Anger Management and Counselling in Ottawa, ON.

Anger is like many emotions we experience - it can get too hot to handle and when it is not dealt with it causes problems for ourselves and others. It can often lead to relapsing into addictive tendencies, having conflict with others and doing and saying things we regret later. At OWA Therapy you will learn to deal with anger by understanding where it is coming from and developing ways of regulating it. Instead of anger calling the shots, we will learn to get in control of anger and become empowered enough to choose how we express it.

To incorporate either DBT skills training or Psychodynamic approaches when working with clients who may identify to having anger management. To assess and explore the root cause of such issues. The goal is to enhance the emotion regulation of the client and this may entail exploring their early childhood developments or if past traumas have been experienced. A focus on problem solving is the goal with emotion regulation skills training.

Anger issues can be very destructive to relationships, careers and your health. Even though anger may have initially been used as way to help feel more powerful in the moment, it often leaves you feeling powerLESS in that it often feels like the anger is controlling you rather than you controlling it. It also becomes ineffective as a "problem solving" strategy in the long run. Anger usually hurts more than it helps. I will help you understand you anger - what causes it and why you fall into it so often - and provide the tools and support you need to overcome this issue. Anger may be trauma-based and I take a trauma-informed approach to therapy in general.

Anger is a strong and tough emotion. When used in an unproductive way, anger can harm our inner world and sense of self-esteem (i.e. self-criticism, self-injury), and harm our relationships (i.e. blaming, criticism, aggression, inflexibility). However, when this feeling is used in a healthy way, it can help us by alerting us that boundaries may have been crossed or that we may have some thoughts to challenge. It can also help to motivate us and help us to be assertive. We can work together to get a handle on anger and harness that energy in healthy, helpful ways.

At times anger can feel like an extremely powerful emotion. While anger can serve us by signaling when we’ve encountered injustice or our personal boundaries have been crossed, it can also impact our lives in unwanted ways. In seeking to better manage our anger, we can raise our awareness of what it is signaling while recognizing where it isn’t serving us, and then seek to create new ways of using that energy to create positive change in our lives. Through mindful awareness and behavioural practice, we can learn to respond and react in a manner that is supportive of our greater well-being, personal relationships, and best self.

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.

We will explore your anger and provide strategies to control it. You may experience shame and guilt after you experience anger. In our sessions, we will explore your triggers and how to control your impulses. We will utilize your strengths and resources to overcome your intense emotions. Knowing your triggers will reduce the chances of your anger getting out of control.

If anger has a hold on you and your life, therapy can help you feel free again. I can help you learn the necessary skills to manage overwhelming emotions that arise due to anger and help you identify the roots of your anger. Therapy can also help a person address underlying emotions and memories that may be contributing to the distress. With time and patience, anyone can learn to control their anger, and I am here to help you through this journey.

There are many things that can spark anger and it can be difficult to get a hold when anger takes over. It can also be difficult to understand why certain situations may lead us to feel angry and propel us to act in ways that may not be helpful to ourselves or to the relationships we are part of. Within therapy, I will help you to develop greater insight into how and why you experience anger and together, we will learn about the patterns that anger is connected to. I will also help you to develop tools to more safely connect with anger so that you can experience more fulfilling relationships with yourself and others. Contact me or book a free consultation if you wish to learn more.

Feelings of anger can sometimes be more accessible and available to us in moments of hurt, disappointment or frustration. At times anger can be triggered by an event or situation and invite you to say or do things that do not align with your preferred way of being. In our work together, we can explore the origins of anger, how it impacts and influences you and how you might want to be in a relationship with anger moving forward. Book a free consultation to explore if we are a good fit.

By loosely following an eight-ten session Anger Management protocol, clients have the opportunity to not only gain effective tools for gaining control over their anger, but also to finally gain an understanding of it. Clients learn of the triggers, emotional/physical reactions, and self-beliefs that maintain unhealthy anger expression. By developing physical, emotional, and cognitive coping strategies, clients complete this program feeling in control, empowered, and grounded.

