Glossary
Anger Management
What is anger and why do we experience it?
Anger is an immediate strong emotional reaction that, at high levels, activates your body’s ability to quickly react to unpleasant situations, often described as a 'fight or flight response'. It has developed as a way for you to survive life-threatening situations. However there is a downside in that, if it happens too often, it can limit your body’s ability to heal itself causing medical problems such as high blood pressure. Also, its side effects can interfere with your ability to do well in social situations and have a good quality of life.
How can we help?
We work with you on developing a clear understanding of the triggers for your anger in order to reduce anger outbursts. We also develop strategies with you for controlling them. We then show, practice and develop self-monitoring strategies to help you to manage anger outbursts when they occur.
Anxiety
What is anxiety and why do we experience it?
We all experience anxiety when faced with situations we find threatening or difficult. It may be caused by an ongoing worry or as sudden responses to something that makes us feel scared or threatened (this might be characterised as a specific fear or ‘phobia’). Anxiety can affect us both psychologically and physically and carries a range of symptoms. These include: palpitations, breaking out into a cold sweat, discomfort in the stomach, tense muscles, diarrhea, difficulty concentrating, racing thoughts, fears of physical illness, amongst a range of others).
How can we help?
We can help you understand how anxiety persists. This is often due to a spiralling vicious cycle of physical symptoms, worrying thoughts, and changes in behaviour. Anxiety can reduce confidence, so our goals would include working constructively with you to break the “anxious cycle” by learning new skills. This could include making alterations to your lifestyle, managing anxiety in specific situations that you might be avoiding, learning to be more assertive, managing time better or changing unhelpful behaviours.
Relationship Dynamics
What are Relationship Dynamics?
People in relationships usually interact with each other in a certain way, i.e. there is a particular dynamic. Over time these interactions may become counter-productive, such as victim and persecutor, parent and child, controller and controlled, co-dependency, etc. and those who are in these relationships often want to change certain aspects of their interactions with each other.
How can we help?
We work with you on developing a clear understanding of the triggers for your anger in order to reduce anger outbursts. We also develop strategies with you for controlling them. We then show, practice and develop self-monitoring strategies to help you to manage anger outbursts when they occur.