Anger Management and Counseling in Merrifield, VA.

Anger is a natural emotional response and it emerges as a combination of thoughts, statements, physical reactions, and overall physical arousal. One goal of therapy is to use anger as a helpful and constructive tool in recognizing and establishing boundaries or advocating for your needs. Another goal is to reduce agitation, aggression, argumentativeness, and tension, by learning and practicing skills that help you improve interactions with others and develop healthy ways to communicate your emotions.

While anger has a proper place in our lives, it is easy to get stuck in a cycle of escalating anger. This often happens because of things going on inside of us that we don't know how to work through on our own (and so we compensate, or cope, by getting angry). The good news is that regardless of what is fueling our anger, we are capable of building the necessary emotional muscles to work through those underlying issues, thus enabling us to control our anger healthily (instead of it controlling us). If you are struggling with anger I would be honored to help you make sense of, and work through, what is underneath it so that you can move towards more wholeness and peace in your life.

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 is much feared and little understood. It is an essential human emotion, and yet it can lead to rage, which is a destructive instinct. It is essential when dealing with anger to get to the root of it, which is most often deep hurt and/or loss. Using brainspotting (https://brainspotting.pro/) as well as psycho-education, I have helped many people make friends with their anger and have far greater freedom of choice as to how to express it.