Anger Management and Counseling in Montvale, NJ.

Anger is a natural reaction to a hurtful or threatening situation. When it becomes uncontrollable, constant, and extreme, unhealthy anger can wreak havoc on our lives. Some people can manage anger with self-taught techniques, reading materials, and other resources. Yet, anger management therapy is considered the most effective treatment option to address these anger issues and adopt healthy coping strategies to handle them when they arise.

Anger management is a growing problem in our culture. I utilize both individual and group therapy to help people learn to deal with their own anger and the anger of others. People are often convinced their anger is a good thing, until they lose important relationships or get fired from jobs. The first thing I do is show them the many ways their anger is harming them and others. I use many techniques to do this, including analysis, confrontation, video, role play and practice with constructive communication. In time they learn to express themselves in ways that resolve rather than inflame situations.

Do you find you have difficulty managing outbursts of anger? Or are you more prone to bottling your anger and sitting on it for hours or weeks on end allowing it to fester? Both of these are common responses to anger, and neither are beneficial. Anger management therapy can benefit you by helping you to learn that you can control the way in which you respond to your anger. Through exploring the underlying reasons for your anger you will gain useful knowledge to help you recognize your triggers. Furthermore, through mindfulness and cognitive behavioral approaches you will learn to channel your anger in a more productive way.

My main approach is to help my client identify situations (contexts), people, behaviors (his and others) that seem to usher in varying degrees of anger. My main message is that anger is an appropriate feeling to loss and frustration, but it is his learning to appropriately express anger in an adaptive manner that leads to emotional growth and the mollification of the anger itself.

"Sticks and stones will break my bones, but your words will break my heart." Anger Management is a powerful source of self-knowledge that develops skills that are useful throughout life. Anger Management does not eliminate anger; it empowers us to recognize surges of anger quickly enough to make a behavioral ‘U turn’ rather than saying or doing something we will regret. Instead of automatically reacting we redirect our attention inward to identify what has aroused the feelings of anger and how to deal with them appropriately. Over time the people close to us come to recall our previous anger as a dim and distant memory.

I help clients become more conscious and less reactive in their interactions. I teach clients specific strategies to break destructive patterns of relating and give them tools to communicate effectively. I also teach clients how to self-soothe. Within the safety of the therapeutic relationship, clients will explore the root of their anger and underlying emotions that are being expressed as anger or rage.

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.

The goal of anger management is to control the anger before it controls you by reducing your emotional and physical responses to situations that trigger outbursts. At Emerge, you’ll learn to manage the intensity of your thoughts, behaviors and actions since that is all that you have control over. You can’t change the people or environments that cause you to feel enraged, but you can change yourself and identify when to remove yourself from the situations that are triggers. If you feel you’re becoming angry more easily and having low frustration tolerance, you can benefit from anger management. The first step is understanding that there is help available and reaching out for the support in order to make the change.