Anger Management and Counselling in Shawnigan Lake, BC.

Anger is our strong feeling of annoyance or displeasure when something doesn’t go our way. The reasons we get angry can be perfectly plain – or they can be a mystery. Anger can also become a habit, a stance we hold. Life puts us in difficult situations – anger may be an understandable response to your situation. But you can develop some choices about how you respond. I work with people to identify what sets them off, and to find ways to redirect situations and feelings. Do you turn your anger outwards or inwards? We consider the factors involved (relationship, family issues, life stress, job, habits, etc.), and figure out what needs to change to let you live with more satisfaction.

Anger is a way many of us protect ourselves from being overwhelmed by scary emotions like sadness, loneliness, insecurity, or grief. While anger is justified in certain contexts, it begins to be a problem if we’re angry all the time and keep having uncontrolled outbursts. When dealing with anger, I take an Internal Family Systems approach: I believe it’s important to listen to the part of you that’s angry. What is it protecting you from? What does it need? Entering into a better relationship with the angry part of you will help you to have better relationships with others. Ready to explore your anger with compassion and curiosity? Let’s get started.

The more you feel out of control in your life, the more likely you are to feel angry. Unless you can identify and share your sense of powerlessness. This often takes a retraining of values but leads to personal empowerment once you learn that you can have "power with" rather than "power over" another person. There are a number of techniques to promote postiive changes fairly quickly including the recognition of one's negative self-talk and replacing it with self-soothing inside,

Anger often masks other emotions such as sadness, and shame. I work to uncover what is behind acting out in anger to address the root cause. At the same time, I provide ample opportunity for the learning of new skills in order to master how to regulate intense emotions. Benefits include no longer feeling burdened by anger and resentment as well as improved relationships with those around you.

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, like other emotions, helps us to respond to our experiences and to meet our needs. However, we can get into trouble in our relationships and with the law if we express our anger inappropriately. Anger may be used to control others by frightening them. Anger can be destructive and can make us physically unwell. In anger management counseling we will try to identify the triggers to your anger and I will coach you in methods of appropriate anger release. To understand the pattern of your anger and where your anger comes from we will look at the story of your life from your earliest memory. With better control of your reactions when you are upset you will be much happier and healthier.

Anger is a normal, natural response to perceived threats. Learning to manage our anger can be difficult at times. You will want to seek help with your anger if it seems uncontrollable, causes hurt or regret, or is impacting your relationships. Working together, we can collaboratively explore what your anger looks like, what triggers you and the signs that your anger is building. We can learn how to work with your frustration and anger in healthy ways.

I will guide you to make that first step and help you to move beyond your current experience of anger using relevant therapeutic insights and my own experience. If your anger is hurting those close to you or gets you in trouble often, you have to get ahead of your anger. You need to identify what makes you angry, your challenging situations, your thinking and feeling before you explode, and to create a plan to respond appropriately. Managing your anger is an important first step, moving beyond your anger to forge positive outcomes will greatly improve your life. It may take time and perseverance, but fundamental change is possible.

Olivia is skilled in helping clients work through anger issues, guiding them to understand the underlying causes and triggers behind their emotions. She uses a cognitive behavioural approach to help clients manage their anger in the immediate moment, offering practical strategies to respond constructively. Olivia collaborates with clients to identify support networks that can provide ongoing care. Her compassionate and non-judgmental approach fosters self-awareness and empowers clients to channel their anger in healthier ways, promoting personal growth and stronger relationships. Through her guidance, clients develop tools to manage their emotions and build a foundation for lasting change.

If you're struggling with anger management, our team of Registered Clinical Counsellors can help! Your counsellor can help you identify your triggers, understand what is happening in your anger cycle, learn to slow down your reactivity, improve your communication skills, develop strategies you can use when you are feeling angry, and how you might repair relationships that have been damaged as a result of anger outbursts. Even if you avoid anger outbursts, instead keeping the anger bottled up inside you, anger management counselling with Gravitate Counselling Inc. can help.

Anger is ultimately a healthy emotion that can be an adaptive and appropriate response to our circumstances. It can let us know what we need and be a helpful guide in taking positive and proactive actions. Yet, in some cases it can control and motivate us to take actions we regret or that lead to negative consequences. Developing an empowering relationship with anger is a skill that can be learned. In order to do so, our individual contexts need to be considered—our personalities, values, life histories, and underlying psychologies. There is no one size fits all approach. Anger can fulfill different functions in each of our lives.

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.