Anger Management and Counselling in Cardston, AB.

Many therapists see anger as a secondary emotion. Underneath is hurt and pain. Perhaps it is injustice and abuse that you suffered. Getting to what is fuelling the anger is an important step in anger management. I will work with you to find safe and appropriate ways to express your feelings without doing damage to your relationships and yourself. We all have strong emotions. It is our awareness of what they are and how to put words to them that makes a difference. Don't delay learning this important skill of emotional regulation that will allow you to have a safe and fulfilling life.

Anger can be tricky to understand as there are many underlying emotions that can cause anger. By exploring the purpose of the emotion and knowing how to work with the emotion can solve many problems that affect one's life. Learning the importance of creating healthy coping strategies can help recover from betrayal, grief, and unresolved traumas. I am trained in EMDR to help others work with their anger and to process the difficulty of what lies beneath anger.

Anger often stems from feeling so many emotions all at once. You lose a sense of control. You go from 0 to 100 in a blink of an eye. By getting angry you’re attempting to regain control that’s presumed lost. But instead, you’re full of guilt and shame. Feeling angry and reacting in anger, is simply exhausting. I’ll help you learn how to regain control, in a healthy way.

It often feels like Anger arises without warning. Before we know it, we are in the midst of an angry outburst. It doesn't need to be this way! At Menla Psychological Counselling you will learn ways to regain control of your anger, rather than having it control you. The goal of anger management isn't to get rid of anger, it is a valid emotion after all, but rather to stop anger from causing chaos and pain in your life.

Anger management can be helped in several ways. One is to use Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and integrate CBT with hypnosis. Also, the use of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has been very successful. I have helped many people learn to manage their Anger Issues. I also provide my clients with relapse tools and teach them how to access them.

Anger doesn’t need “managing” so much as it needs to be “paid attention to”. Emotions serve the purpose of “signalling” the owner of those emotions and are governed by two immutable laws: #1 we will feel (no choice); #2 we will express emotions (here we have choice of expression). Of the vast spectrum of choices people make for expressing their anger (which is a secondary emotion), the healthiest choice is to trace the anger back to its primary source(s) of either Hurt (emotional or physical), Frustration (goals blocked) or Fear (real or perceived) and process it there. The anger signal is then no longer needed and must be “Shut Off”, until needed for another situation.

You did it again. You lost your cool and you blew up. And this time, the consequences are serious. Your job is at risk, your family is hurt, or your partner has finally said, “this is it.” But for some reason, you just can’t seem to stop it. One minute you’re fine, then BOOM – 0 to 100. Know this: there is a path to change. Using evidence-based and cutting-edge techniques, I can help you: cool down from intense stress, communicate with others in a way that inspires both love AND respect, catch anger-flare-ups (before they happen), and have healthy outlets for when they do. Together let's keep your relationships, career, and emotions in harmony. There is an answer to anger.

When we can learn to investigate anger, build acceptance and tolerance for uncomfortable feelings, and find ways to soothe ourselves, we can manage anger in ways that are supportive of our relationships and supportive of ourselves. Learning anger management can involve building skills in multiple areas including communication, needs identification, distress tolerance, and/or emotional regulation.

I can help my clients with anger management and work on short and long-term goals when they are ready to make some life changes. In the short term, it is important to increase awareness of the patterns of anger in your life, identify the pain and hurt that is fueling anger, learn to verbalize angry feelings in a controlled way, decrease angry outbursts and how past ways of expressing anger have had a negative impact. Some longer-term goals are to decrease the intensity and frequency of angry feelings, develop an awareness of the origin and alternatives to aggression, and learn to accept angry feelings while working on control and maintaining peace.