According to a 2019 NPR-IBM Watson Health poll, 84% of women and men surveyed believed that their fellow Americans are angrier now than they were a generation ago. Almost half stated that they themselves were angrier, too.
Although anger can sometimes create motivation, too often it simply overwhelms your body’s systems, draining them of energy and blocking your ability to see viable solutions to whatever irks you. When you’re consumed with anger, your body pays the price with symptoms and signs such as:
And that’s just what happens inside your body. Outside, you may lash out at loved ones and cause irreparable emotional or physical harm. You could jeopardize your career, your social standing, and your financial security.
If you want to learn how to control your anger, our caring professionals at The Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling are here to help. At our Greenwich Village offices in New York City, New York, or via secure teletherapy, we offer evidence-based counseling, including dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), to help you face the challenges of the world.
How can DBT help you manage your anger? Following is a brief guide to DBT’s methods and benefits.
If you find yourself turned off by simplistic methods of anger management, such as repeating affirmations you don’t believe, DBT acknowledges the complexity of your emotions as well as the conditions that evoke them. The term “dialectical” refers to an ongoing Socratic dialogue you have while attempting to achieve a state of balance in a world of opposing ideas.
With DBT, you learn to live with the complexity that you experience both internally and externally. Developed in the 1970s by Marsha Linehan, DBT’s initial goal was to help patients with dysregulated emotions. Through DBT, you both learn to accept your emotions and learn how to change unhelpful behaviors.
Like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which can also be useful for anger management, DBT is a form of talk therapy. Your counselor determines whether individual or group sessions best suit your needs through a DBT assessment.
Individual sessions last from 40-60 minutes. Goals of individual therapy include:
Group DBT may run from 1.5-2 hours per session. It isn’t a group therapy session in which people discuss their problems. Instead, it’s a classroom-type environment where you learn:
We may also give you access to 24/7 crisis control if you or a loved one is in danger due to self-harm or other forms of violence. Between DBT sessions, you track your emotions — including anger — on a diary card or app.
The diary card or app also breaks down the techniques you’ve learned to serve as a reminder that you have new skills to drawn on when faced with challenges. You also track how often you use these new skills — including self-soothing and radical acceptance — to defuse potentially explosive situations.
Even though the average treatment course for DBT lasts about 6-12 months of weekly sessions, the skills you learn continue for the rest of your life. A meta-analysis found that DBT significantly reduces anger, with better emotional regulation associated with longer treatment times.
Don’t let anger upend your life. Find out how DBT can help you learn to manage your anger to improve your quality of life and keep you and your loved ones safe. Contact our team about anger management with DBT by phone or online form today.
