Anger: some basic theory.
No person and no situation can make us angry, we do it all by ourselves in our own brain.
When we feel angry in our head, we can contain it, suppress it or express it.
We learn to contain or suppress our anger in many social, work and domestic situations, where it is simply inappropriate.
Where there are insufficient social and personal constraints we may express our anger. This can become habitual and automatic.
Expressing feelings of anger is an emotional rather than a cognitive process. Both start in our brain, as our anger increases our ability for rational thinking decreases.
As we express our anger we release our own negative tension, completing a natural fight and flight cycle.
When our ability to think more rationally returns we may feel emotional regret or attempt to justify or rationalise our anger as the other person's fault.
At this point nothing has changed, we are simply reinforcing our behaviour.
Anger: changing cognition and behaviour.
Our therapy for clients includes the following:
1. Sharing and identifying angry behaviours.
2. The psychological effects of suppressing or expressing anger.
3. How early learning from childhood and previous relationships can affect behaviour.
4. Recognising and becoming self-aware of feelings of anger at an early stage.
5. Healthy containment of feelings of anger.
5. Hypnosis to change automatic behaviours
6. Relaxation techniques to counter negative feelings and anger.
7. CBT techniques to change perception and automatic responses.
Anger: at this point you are at the beginning of a learning curve. Return to welcome page