Anger Management Skills

Help Your Clients With Anger Managment Skills The Creative Way

I believe that as humans we have really only two emotions. These emotions are "joy" and "fear".

Joy represents all the happy and positive emotions such as "kindness, love, peace, hope, and happiness." Fear represents all the negative emotions from "stressed, anger, rage, sadness, depression, and agitation."

Do you see the range in the above emotions? When a human is stressed out they are a long way from being in fight or flight, right? Maybe they are coming from the same place... let me explain.

Human beings have three major brain parts. They are the neocortex, limbic, and brain stem (Reptile Brain). The brain stem, or reptile brain part, is located at the bottom of the brain.

It is the part we share with reptiles and it is 40 million years old. This brain part is where fear is located. You will also find fight, flight, or freeze syndrome here.

Anger, rage, addiction, sex drive, and trauma are also housed in this lower part of the brain.

This part of the brain tells you to swallow, tells your heart to beat, and does everything it can to keep you alive. It is a part of you that is only interested in your survival and reproducing offspring.

The reptilian brain (within all of us) does not respond to average anger management skills. If you want to reach this part of the brain you have to get creative. Talk therapy usually cannot reach this lower part of the brain stem. Have you ever tried to "counsel" someone who is in the middle of a trauma, or regressing back to a trauma?

Talk therapy won't work at this stage. Nor will basic anger management skills and techniques.

Creative Counseling will work during a client's regression to the reptilian part of the brain. First we have to be able to identify that the client is working from this part of the brain.

After we identify what I like to call reptile brain dysfunction, then we use our creative counseling anger management skills to help the client move to the higher parts of the brain and begin the healing process.

When someone gets angry, and everyone does get angry, it is usually based on a fear or response to a threat of some sort. It may be real or imagined, but anger comes from fear.

Fear comes from the reptilian part of the brain. It makes us fight, run (flight), or freeze (stuff).

Even unpleasant situations can cause us to get angry. If you think long enough about the anger and try to trace it to fear you will learn a lot about why you became angry.

More Anger Management Techniques and Activities Below:

Anger Management Skills to Anger Management Angry Tornado Activity

Anger Management Skills to The Tower Anger Management Activity

Anger Management Skills to Anger Management

Anger Management Skills to Creative Counseling 101 - Home

Disclaimer: This website and its content is intended for trained licensed mental health professionals and school certified mental health professionals to use for their clients / students at their own discretion.

*If you ignore the disclaimer above are using these techniques on yourself and you feel any discomfort or upset it is highly suggested that you seek out a licensed  mental health professional immediately.

"Beyond Art Therapy" is the concept from Dr. Stangline that combines all creative fields in therapy. It is not the traditional "art therapy" but goes beyond to include sand tray therapy, play therapy, mindfulness, meditation, color therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and a vast majority of other therapies.

For any other type of mental health emergency call your local 911 / Police Number immediately.

Dr. Stangline does not offer advice / suggestions to anyone who is not a professional mental health provider, or a student who is studying this field and has questions about mental health programs of study.