About
What is anger management counselling?
Anger management is a specialist form of counselling that is focused on helping people deal with issues linked to anger. Anger Management can help you look at your anger with fresh eyes – and get your relationships and life on track.
Who is anger management counselling for?
Many different types of people come for anger management counselling – and they bring as many different issues as there are people. At one end of the spectrum, common problems include becoming angry very easily, over-reacting or feeling out of control when angry. At the other end, common problems include a difficultly in expressing anger or a sense of needing to keep it completely under wraps. Many people experience both.
How does anger management counselling work?
Anger management counselling at Cambridge anger management works in two potential ways:
- First, by helping you identify, understand and manage the symptoms associated with your anger issues. Ways of doing this include: identifying anger triggers, using practical approaches and techniques (eg using exercise and breathing to manage anger), using different withdrawal techniques, understanding anger (eg the difference between anger, rage, aggression and violence and the difference between hot rage and cold rage), cognitive/thought monitoring and reframing, imagery and imagination, relaxation and awareness techniques and understanding the personal values and codes of honour/conduct that may impact on your anger reactions. For many people, symptom management is what they want the main focus to be.
- Second, our counselling can also help you identify, understand, and if you want, change the underlying causes of your anger issues. This involves the counsellor helping you experiment with new ways of understanding and being with the causes of your anger.
How long does it take?
A typical anger management counselling programme lasts between 8 and 20 sessions – although some people choose to go longer.
This includes two initial sessions (at the end of which, if you don’t like it, don’t think you will work well with the counsellor, or simply change your mind) you can leave.
If you and the counsellor decide to carry on, these two initial sessions will be followed by between one and nine more sessions of anger management counselling and then one session for a wrap-up, discussion of next steps and action plan, review and ending.
Some people choose to have eight more sessions added on to this 12 (to make 20), as their issues benefit from some more in-depth work or they decide they want some more personal development. For the same reason, some people choose to continue with anger management counselling or more general counselling after the 20 sessions.
What happens in the sessions?
Every person who comes for counselling and every counsellor is different – so every anger management counselling experience is likely to be different. Here is just one example of how anger management counselling could play out:
Session 1-2: Initial assessment. Identifying and agreeing the aims/focus. Explaining confidentiality and how anger management works. Relevant background and medical information/family history taken.
Session 2-4: Mapping out the situation, issues and potentially helpful techniques. Agreeing ways of working together and defining any on-going plans (for inside and/or outside the sessions). Some people find this gives them what they want and decide to leave at this point.
Sessions 2-11: Anger management counselling. Focus on managing symptoms and/or on identifying, understanding and changing underlying causes, depending on each individual’s needs and preferences.
Session 12: Wrap up, review and endings.
In the sessions, the anger management counsellor will be curious about you and your life.
The anger management counsellor will listen to you, ask questions and will want to create a trustworthy and supportive relationship with you. They will be keen to understand the world from your point of view.
The counsellor will also want to work in a way that suits you – that helps you get the most from the session and that means you feel in control of the work being done.
Typical questions could include:
How do you feel about that?
It sounds as if you might have a pattern of ….?
In the context of understanding you and your situation, the counsellor will then seek to collaborate with you to create experiments, options or windows of opportunity for you for doing things differently or approaching things differently in some way. The aim is that any changes you make fit with what you want to do and are in manageable steps.
To do this well takes a good knowledge of psychology on the part of the anger management counsellor. It typically takes several years of training and on-the-job experience to become a good anger management counsellor.
Does it work?
“There is unequivocal evidence that, on average, psychological therapies have a positive effect on people’s mental health and well-being,” says Mick Cooper, professor of counselling research at the University of Strathclyde. And further scientific evidence shows that just under 8 out of 10 individuals who participate in counselling, improve more than someone who does not.
However, it should be noted some people will not benefit from anger management and some people will be better served with a referral to a different kind of specialist, to another counsellor or psychotherapist or to a completely different kind of service.
How do I find out more?
If you have any questions at all, send us an e-mail or leave a message on our confidential voicemail line. Tel: 01223 96 96 98.
Our e-mail address is info@angermanagementcambridge.co.uk
How do I book an initial appointment?
The two initial sessions can be booked by e-mail or via the answering service. Please tell us in advance which rate you want to pay. We sometimes arrange a short telephone conversation before the initial appointment, lasting up to 10 minutes. Book an initial appointment now.
Our e-mail address is info@angermanagementcambridge.co.uk
Telephone: 01223 261 061
Useful links:
www.cambridgecounsellingservice.co.uk