Anger

Seeking therapy for anger is often misunderstood as an attempt to eliminate anger, but anger is a necessary and important emotion that has to be expressed, at times, in a healthy way.

Anger often conceals ‘vulnerable’ emotions such as hurt, sadness, loneliness and fear.

They too are essential emotions from the matrix of the human condition.

Expression of vulnerable emotions has come to be viewed as a sign of weakness. This misperception can often be tracked back to inadequate parenting, social norms and unintended conditioning. People are often encouraged to suppress and ignore these emotions. If anger is unable to be acknowledged and understood, it continues to reverberate in us and can show up in other ways, such as, anxiety, or depression.

Today, the mental health field is acutely aware of the importance of expressing loss, pain and fear. These emotions are important to our emotional wellness.

Working with a therapist to develop a wider emotional palate can bring relief from emotional constriction as well as a reduction in shame. Psychotherapy can help by exploring the ‘hooks’ for our anger and understanding them, looking at our own unhealthy beliefs attached to our anger, reassessing some of the unhelpful beliefs about anger in our family, and understanding how anger affects our close relations.