Programs

Anger, Anxiety & Assertiveness

Anger and anxiety: how often we feel them, not just in the course of a week or a month, but even in a day! When these emotions take over, we can feel swept up in that feeling; in a sense, out of control.

Anxiety makes decisions difficult and unknown events more difficult to manage.

Assertiveness will help us to be firm in our convictions and beliefs. We will be able to stand our ground and offer an opinion, if there is enough assertiveness present.

Anger either allows a depth of feeling to be released to show the seriousness of a matter, or it is an enemy which, if let loose, can only wreak havoc and end in horrible consequences.

But anger, assertiveness and anxiety are issues which healthy people will have mastered to a sufficient degree, so that they do not rule our lives but work together for an integrated and well balanced life. Of course, all of this is easier said than done. In the work and ministry of pastoral psychotherapy one, or even all of these issues can spill over from our lives into the counseling room. Therapy can be about reducing anxiety, controlling anger and/or building up to assertiveness, either one at a time or, as is more typical of the way our emotions are tied together, working on them in some unique combination which may vary from week to week, or from therapy session to therapy session.

• Are you a man scared to unpack his rage?
• Do you stay late at the office?
• Do you stay distant from your partner?
• Are you concerned that your eating is out of control?
• Do you feel that you do not know how to speak about what you need and want?

Because I do so much work with these issues in the course of therapy, I am offering a program to help clients focus on one or all of these important issues to give them measurable goals to work toward. The program, called The Real Solution, focuses specifically on these issues. It consists of two tools, focused on anger, anxiety and assertiveness:

• brief, solution focused therapy
• a workbook which supports the therapy and which for some can be a tool used by itself. (Often a client will purchase the workbooks as an aid to their therapeutic work.)

Assertiveness training, anger management and anxiety reduction are three areas to which I devote much of my time when working with clients, so now it is time to specialize with those who feel that the next stage in their personal growth is as specific as one of these topics.

When you are ready to deal with one or several of these issues to help yourself, give me a call and I will see how I can help you to achieve your goals against the background of the Growth Central philosophy.

Call me at (248) 474-4701 to set up a consultation, to inquire about a program for your group, or to refer someone for whom therapeutic work on one or several of these issues may be the next step in their growth and development.