Anger

Anger issues may be divided into two broad groups:

1) Difficulty in being aware of and expressing anger, and

2) Difficulty in controlling anger.

Often problems with "1" may lead to problems with "2".

As with many other issues, the roots of these difficulties often lie in childhood and early experience within the family environment:e.g. How did your parents handle anger and how did you respond to this?

Many of us assume that the only ways of handling angry feelings are to either act them out (e.g. by shouting at someone or using violence), or alternatively to suppress it completely. As a result we can become (at the extremes) either bullies or door-mats: perpetrators or victims of aggression and abuse.

There is in fact another possibility which is to learn to express anger appropriately. This can be done in such a way as to leave the other party in no uncertainty about your feelings but without attacking them. If you can master this skill then it becomes possible to discharge anger and leave it behind: instead of carrying it around like an unexploded bomb!

In my experience anger work is often about teaching clients how to act assertively and use the powerful energy of anger in creative and constructive ways.