This 2-day workshop will focus on conceptualizing anger as a legitimate clinical problem and provide participants with a menu of strategies and interventions that can be applied to adult and adolescents with problematic anger reactions. A brief overview of several underlying issues of concern to practitioners, such as definitional and diagnostic confusion, common co-morbidity patterns, and guidelines for distinguishing everyday anger experiences from more pathological reactions, will be discussed.

This workshop will highlight and demonstrate, through brief video-taped examples and experiential exercises, several initial approach strategies designed to increase client awareness of the costs associated with anger episodes. Participants will learn how to conduct a structured Anger Episode Model interview to understand how anger is experienced and expressed in the client’s real-life interactions. The analysis of anger episodes forms the groundwork for building motivation for change, as well establishing treatment goals.

Since a one-size-fits-all model of treatment is impractical, due to the variability of client characteristics and settings in which anger treatment is delivered, a flexible menu-driven model will be proposed.  Along with the traditional Cognitive Therapy approaches to anger reduction, several novel and promising interventions will also be covered. These include using exposure to reduce reactivity to triggers and to create opportunities for new responses to be practiced and reinforced in treatment sessions, and ultimately in daily interactions. Forgiveness will be presented as a strategy for addressing long standing anger reactions to help clients think differently about perceived past transgressions in order to move forward in their lives with less anger and bitterness.

Opportunities to observe and practice new skills will be provided through a series of structured learning activities that include demonstrations, ‘real’-plays, and small group exercises. This workshop is designed as active professional development.

During this two-day workshop participants will:

• Learn a comprehensive menu of evidence-based anger interventions for a variety of treatment settings
• Learn how to enhance engagement by using Motivational Interviewing skills to approach reluctant and coerced clients so that they make their own arguments for changing anger reactions
• Become aware of available standardized assessment instruments that measure anger in adolescents and adults
• Be able to provide feedback on assessment results in a way that enhances awareness of problematic anger reactions and increases motivation for change
• Understand the critical features of anger reactions by using the 5-stage sequential anger episode model (triggers, appraisals, experiences, expressive patterns, & outcomes)
• Be able to conceptualize interventions across stages of the treatment process: preparation, change, accepting/adjusting, and maintenance
• Learn evidence based – traditional – CBT interventions to reduce disruptive anger
• Become familiar with how to integrate novel approaches, such as exposure, forgiveness, and positive psychology techniques into anger treatment

Course Leaders:

Dr Raymond Chip Tafrate	Dr Monica O’Kelly

Course Endorsements:

Dates & Venues 2012:

CBT Australia 2-day workshops are $600.00 (early bird registration $546.00)

Cancellation Policy:  Cancellations must be received in writing to CBT Australia.  Refunds are given (less 10%) for cancellations received by 5 pm a minimum of 10 days prior to the commencement of a course. Cancellations received AFTER this date, are ineligible for a refund, however may be transferred to a future course and will incur a 10% transfer fee. Registrations are transferable to another person upon notification.

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Course Outline:

DAY ONE:

Anger Basics

• The scientific neglect of anger and what this means for practitioners
• What is normal? -- Adaptive versus disruptive anger reactions
• Common anger myths and controversies (i.e., gender differences, self-esteem, anger as a primary or secondary emotion, the relationship between anger and aggression)
• Ubiquitous and intangible: The problem of defining anger
• Comorbidity and collateral issues (e.g., substance use, violence, & other concerns)
• Anger and the DSM: Existing models and diagnostic criteria for anger disorders

Strategies for the Initial Approach

• Common roadblocks with angry clients
• Client centered versus active directive presentation style
• Motivational Interviewing as an early strategy with ambivalent, resistant, and coerced clients
• Harness inner motivation by recognizing and reinforcing change talk
• Letting clients know where they stand: Providing feedback on standardized anger test scores to enhance awareness
• Using the Anger Episode Model interview to examine consequences and outcomes of real-world anger episodes
• Using traditional CBT strategies to engage individuals who arrive ready and willing to make their anger reactions the focus of treatment

Assessment: Understanding Anger Patterns

• Three-part assessment model
• Assessing comorbid problems
• Valid and reliable anger-specific assessment instruments for adolescents and adults
• Idiographic assessment using the Anger Episode Model (triggers, appraisals, experiences, expressive patterns, & outcomes)

DAY TWO:

Evidence-Based Anger Interventions: Motivational, Cognitive, and Behavioral Approaches

• What works: What the treatment outcome literature tells us -- and what it doesn’t
• Rationale for a flexible menu-driven approach

 

Cognitive Therapy for Anger Reduction

• Helping clients to identify and accept their anger
• Eliciting and identifying cognitions that trigger anger reactions
• Working on the B-C (belief, emotion & behavior) link
• Exploring and challenging cognitions that trigger anger
• Helping clients develop a more realistic and flexible philosophy

 

Behavioral Interventions

• Improving impulse control
• Reducing physical activation: Relaxation based approaches
• Skill building: Problem solving and assertiveness

Rising Stars: Promising Anger Reduction Strategies

• Using exposure procedures to reduce reactivity to typical anger triggers and to practice more adaptive responses
• Forgiveness as an anger reducing philosophy:  A 5-step model for letting go of long-term anger and resentment
• Enhancing happiness: Integrating positive psychology techniques into anger treatment

Questions, Comments, Final Thoughts…

CBT Australia 2-day workshops are $600.00 (early bird registration $546.00)

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