Anger Management and Counselling in Discovery Ridge, Calgary, AB.

Gerard has diverse experience as a psychologist and leader in social services, schools, university, workplaces, and his private practice. Using a theoretical foundation of social learning and cognitive-behavioural training, he is well-versed in various kinds of formal and informal assessment and solution-focussed approaches. He listens carefully to understand your needs and relies on his extensive experience to help you find solutions.

Anger management counseling can help to identify stressors and learn the steps to stay calm in the face of anger. The goal is to handle tense situations in more constructive and positive ways by reducing the emotional and physical arousal that anger can cause. It will provide the tools to take back your life and resolve the triggers that result in unplanned anger reactions.

We feel anger because we feel that something is not fair, something is not working out the way we thought it should, our boundaries have been crossed, or we feel we have been treated badly, or missed out. Anger can be frustrating if you don't know how to address the underlying issue. I specialize in helping those whose anger is related to social anxiety, isolation, bullying, harassment or lack of important social skills.

To work with anger management, we must get beyond the observable. While anger is an emotion that everyone feels from time to time, anger management typically means to self soothe or self regulate oneself in order to effectively manage an emotion we all feel at times. I dig beyond the typically issue of anger in order to work with the root cause of anger.

Anger in children and teens is often misunderstood, and is a source of great frustration for families. Effective treatment includes helping individuals understand the source of their anger, how to effectively communicate needs, and helping parents identify their children's lagging skills. Through gaining insight and understanding as to the underlying causes of anger as well as unhelpful patterns of thinking, clients will begin to find healthier and less stressful ways of coping with distress.

Managing not just our anger, but our full range of sometimes confusing emotions can feel insurmountable. In elementary school we are taught how to stay healthy physically, but we often received no guidance on maintaining our emotional health and are left to figure it out on our own. I've been told that "nothing comes from nothing", so much of managing anger comes not just from the tools I teach, but also from the exploration and healing of it's origins and triggers.

I utlize both Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Dialectical Behaviour therapy and Distress tolerance in practice when working with clients experiencing anger management issues. It takes work to change our mindset and our thoughts and actions. Anger is a secondary emotion and together we will learn to recognize the underlying feelings that are hiding under your anger.

Anger is a powerful emotion that tells that something needs to change. Anger can be destructive or empowering. Inappropriate expression of anger can disrupt work and relationships. Even though you may have been taught that anger is taboo, bottling up anger is not the answer either. Poorly managed anger can also lead to problems with physical health. Well managed anger can help protect personal boundaries. Often anger masks other underlying feelings that are more painful. Anu helps you to not only manage anger and act assertively, but discover what information anger gives you about what you need or what your anger may be hiding.

Anger acted out can damage our relationships and leave us feeling ashamed about our behavior and lack of control. But like other feelings, anger has its reasons. In the process of learning to gain control of one’s anger, it becomes very important to find out what specifically those reasons are, as they often run deeper than we may think. Working with anger in therapy means treating it as a signal of something, a voice that needs to be heard. The voice may speak to our boundaries being crossed, an unmet need, or an old and deep pain. Working with awareness of body sensations can slow down the process – which is so key to anger management – and allow the true voice of anger to tell its story.

Anger is neither good nor bad. Nobody makes you angry. Do you agree with these facts? Anger is a healthy emotion. Intense, yes, and sometimes seems too strong to handle. In therapy you can learn how to be the master of your anger, experience and express the vulnerable feelings anger sometimes masks and learn to make responsible choices of what you do when you are angry. As a Calgary counsellor I can provide you tools to get your needs met without having to rely solely on anger at work, in relationships, with your self and with others.

Anger influences the way in which we respond to and react to situations and people. For some people, anger is highly integrated in their style of interacting and can lead to problems in interpersonal relationships with family, friends, co-workers, etc. Anger does not need to continue to control your interactions. In my practice, I assist clients in understanding their anger and uncovering the emotions beneath (where appropriate). From an interpersonal approach, I work with clients in developing a redefined system for interacting with others and navigating conflict, as well as assist in developing coping strategies that alleviate the anger and associated emotions.

Anger is a healthy and important emotion, which every human being can identify with. Sometimes we act out our anger in ways that are not helpful or loving. Accessing counselling for anger can help you process your feelings, without having to get rid of them. In therapy it can be useful to explore anger, and get to know other emotions that go along with it. As you learn about your anger, it will become easier to act it out in ways that are more loving and better for relationships.

I have had extensive training and experience in working with both anger management and domestic violence issues. I have a fundamental understanding of using cognitive behavior therapy, rational emotive therapy and Duluth model fundamentals for working with power and control issues or anger management. I have also had extensive experience in running groups, assessing anger related issues and working through the underlying issues which lead to problematic anger. EMDR has also been found to be effectively useful for working with unresolved emotional issues leading to anger problems.