Anger Management Counselling and Therapy

Anger Management Therapy: Finding Clarity and Effective Control

Anger is a normal human emotion. Feeling angry is a natural response to adverse external events like mistreatment, losses, or injustice. This emotion pushes us into action to rectify the situation. Anger is not a problem. It only becomes an issue when it is not expressed constructively and can be better controlled and managed through anger management therapy.

Everyone feels angry from time to time. However, when anger becomes overwhelming or hard to manage, it can strain our relationships and affect our overall well-being. Learning to understand when we are prone to feelings of anger can help us gain more clarity, find ways to manage it effectively and work towards being more in effective control.  Anger management therapy, goes beyond anger management sessions, to provide opportunity to us to discover  insights into our own experiences and under our emotions to learn to respond in healthier, more constructive ways.

Recognising When You May Experience Anger 

Each of us reacts to different situations differently. Some common situations that bring up anger include feeling dismissed, overwhelmed with responsibilities, or facing injustice. Anger may also arise in situations involving grief and loss. Recognising the situations where we are more prone to strong feelings of anger is the first step in managing it. When we can identify such moments, we can pause, take a step back, and handle them with a clearer mind rather than letting emotions direct our actions. Anger counselling services in Singapore at In Focus Counseling & Therapy can help you identify these situations.

The Role of Beliefs and Thoughts Accompanying Our Anger

Our feelings are closely related to our beliefs and thoughts, formed throughout our lives. These beliefs and thoughts may be deeply held due to experiences like our upbringing, culture, or significant life events. They have served a role for us in one way or another. For instance, prior experiences of injustice may have taught us to voice out or fight back to protect ourselves or others; or justice and fairness may be a value learned from significant people in our lives, adopted as a way of staying connected with them.

These beliefs are not inherently right or wrong. For most, they are part of how we see ourselves and strongly tied to who we are. However, how these beliefs are lived out may lead to recurring feelings of anger, even isolation, impacting us and those around us. Anger therapy can help examine these beliefs.

Physical and Emotional Signs of Anger

Anger is often felt in the body through bodily sensations. We might feel our heart race, tightness in our chest, muscles tensing, shallow breathing, and heat in the body. Emotionally, anger may be present in varying degrees, from irritation or annoyance (milder levels) to infuriation or outrage (greater intensity). Our feelings are important for knowing when something is not right and to do something about it. For example, in situations of mistreatment, anger can be productive when used positively to assert oneself and set boundaries.

When we do not notice the early signs of feeling angry, or we ignore these feelings for too long, they can build up quickly. This strong intensity affects our ability to focus or communicate effectively. By noticing the signs early, we can choose to pause and respond sooner to take charge of our internal experience. Where appropriate, we can then direct the energy intentionally to communicate our needs more effectively.

Different Expressions of Anger

How each person expresses anger differs. Often, it comes from what we learned or observed through others and our environment. Some learned to express anger aggressively (e.g., yelling, lashing out, violence). Others learned indirect communication (e.g., silent treatment, sarcasm). Some avoid any expression of anger and suppress it. Anger management and therapy sessions can help you understand your specific expression.

Consequences of Poor Anger Management