What Is Anger Management Therapy & The Benefits To Kids, Teens, & Adults

Do you find yourself becoming angry more often than the average person? Do you often end up saying or doing things in the heat of the moment that you later regret? Anger management issues are extremely common and can make life extremely difficult. They also make things more difficult for the other people in your life. If you’ve been struggling with your anger, then anger management counseling might be the best choice for you. Here’s a little information that might help you find better ways to deal with your anger.

How Do I Tell If I Have Anger Management Issues?

Feeling angry is a common part of the human experience. Everyone experiences it sometimes! In fact, proper expression of anger can actually be very healthy. However, some people develop an unhealthy relationship with their anger. Often people with anger issues have trouble controlling their anger, which makes them volatile and difficult to be around. Here are some signs that you might need help managing your anger:

• Feeling out of control when you’re angry.
• Having difficulty expressing your emotions calmly.
• Finding yourself screaming at or threatening other people.
• Often feeling the impulse to physically harm other people.
• Struggling with road rage.
• Often becoming angry when under the effects of alcohol.
• Often finding yourself saying things while angry that you later regret.

If these things describe you, then anger management therapy might be a positive choice.

What Is Anger Management Therapy?

Managing anger is a skill just like any other – one that many people struggle with. Anger therapy is a form of therapy that teaches you techniques for controlling anger in a calm and positive way. It takes patience and dedication to learn the ways to control your anger, but anyone can learn to do it. The key here is self-awareness. An anger management therapist will help you figure out what triggers your anger. They can also give you the tools you need to analyze your emotions and express them in a healthier way. Anger can be caused by all kinds of things: shame, insecurity, fear, anxiety, trauma, frustration, or many other factors. If you can learn to identify the root causes of your anger, you can then learn to control it. This can be done through anger counseling or cognitive behavior therapy (CBT).

Anger Management For Kids

Learning to manage anger is difficult enough as an adult, but it’s even tougher for kids. Play therapy administered by a licensed play therapist at Stenzel Clinical can really help. Play therapy focuses on the childs level of comnprehension as anger issues within children may be harder to decipher initially.

Children tend to feel emotions stronger than adults do, and often have trouble managing the way they feel. Anger and sadness can be especially powerful emotions for kids. Most kids figure out how to manage their emotions with good parenting, but some kids need a little extra help. Anger management for children can be an extremely effective tool for making sure your little one grows up into an emotionally intelligent adult.

It’s important to keep in mind that anger is a healthy emotion for children to experience! The goal should be for them to learn to manage it, not suppress it.  Play therapy can really help children but here are a few exercises you can do with your child to help them learn positive anger management:

• Conceptualize their anger. Ask your child to show you in a picture where they feel their anger coming from. Anger is often felt physically in the stomach, chest, or throat. Try to help your child be in tune with the ways anger manifests physically in their body. This is a great first step!
• Give them a safe space to express anger. Children often express their anger physically, and it’s extremely important that they learn to direct the emotion in nonviolent ways. Try creating an “anger corner” with soft pillows they can squeeze when they’re feeling frustrated.
• Practice breathing exercises. Breathing is one of the best ways to control anger. Try getting your children started early on breathing exercises so they can calm themselves down.

Anger Management For Teens

Anger issues are extremely common in teenagers because of the powerful cocktail of hormones that come with adolescence. Teenagers are also often under a lot of pressure at school and at home. Remember how complicated your social life felt in high school? This can lead to a lot of frustration and anger. To a certain extent, this is just a part of growing up. After all, pretty much everyone has an embarrassing story about blowing up on their parents as a teen. That just means it’s even more important for teens to learn to control their anger in a healthy way. Anger management therapy can give them techniques they can use during their teens and well into their adult lives.

Anger Management For Adults

Adulthood comes with a ton of difficulty and pressure, which can make anger issues even worse. It’s important to learn how to manage your anger before it begins to affect your work or personal life. Alcoholism, PTSD, or any number of other conditions that might develop during your adult life can exacerbate anger issues. If you feel like you’re losing control of your anger, then counseling is probably a great idea.

Remember that the goal here isn’t to suppress your anger! Studies have shown that holding in your anger can actually lead to health problems down the road. Instead, you should be focusing on learning ways to express that anger in positive and healthy ways. “Positive” might seem like an odd word to use here, but it’s an accurate one! When properly managed and controlled, anger can actually be a useful and positive emotion. Anger can be a great motivator, and it can spur a drive to change things. Anger can also help passive people stand up for themselves when treated unjustly.

If you’re interested in finding an anger management therapist, there are a ton of resources out there. If you want a local anger management therapist here in Chicagoland, please call Stenzel clinical Services. We have 4 locations to serve you here in Illinois. You may also visit our website to contact us here: https://stenzelclinical.com/contact-us/