Anger Management and Counseling in Sutter Creek, CA.

Anger is never just anger at face value. Oftentimes it is a "secondary emotion"--the visible tip of the iceberg. It is common for our fears, frustration, hurt, vulnerability, and sadness to manifest as anger. There are many useful tools and insight-oriented interventions that can help manage our distress, improve communication and relationship functioning, and positively impact how we view and care for ourselves. You deserve to be heard and validated in ways that are respectful and productive. I can help you achieve more meaningful communication as we work toward greater understanding of your feelings and needs.

Anger when used appropriately can be a useful tool to give us the aggressive energy we need to take action when we are feeling helpless or victimized. Unfortunately, it is often misused and becomes abusive, creating whole new problems for relationships and careers. I work with clients to first learn to control their emotional expressions, define the underlying feelings creating the hostility, and learn new skills to better utilize their feelings to resolve conflict in more adult ways.

I help people struggling with anger management by working with them to develop awareness of their anger experience in their body and mind and how it is impacting their body. I help you learn and practice strategies for regulating your body and mind so you do not lose control of the anger. I help you to learn healthy communication of anger, and the development of conflict resolution skills. I support you in exploring issues of transference from past relationships and experiences that may be contributing to your strong feelings of anger in present circumstances and relationships. We create safety, increase positive expression of anger, and reduce or eliminate sources of anger when possible!

I work with clients on anger using the Relational Life Therapy model, asserting that our child-like Adaptive Child mindset is allowed to operate in our adulthood where our adult mindset should be operating. Typically, we learned in childhood that someone else was allowed to get angry at us, someone else was allowed to get angry in our presence, or we were allowed to get angry without someone (like our parents) correcting our behavior. Anger is a natural emotion. Anger becomes a problem when we allow it to be expressed like a 5-year old child. We throw tantrums, throw things, and hurt others. Sometimes people's anger causes them to commit crimes. I help clients keep anger manageable.

Clients from various backgrounds take many different approaches to think about, feel and express anger. However, when anger negatively impacts one’s relationships, it is important to explore what is contributing to an unhealthy experience of anger. In my collaboration with clients, we venture out to explore the conscious and unconscious factors that may need to be brought to light, in the context of perhaps other biopsychosocial (biological, psychological or social) factors that may need attention. Clients who learn to understand, better identify and manage their impulses, cultivate insight and explore opportunities to practice developing skills to have an improved sense of self-mastery.

Every person who has struggled with anger knows that it is a feeling that can be very difficult to control even when you want to. I can help you learn to respond to anger triggers and cues more effectively, and to change how you respond to your angry feelings. The biggest damage occurs when we act on the angry feelings, and I will help you learn to identify and reduce reactivity to those external or internal anger triggers. We all have angry feelings; it's what we do in response to those feelings that contribute to a life of free of needless suffering and emotional injuries.

You find you get angry at other people and it lands you in trouble with your boss, your spouse or your family. It can be hard to manage your anger when circumstances frustrate you. I know you have tried to stop your anger, but it has not worked. There is a way to not be angry and to feel better. I have been counseling people who have anger problems for many years. I understand and can help you figure it out. Give me a call now at 916-847-8053 to see how my services can help you manage your anger. Or schedule an appointment now: https://kim-mclaughlin.clientsecure.me/client_portal

As a culture, we do not do well with healthy expressions of anger. Often we are raised to suppress it and then we have limited practice at dealing with big emotion. There is a spectrum of healthy aggression- to keep us safe and to maintain boundaries- and rage- our body's strategy for safety. Anger management is about applying the right "dosing" to maintain boundaries yet not fracture relationships or suffer other losses. I am able to help you learn to regulate your body to be able to apply the appropriate "dose" to be effective and not destructive.

Anger can damage relationships and erode ones own self-esteem. Together we will explore and identify the source of anger as well as learning anger management skill. With identifying the source and the use of skills, you will be able to maintain more balance in your life, balance in your emotions, improve relationships, and improved self-esteem.

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.

Rightful anger has an important place in life where and when it must be expressed. However, there are many forms of anger that are internally destructive and can become externally dangerous to ourselves and others. Some forms of anger come from long term contentious relationships and occurrences which can never go away or decrease in pain and agitation. Some forms of anger are explosive on the moment and other anger comes as a gradual escalating irritation that then reaches its limits. Counseling serves to teach skills of anger management and can defuse and even prevent out of control anger from erupting. Counseling is known to be very effective for addressing and safely controlling anger.

Are you at risk of losing your job or your partner because of your anger? Is your family afraid of you because you seem out of control? Has your anger led to violence or arrests? Anger is a valid emotion that has a bad reputation because of the way it can be expressed. Learn to understand your own anger as well as coping skills that can help you feel more in control. And get to root of your anger. Anger is a complicated emotion that is often protective of a more vulnerable emotion or side of yourself, i.e., fear or sadness. As you learn the skills of self support, you can get your needs met while feeling more in control of yourself and the way you interact with your world as well.