Anger Management and Counselling in Ottawa, ON.

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.

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.

I’ve been helping people lead more intentional lives for over 20 years. I will help you think before you speak, take time to calm down, use humor to lessen your anxiety, and many more tools to get you to reach your full potential. I’m trained in cognitive behavioral therapy, developmental models,and anxiety and depression management. Most importantly, my aim is to focus on you as a distinctive person, with distinctive needs. My goal is to work with you as a unique individual, and focus on YOUR goals.

No one WANTS to be angry. Anger is a secondary emotion - meaning, it's a symptom of another emotion that you are dealing with through anger. Often when we feel an emotion that is too overwhelming for us to manage, we react with anger, which lets us avoid that original emotion. Managing your anger will mean that we explore what that original emotion is, help you to identify what caused it, and how you can tolerate it without utilizing anger. Sessions will also allow you to express your feelings in a safe, supportive environment, without judgment, perhaps for the first time.

A response to life's events falls upon a continuum from neutral to highly-reactive. At times anger, Gandhi called it "Righteous Indignation," is necessary to respond to injustices or inappropriate behaviours. However, uncontrolled, inappropriate anger is destructive to one's self and others. Mindfulness and Metta (Loving Kindness) meditations are excellent tools to deal with anger. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) also called Tapping, along with skillful use of affirmations can help to cool the fires of anger. The benefits of anger management lead to a regulating of emotions and thus a gaining of peace of mind, positive relationships, career and family security.

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.

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.

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.

It can be difficult to control our emotions, especially in these challenging times. Anger can also be an expression of other emotions that are lying beneath the surface. Psychotherapy can help identify tools that work for you in learning to regulate your emotions, as well as approaching your anger with preventative strategies such as learning to recognize when you begin to feel angry, and regular activities that can help alleviate stress and build up your stress tolerance. You are not defined by your anger, and your anger doesn't control you. By learning to identify your triggers and the purpose your anger serves for you, therapy can help you make a shift bring more peace into your life.

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.