as you experience the anger building inside of you.
2. Root Cause Transformation – explore and transform the root cause behind your symptoms, to metaphorically turn off the heat source from underneath the pot of boiling water.
3. Healthy Anger Expression– learning new behaviours and techniques to master the art of expressing anger healthily and respectfully, to enforce your boundaries and to get your needs met. Assertiveness is a way of being in the world which confirms one’s own worth and dignity while simultaneously confirming and maintaining the worth of others.