Anger Management and Counseling in Fairland, MD.

Life can present you with difficult situations which are hard to process and move past. These challenges are not on your timeline and affect everything. Having worked in many healthcare settings, I am familiar navigating life-changing events and grief. I understand the territory of encountering loss, coping with trauma, the complexity of the medical system and living with illness. These issues can have ripple effects on your relationships, sense of self and perceptions of the world. I know how complex things can get, and I will support you during this process.

Anger is a natural response to hurt and fear but it can cause more pain in our lives if we use it to hurt others, physically or emotionally. Anger that is destructive, usually comes from an old hurt that we are carrying within us. This hurt has been painfully touched by circumstances or by the actions of someone else. First we need to learn ways to stop our hurtful actions by taking a break or walking away. Then, however, we need to turn our attention to the underlying hurt and to bring compassion and care to our own hurt self. You will find that at the same time, you become more compassionate toward other people.

Anger management can change the course of your life. When we learn how to manage our feelings, instead of our feelings managing us, we begin to grow in psychological maturity. The quality of your relationships determines the quality of your life. I will assist you in understanding triggers, thought patterns, and developing alternative coping mechanisms to address difficult feelings. Your relationships and your life will thrive.

First I help the client to understand the purpose of their anger. There are usually feelings underneath, such as, hurt, sadness, feeling betrayed. Anger is a warning that something is wrong. We explore other ways to handle the issue without acting out the anger. Many people are impulsive and will need to change this habit to learn new ways to deal with their feelings. Groups can be very helpful. It is important to learn how acting out anger affects other people especially those you are close to.

I help clients develop strategies and techniques for managing intense anger or aggressive episodes. These techniques involve learning ways to “cool off” and validate underlying feelings so that they may be communicated more effectively. Generally speaking, difficulty with anger is typically the result of a person having difficulty regulating their emotions.Emotional Regulation is achieving a balanced emotional life where you are neither numbed out from your emotional experiences nor emotionally overwhelmed by them. Achieving emotional balance is done through both talk therapy as well as learning specific concrete strategies for managing your emotional experiences.

Approaching anger from the neuroscience perspective involves knowing which parts of the brain are not controlling the anger reaction, or why excessive anger reactions occur in the first place. Brain mapping helps identify these problems, and direct modulation of the neurons involved can greatly improve the person's ability to hold onto reactions, and think through their alternatives.

Anger is an unresolved issue from the past, which eventually ruins most relationships in a person's future. Anger is an emotion that we all experience. However, how one deals with their anger can become a big part of a problem. For some couples, anger can make it nearly impossible to figure out what the problem is or how to fix it. Counseling will decipher the root of the anger, and then how the client may manage those feelings. Oftentimes, sessions will involve the client, and the people who reside with them. Residents are encouraged to participate in counseling sessions for healing. The biggest challenge to living with a resentful or angry person is to keep from becoming one yourself.

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.

How do you know if your anger is serious enough to need help? A quick answer is if you find that anger is your go-to, knee-jerk reaction to everyday irritants and disappointments, or if your anger is compromising your quality of life, it may be time to talk to someone. My way of working with angry clients is to both search for the causes of the anger as well as figure out concrete, common-sense ways for anger to be managed on a daily basis. Anger itself is not the problem; often it's the management (or mismanagement) of it that brings on a host of other problems. Maybe you have a right to be angry! But wouldn't it be better to be able to express that anger in a way others can really hear it?

Time of Need Counselors utilize Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and REBT to address the patterns of thinking and behavior that leads to unhealthy ways of coping with anger. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a proven method to help you learn how you can think in ways that will help you deal with problems more effectively. Continuing to try to change your response using the same tools hasn’t worked. We invite you to contact our office to schedule an appointment to talk with one of our Cognitive behavioral therapist.