Anger Management and Counseling in East Palo Alto, CA.

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.

I provide individual psychotherapy for anger management. Anger is normal emotion that everyone experiences. It becomes a problem when one expresses anger inappropriately or one lacks the proficiency to express any emotions but anger. I use Humanistic and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) to help my clients understand their anger, improve their emotional experience, and express their emotions in healthy ways. A healthy emotional life is the cornerstone of living a full and successful life.

Anger is one of our fundamental emotions, part of the basic machinery of our mind and personality. In some ways it is a useful tool that helps to motivate and energize us in seeking fairness and justice in the world around us. But this powerful hold-over from our primal history can also be enormously destructive if we lose control of it. If your anger is slipping out of your control and you find yourself saying or doing things that damage your reputation or your relationships, hurt those around you, or otherwise consistently put you on the outside of society's expectations for behavior, you need help to find tools or strategies to change this and I would be happy to help.

Helping clients overcome anger requires a combination of understanding the root causes of their anger, teaching them coping strategies, and promoting healthier ways of expressing and managing their emotions. I teach clients mindfulness and relaxation techniques to manage intense emotions. Deep breathing, meditation, and progressive muscle relaxation can help reduce anger responses. We work to recognize the physical sensations that accompany anger and how to intervene before anger escalates. Clients work with me on problem-solving strategies to address the situations or triggers that lead to anger. I help them break down problems into manageable steps and brainstorm potential solutions.

Anger has a way of arriving faster than thought and leaving regret in its wake: harsh words you can't take back, a tension others have started to walk around. If that's familiar, there's nothing shameful about it, and it can change. In our work, we'll get serious about it out together: what sets it off, what it's defending, and what it might be expressing of deeper feelings. Much of what drives anger sits just out of view, and bringing it into words tends to take the heat out of it. As you come to understand your own reactions, you gain the freedom to choose how you respond. I've guided many people from explosive reactions to real composure, and I'm confident we can do the same. Let's begin!

In anger management sessions with me, you will learn to identify triggers and early warning signs of your anger in order to feel more in control of the experience of this emotion. By better understanding your unique anger process, you will get through this feeling more quickly in the future as well as with more peace and less damage to relationships. I will teach you valuable relaxation, conflict resolution, and relapse prevention skills so that you can stay calmer in triggering situations even after completing therapy. Call me with any questions or to schedule an initial appointment.

When you are struggling to manage anger, there can often be feelings of shame, guilt and sadness due to feeling like anger is out of control. I can support you in improving how you experience strong emotions such as anger and reduce the impact anger has on your life and relationships. I am experienced in several approaches to the work of Anger Management, including CBT, DBT and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). I can support you in gaining and practicing skills to manage anger in a way that allows you to better understand and articulate what you are thinking and feeling, which will help you improve your relationships and lead to an overall better sense of self.

Many of us experience anger and/or rage in the course of our relationships. Anger in and of itself is not a problem - in fact its a good way to let you know that there is some vulnerable feeling underneath that is too painful to reach just yet. Its what we DO with our anger that gets us in trouble. I can teach you tools to manage your anger without denying your entitlement to it.