– A Brain Change Plan for Anger

Last Updated on March 22, 2013 by Chris Roberts

CREATING A PLAN FOR ALTERING BRAIN WIRINGS TO HELP PEOPLE WHO ARE ANGRY OFTEN.

References “How to Heal the Angry Brain.  Mad Men.” an article in Psychotherapy Networker magazine by Ron Potter-Efron

Almost everyone is familiar with the concept and force of anger, either in our own life or in being in relationship with someone that habitually responds to situations with anger or angry outbursts.  And most of us can imagine that those people who are classified as angry people are usually not inclined to use the services of anger therapy to help deal with their anger outbursts.  Oftentimes, the only way angry people get to anger therapy to deal with their anger is through ultimatums such as, “Get help with your anger or else…”  As such, the difficulty for any anger management therapist is to create an environment for the angry person that is non-judgemental and non-forceful, while inviting the angry individual to consider that working on their anger can increase the chances of happiness, peace, and a better life for themselves and their loved ones.  We discussed in a previous article how dealing with anger from a brain-connections perspective helps remove the stigma that someone, including the therapist, is out to simply change their behavior of anger.  In fact, we also discussed that anger is usually a defensive mechanism used by the angry person to keep other people from hurting them in a similar fashion that had happened earlier in their life.

Ron Potter-Efron is a psychotherapist who wrote a case study about an angry client who came to see him because his wife had threatened to leave him if he didn’t work on his anger.  The client is a 40 year-old male who cared deeply about his family and wanted the best for his wife and kids, but continually reacted in angry ways.  Potter-Efron gave this client a brain-change plan to work on the client’s anger, but in ways that dealt specifically with changing the client’s current brain wiring that led consistently to reactions of anger.  Potter-Efton writes,

“…I cautioned (the client) again that real brain change doesn’t come easy.  I told him that he’d need to make a strong commitment to practice new behavior for at least several months so he could build, improve, and expand new circuitry inside his brain while reducing the power of his negative brain circuits…A person with a good brain plan has given it a name that means something at an emotional level, includes specific initial behaviors to maximize the opportunity for immediate success, and at least speculates about longer-term improvements and additions, and how achieving these changes might affect him or her.” (p. 71)

The client in Potter-Effron’s case study continually came up against new circumstances where the client was unaware of how his responses of anger were based out of past relationships and experiences.  As the client felt his own power to change his responses and the subsequent kinder engagements from those he loved, the client felt more hopeful that changing his brain connections could actually produce more enjoyable interactions with them.  The client began to believe that change was possible and that the previous world he lived in where danger and strife were prevalent was not always an accurate portrayal of the climate of his current relationships.  Further, the client began to feel more confident of his innate sense of power and self worth, and therefore didn’t need to act out of anger to “prove” to the world he had power and influence.

As the client made conscious choices in the moment to respond with emotions other than anger, he became more in touch with past memories where he was deeply hurt and affected by those he loved.  The client was able to talk with Potter-Efron and make sense out of his past hurt experiences, such that the client realized that responding in anger when the client was younger was not necessarily a poor action.  This enabled the client to be gentler with himself when he would be angry in his present situation.  It gave the client insight that he had a choice to make in every situation, and that usually anger would not move him closer to the goals he had made for a healthy life for himself and his family.

Potter-Efron stated that this client met with him for nine months and concluded with a session with the client and his wife, and his wife confirmed the client had changed dramatically.  Of course, not all anger therapy engagements result in a happy ending like this.  Anger is a common and devastating force.

If you, or someone you know, is dealing with the destructive and repetitive force of anger, we at Two Trees Counseling Nashville would love to be of assistance to you.  Therapists in the Nashville, TN area have a variety of methods of working with anger and this is but an illustration of one of them.  If you would like more information about anger counseling or anger management please feel free to contact us.