Anger Management and Counselling in Nanaimo, BC.

Anger management involves more than just identifying triggers; I can help you get beneath the anger, turning off the "auto-pilot" and transforming anger at its root, before it becomes destructive. With effective tools like CBT, Mindfulness, Internal Family Systems Therapy, I can get you the skills you need to you slow down interactions and respond rather than react. I have extensive experience and training in anger management; for several years I ran the Solicitor General's Relationship Violence Program, teaching ready-to-use skills to deal with anger.

I view anger as a natural, neutral emotion with an important purpose—it signals deeper needs, boundaries, or unresolved feelings. In a supportive, nonjudgmental space, I help clients explore what their anger is communicating without shaming or pathologizing it. Together, we uncover its meaning and develop constructive ways to respond. This approach helps clients increase emotional awareness, strengthen relationships, and use anger as a guide toward growth, self-understanding, and healing.

My approach to anger management focuses on understanding the deeper emotions and unmet needs behind anger, while teaching healthy coping strategies. I help clients recognize triggers, process underlying pain (often tied to trauma or invalidation), and develop skills for emotional regulation—drawing from DBT, CBT, and somatic techniques. Together, we’ll practice communication tools, boundary-setting, and nervous system regulation to transform anger into constructive action. The goal isn’t to suppress emotions, but to cultivate self-awareness, assertive expression, and relational healing.

As I work with clients struggling to navigate anger management, I like to gather information about how anger presented itself in the home while they were children. I view anger as a symptom for a problem (or problems) that are deeper rooted and anger has become the default reaction. I like to find ways to address the underlying emotions that are being displayed through the anger.

We all experience difficulties from time to time in managing our emotions. We feel anger, frustration, anxiety and irritation. When not properly managed we may experience stress, burnout, and feel unsatisfied with life. Our relationships and parenting skills may suffer. Sometimes this is due to us having too many issues to deal with at once, lack of supports in our lives; and when not taught to us, a lack of skills or resources to cope. Seeking the support of a counsellor can help. I have facilitated anger management workshops, and provided one on one counselling to teach coping and management skills. As a former Forensic Therapist, I am qualified to provide court ordered treatment.

Through groups and individual counselling, we use cognitive behaviour therapy to help clients learn about the cues and triggers connected to anger outbursts. Awareness of one's experience of anger is the first step to making change. After this, we work on new responses that are more effective than uncontrollable anger. If this is something you would like to work on then Island Clinical Counselling has solutions to your difficulties.

Our anger can be a sentry, a protector and a wise indicator that our boundaries have been transgressed or that something vitally important to us is threatened. It can also be a raging tyrant, a short fuse, a simmering internalisation that off-gases through passive aggression, or a childish tantrum. Becoming intimate with our anger is synonymous with becoming intimidate with our power. In anger therapy, we will work to understand the unique way your anger process happens through somatic awareness, mindfulness and emotional intimacy. We will look at your history with anger, your family lineage, and you will learn tools to channel this fire in ways that support rather than hinder your life.

It sucks to be angry and loose control of our emotions. Anger can have a devastating impact on the people we love the most. I will support you in addressing the emotions, trauma and pain underneath anger and learn to identify your triggers and patterns. I will teach you tools to address your stress and help you learn to better deal with your emotions. Learning to communicate our needs in a way that will be received is also a part of how I address anger issues.

Therapy with me offers a safe, supportive space to understand and manage anger. We'll explore your triggers, build healthy coping tools, and uncover what's beneath the surface. You'll learn to express yourself clearly without losing control, strengthen relationships, and feel more grounded and in control of your emotions.

Anger, although a completely healthy human emotion, can also turn destructive and become a powerful unpredictable emotion. Expressing anger in an assertive non aggressive way, making clear what your needs are and to get them met respectful of both self and others is imperative. Working together to determine the underlying cause of the anger. earning how to calmly and respectfuly have these needs met, learning relaxation, problem solving and better communication skills are what is needed to be learned. Unexpressed anger can cause hypertension, high blood pressure and depression as well as highly explosive behaviour. With committment these new skills can be learned.

Anger is a normal healthy human emotion. When people allow it to get out of control it can turn destructive, it can lead to problems at work, personal relationships, and the overall quality of life. I like to think of anger using the metaphore of a hammer. You can do a lot of things with a hammer. You can build things and you can tear things apart. The hammer is just a tool just like anger can be a tool. Anger isn't the problem, it's what you do with it. I help people learn the skills they need to use their anger and the underlying hurt and feelings of injustice to make positive choices that lead to positive relationships and experiences.