Anger Management

Modern psychology looks at anger itself in a relatively neutral way. It is an inevitable, natural part of the human experience. In addition, anger has value for survival. Anger can mobilize psychological resources for the fight or flight response.

Anger usually arises when we feel we have been deliberately wronged by a person or a situation. When we feel like our anger is so overpowering that it takes over, it usually affects our heart rate and nervous system. Over time, stress hormones like cortisol become elevated and have been shown to cause damage to the cardiovascular system, e.g. it may increase blood pressure.

Uncontrolled anger can negatively affect our mental health, too. We may experience disruptions in career goals, negative effects in interpersonal relationships, and threaten peace and security in our home life and others' peace and safety in our communities.

Whether you have been the recipient of aggressive or passive anger, or if you feel like you could use some help in addressing your feelings of anger when they arise, there are many ways to take back control of our response to others  - and take back control of our own reactions.

Through proven techniques and treatment, we are able to change responsiveness to anger such that it is actually a positive emotion. It can act as a signal to us that something deserves further attention. Techniques for dealing with anger can help us decide if something should be addressed right away or later, when we feel more in control.

Learning to use anger in these ways is not something we often learned in school or in our families or cultures of origin. In some cultures, anger is never appropriate to be experienced or expressed. In others, certain kinds of anger can be a sign of attention, honesty, and passionate expression.