Anger is really the outward expression of internal pain. Often it is easier to be angry than to feel painful emotions such as sadness, loss, and grief. But it is not easy to work through the underlying foundations of anger. By recognizing and understanding the feelings that are driving your anger, I can help you get to the bottom of your anger issues and support positive change in your life.

I will work with you to help you understand your triggers. We will talk about the emotions and feelings that are coming up for you in situations. I will teach you coping skills and alternative ways to process these difficult feelings that will allow you to better manage your level of anger. You will find that you are better able to be calmer in situations and your anger will be more manageable once you practice the coping skills more often!

Anger can be a sensation of needing to release pent up energy. The release of this energy may certainly be beneficial in the moment, however damaging in the long run. In the end, it can lead to irreparable damage to relationships and a person's fractured self esteem. Working together, it is my aim to help you imagine what a different future could look like.

Anger, frustration, rage, and reactivity overall, can make a person feel frustrated and powerless; when we have emotional outbursts of any kind they can feel so all-encompassing and make us feel like we are not in control of feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. In working with clients on their emotions I aim to primarily promote an understanding of why our emotional outbursts occur; once this has been established we begin to work on how to manage, mitigate, or change how these outbursts occur, or why we feel the way that we feel in the first place.

Have you ever felt like you needed to hold a piece of yourself back, fearing that people won't accept you? Do you feel you can’t be your true and authentic self around others? Are you constantly saying yes to things you want to say no to? Wouldn’t you rather feel like you’re in control? Others are more worried about how you act when you're angry than about why you're angry.

Anger is a friend in that it provides us with valuable information about ourselves and our surroundings. It can be understood as our emotional reaction to believing that either we or another have somehow been mistreated. it is most problematic in its expression rather than it its experience. Problematic expressions of anger present in varied forms, from passive forms to expressions of rage. We can learn to promote understanding of the meaning of our anger and the secondary emotions it triggers as well as how to develop alternative coping strategies.

I help clients unlock the negative cycle that anger and its accompanying behaviors may cause. In an empathic and supportive environment I help the client understand where the underlying feelings and thoughts originate and loosen the stranglehold that this cycle previously held. Together with cognitive and behavioral strategies we develop new and healthy coping methods to manage these emotions more productively.

Helping clients understand their anger - what is triggering them, where this anger is stemming from and healthier ways to cope with the pain and hurt often found behind angry behaviours. Explore various strategies to communicate their emotions (whether it be anger, frustration, pain, hurt, suffering, etc) in a healthier way to those around them. Helping clients understand the impact of their anger and their behaviours on those around them (whether it be in the workplace, with family or friends).

When experiencing a heightened emotion such as anger, there is a sense of being out of control. There is a lack of ability to control what one is saying or doing. In therapy, it will be about focusing on what one has control over when experience a moment of anger that results in a negative outcome. There will be a focus on body sensation, emotions and behaviours in order to manage and cope with the emotion of anger.

Anger, while a typical human emotion, can rapidly escalate into a problem when not under control. Therapy can assist you in regulating your emotions and actions, as well as in developing coping mechanisms to assist you in managing situations that trigger your rage. You can learn to settle disagreements more constructively and repair relationships damaged by anger by looking at the thoughts that cause them. You can learn relaxation techniques to assist you in calming down and relaxing your body and mind.

We start by identifying your anger triggers & things you have to be angry about. We identify your anger style, including behaviours you engage in when angry. We identify where anger happens in your body & work to help you start to see clues when your anger is starting to manifest. We help you improve your emotional language and vocabulary. We identify new ways you might react to anger. We will explore together your anger process, including analyzing instances when you were angry, the thoughts you had, the related feelings, & the behaviour you engaged in as a result. We will talk about "anger up, anger down," identifying the things you say to yourself that either increases or decrease anger.

My style of anger management may differ from the typical options. I focus on safe emotional release work called Psychodramatic Bodywork where the client and environment are safe and not at risk of injury/damage. Using floor and vertical mats, clients are supported to release feelings to then be able to access the root causes of their rage/fear/sadness/'anger management' struggles. Emotional release work is extremely transformational, and helps people release the adrenaline stored in their bodies that block mindfulness, clarity and authentic emotional expression. I look forward to explaining this process further during the free meet and greet sessions.