What’s The Best Therapy for Anger Management?

Anger is a natural emotion. It’s perfectly normal to feel angry from time to time, but uncontrolled anger can indicate an underlying mental health condition known as an intermittent explosive disorder (IED). IED is marked by regular impulsive outbursts and aggression. IED afflicts around 11.5-16 million Americans. People with IEDs often react disproportionately to situations.

Anger can Negatively Impact Your Physical and Mental Health.

Uncontrolled anger can negatively affect a person’s personal and professional relationships. Some long-term consequences of uncontrolled anger include high blood pressure and anxiety. Studies show that short-tempered people have a higher risk of stroke. Anger problems weaken one’s immune system and increase the risk of depression.

Therapies for Anger Management

If you have anger issues, individual counseling is the best place to learn anger management techniques. The purpose of counseling is to help people with IEDs find constructive ways to express their anger. With the help of therapy, you learn to identify your triggers and manage them in a healthy way.

Here are some types of anger management therapies

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, has been shown to be highly effective for anger management. CBT helps people with anger issues evaluate their negative thoughts and understand how they affect their actions. Once they notice these patterns, their therapist teaches them ways to change their behaviors and helps them develop an effective coping strategy. Some common techniques used in CBT include

• Guided discovery and questioning: Your therapist encourages you to question the assumptions you have about yourself and consider different viewpoints
• Journaling: Your therapist asks you to jot down your negative thoughts and emotions and replace them with positive alternatives
• Thought recording: You are asked to record your thoughts and feelings that you experience during a specific situation and evaluate them
• Situation exposure: You rank situations or things that cause distress in order of level of negative impact. Your therapist encourages you to gradually expose yourself to these situations and/or things until they lead to fewer negative emotions.

How long does CBT therapy last? – CBT is usually considered a short-term therapy. Most patients need 5-20 sessions. How long you will stay in therapy depends on a number of factors, including the severity of your symptoms, how quickly you make progress, and how long you have been trying to deal with anger issues.

Family Therapy

This type of therapy is usually used when the person often takes out their anger on family members. Family therapy helps people struggling with anger issues, examine family roles, and identify behaviors exhibited by family members and family rules that contribute to conflict. They learn to express their thoughts, emotions, and feelings toward their loved ones in a positive manner.

Cooper Mental Health Counseling is a trusted counseling center in Manhattan. We offer different types of therapies, including couples counseling and individual counseling, in Manhattan. Our therapists possess specialized knowledge that enables them to develop customized mental healthcare plans. To learn more, call (347) 244-7873.