I have been teaching anger management groups for a while using a combination of psycho-educational and process oriented techniques. For recovery groups anger is often listed in the top 5 reasons people report relapsing. One of the successful techniques of managing anger and other emotions is to identify you go to mode of thinking. Below is 1 hand out I often use. We go over the and out, and I ask folks to chose their one or two go to thinking styles and give examples in relation to anger.
All or nothing thinking
- Be specific, focus on the behavior only and describe it with precision
Jumping to conclusions
- Pay attention and catch yourself making the assumptions
- Keep an open mind to other possibilities
Should statements
- Describe what you want or would like. Then if it doesn’t happen you
can be frustrated/disappointed but less likely to feel righteous anger
Blaming
- Forget the other person, they’re not going to do anything different
Labelling
- Don’t make judgments about the other person
Overgeneralization
- Make a conscious effort to look for exceptions
Magnification
- How bad is it really? Look at the whole picture
- Be very accurate & precise in your answer