Anger Management and Counseling in Metuchen, NJ.

Anger can be both useful and destructive, it can motivate or it can destroy. Anger can negatively effect your health and welfare. If your anger is destroying your happiness and your relationships it is time to learn new coping tools. Often times beliefs and expectations can lead to rage and anger. I will help you learn about the belief systems that are not serving you well and coach you towards new belief systems. So often our desire for perfection or fairness lead to high levels of frustration. Learning to tolerate and detach can be tools toward serenity and peace. Forgiveness is not for the other person. It is for you. Learn how to channel your anger towards health and happiness.

I can help you or your partner / family member with anger management. We'll start with a thorough assessment of what's going on, including the history of how anger was modeled to you in childhood, the influences of your culture and family, your own anger story, and any grief or trauma you've endured. Then we'll talk about how you want to manage anger and make a customized plan to reduce verbal conflict and eliminate physical violence as we develop a strategy to communicate your needs and boundaries to those you trust and have those needs and boundaries met and honored. I'll be with you every step of the way.

Hurt, frustration, annoyance, irritability, disappointment....all can be experienced as anger. Gaining clarity about the sources of my frustration can lead me to a calmer and more satisfying life. My relationships do not thrive when anger is constantly present, so resolving these uncomfortable emotions can lead to a happier life. A therapist helps you achieve this.

One of the main tools I use with people to help them control anger, is mindfulness. Anger is a normal emotion; we all know what it feels like. No one can help how they feel, but they can certainly control what they do with these feelings. Mindfulness is a way to help people understand what is happening for them in the moment. Teaching people to stop and pause, as they become more aware of what is happening for them, is a way to help them make different choices, rather than jumping into the same patterns which have not been useful in their lives. There are other behavioral skills clients can use as well, but it all starts with slowing the process down and awareness of what is happening.

You don’t have to feel angry all the time. Sometimes anger is obvious, and causes emotional, family and legal issues. Sometimes anger is less obvious, resulting in self-destructive or passive-aggressive behaviors. While you are learning about the source of your anger and in order to heat you must develop techniques to keep the anger from boiling over into rage. Talking and exploring ways to redirect potentially destructive behaviors and thoughts relieves the anger and promotes healing and healthy emotions

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.

I believe children must first want to learn and perfect anger management. I have developed techniques to motivate the child or teen to develop a value system of respectful behavior toward others. Once this is achieved anger management skills can easily be obtained. Without a change in attitude and values, anger management training will fail because the child lacks the motivation to practice such techniques.

Clients can explore and resolve past experiences which may be contributing to an amplification of negative feelings in trigger situations causing tension and distressing emotions and body sensations. Resolving underlying emotional issues related to present anger can help to be able to safely express anger that a client may not have been able to get in touch with before.