Anger Management Therapy

• Does aggressive behavior destroy your relationships with friends or family members?
• Do you have trouble managing angry feelings and find yourself losing control?
• Have anger problems caused issues at work or school?
• Do you wish you could better manage anger and lead a more peaceful life?

People experience a broad range of emotions. You may feel joy, sadness, or anger throughout your day and week. Feeling emotions isn’t a problem. Sometimes, though, emotion takes over our thoughts and behavior. When this happens, we may feel out of control, and our careers or relationships may suffer.

What is Anger?

Anger is an emotion that triggers the body’s “fight or flight” response in response to the perception that someone or something mistreated you. When your fight or flight response is activated, your body floods with stress hormones like adrenaline.

When you’re angry, the brain directs blood away from other areas and toward the muscles: your heart rate and blood pressure increase. Your breathing becomes more rapid. Your body temperature rises, and you may sweat. Your mind focuses on reacting to the source of anger.

Anger can positively motivate you to make necessary changes in your lives. It can help motivate you to find solutions to problems. But, too much anger can cause problems with physical and mental health and relationships.

Is Your Anger Helpful or Unhelpful?

Anger is beneficial when your life or loved ones are threatened. If someone breaks into your house, your body preparing for action and sharpening your focus on the current moment is very useful. Your body will spring into action, and eventually, the situation will resolve so your emotional state can level out. This is helpful anger.

Unfortunately, we often feel angry about things that aren’t directly threatening our lives. That sort of anger is difficult to process because there isn’t a direct action you can take to resolve the natural path anger wants to take in your body.

Have you ever felt angry that your children didn’t listen when you asked them to put their shoes on in the morning? Maybe you’ve gotten angry when your spouse forgot to do something they promised to manage. In these situations, we often tense up, yell, withdraw, or even act out physically. This is unhelpful anger. This type of anger lasts a long time because there is no direct action we can take, or it harms our relationships with loved ones.

Unhealthy anger can harm your well-being and lead to coronary heart diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, bulimic behaviors, road accidents, and the severing of interpersonal relationships. Unresolved anger is also a leading cause of substance abuse.

How Am I Supposed to Control Anger?

Experiencing anger doesn’t make you a bad person; it just makes you human. We all feel anger from time to time. The important thing to learn is how to process anger healthily.

Anger can be a healthy emotion if you use it the way it’s intended – to make positive changes in your life and relationships. However, when we ruminate on angry thoughts or react with aggressive patterns whenever we feel angry, we lose control and hurt ourselves and others.

Controlling anger involves learning what anger is, identifying anger triggers, and developing healthy coping skills for managing anger.

What is Anger Management Therapy?

If anger negatively impacts your life, career, or relationships, targeted anger management therapy with a mental health professional may be right for you. Anger management therapy is a therapy that helps you improve your anger management skills so that uncontrolled anger doesn’t negatively impact your career, relationships, and health.

A therapist can guide you through anger management strategies, including the following.

• • Learning to use humor to calm your emotional response.

• • Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing exercises or progressive muscle relaxation.

• • How physical activity such as a brisk walk can help you manage anger.

• • Cognitive behavioral therapy you can use to reframe and restructure how anger works in your life.

• • Learning to express anger appropriately.

Contact our office to learn more about individual therapy for anger management.

Introducing Anger Management Group Therapy

At SMPsychotherapy and Counseling Services, we listen to client feedback and use it to improve our practice. That’s why we’ve started group therapy on a variety of topics. Our groups meet virtually to collaborate and learn from a mental health professional about various topics.

Our anger management group therapy will cover all the topics of traditional anger management therapy with the bonus of fellowship and community. You’ll meet others who want to learn practical strategies for managing anger to ensure it doesn’t cause problems in your relationships or career or damage your physical or mental health.

To learn more about group anger management therapy, click here.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you’re considering anger management therapy, you likely have some questions. Below you’ll find answers to our most frequently asked questions. If your question isn’t answered here, call 203.800.9778 or enviarnos un correo electrónico.

How much does anger management therapy cost?

SMPsychotherapy accepts most insurance plans, so you’ll only be responsible for a small copay. For more information on the benefits of your specific plan, call your insurance provider or contact our office. 

How long does anger management therapy last?

Therapy is very individualized, so we cannot tell you how long you will need to be in treatment to see results. However, many people start seeing improvement in their relationships and mental health after just a few sessions. 

Our group anger management therapy lasts for 12 weeks before enrollment for another session begins. 

Can I enroll a loved one if I think they could benefit from anger management therapy? 

You can enroll a dependent child in anger management therapy if you’re a parent. Otherwise, adults must register themselves. Treatment works best when the patient desires change and buys into the therapy process.