How to Teach Anger Management

Whether culminating in interpersonal conflicts, outbursts at work, family and marriage issues or criminal behavior, anger can be problematic when handled improperly. Learning how to manage anger in a healthy manner can be challenging, and teaching others to do so is a daunting task. However, by teaching basic principles of anger management and using a few practical tools, group leaders can help others learn to transform untamed anger into a catalyst for change.

Things You'll Need

• Flip chart
• Markers

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Instructions

• 1

  Identify the source of anger. Tell students that anger functions as an indicator that a boundary has been violated, a perceived injustice has been committed, a change needs to occur or an individual's needs are not being met.

• 2

  Ask your class to list three times they have been angry and classify which causes apply to each situation.

• 3

  Encourage students to identify remedies to these causes. Ask them to list how they might assert interpersonal boundaries, change an interaction, remedy or express injustices or meet their own needs in a situation instead of letting anger take over.

• 4

  Discuss exit strategies. Ask students to brainstorm ways to exit dead-end situations that are outside of their control or influence. Write down responses on the flip chart as students call them out.

• 5

  Teach the group physical warning signs of anger so they can learn to anticipate angry responses within themselves. Explain how muscles in the hands and shoulders tense, body temperature increases, heart rate increases and breathing becomes shallower. Ask students to hold onto an angry thought for a moment and watch the tension signs in their bodies.

• 6

  Set up role playing scenes. Ask two members of the group to enact a situation the group has discussed from their personal experiences. Identify the moment of anger and ask the group to identify options. Instruct the actors to play out those options one at a time.

• 7

  Lead the group in breathing exercises. Instruct group members to place one hand on their upper stomach and inhale first through their diaphragms and then into their lungs, to aid relaxation.

• 8

  Teach the group helpful visualizations. Ask them to define the color and texture of their anger and envision it as something outside of them rather than inside of themselves. Have them envision the color of light they feel most peaceful, which grows larger every time they inhale while the negative feelings shrink and dry up.

• 9

  Highlight avenues for change. Use an example of a heated interaction and explain how it brought both parties to the same place they started at (for instance, an argument over lack of communication that ends with neither party really communicating). Ask students to identify the limited options that make these interactions feel circular and brainstorm "outside the box" choices that could truly lead to obtaining the goal in question.