The Practitioner’s Guide to Anger Management

Adults with anger regulation problems; program has also been used with adolescents

Given the developing knowledge in the anger treatment area, the wide variability of client characteristics and the varied settings in which anger treatment is delivered The Practitioner's Guide to Anger Management: Customizable Interventions, Treatments, and Tools for Clients with Problem Anger program is organized according to a modular, customizable, menu-based approach. The treatment program has eight parts:

• Basic knowledge for practitioners
• Case formulation and treatment planning
• Preparing clients for change
• Interventions to alter anger triggers
• Interventions to change thoughts
• Interventions to alter internal experiences and urges
• Interventions to alter anger expression
• Enhancing happiness

Raymond Chip Tafrate
Central Connecticut State University

• Email: Tafrater@ccsu.edu
• Phone: (860) 832-3147

The goals of the The Practitioner's Guide to Anger Management: Customizable Interventions, Treatments, and Tools for Clients with Problem Anger program are:

• Identify and alter anger triggers
• Enhance motivation and awareness
• Overcome impulsive urges
• Alter lifestyle habits such as nutrition and sleep to make anger reactions less likely
• Foster rational, nonangry thinking in day-to-day life
• Build distress tolerance
• Improve communication
• Develop life skills for happiness

The essential components of The Practitioner's Guide to Anger Management: Customizable Interventions, Treatments, and Tools for Clients with Problem Anger program include:

• Anger fundamentals and basics
• The initial sessions: Engagement
• Understanding anger episodes: The anger episode model
• Comprehensive assessment
• Enhancing awareness and motivation
• Conveying accurate knowledge: Psychoeducation
• Lifestyle changes
• Sidestepping provocations
• Social and personal problem solving
• Promoting realistic thoughts and an accepting philosophy
• Perspective taking, compassion, and forgiveness as an antidote to anger and resentment
• Overcoming impulsive urges and increasing distress tolerance
• Tolerating negative words and thoughts
• Social and interpersonal skills
• Assertiveness training: Awareness, actions, and words
• Happiness
• Links to downloadable handouts, worksheets, and sample scripts that can be incorporated into real-world sessions
• For easy reference by the client, an updated client manual of the same program exists titled: Anger Management for Everyone: 10 Proven Strategies to Help You Control Anger and Live a Happier Life (2nd ed.)
• Comprehensive and updated reference list for further reading

Adult Services

The Practitioner’s Guide to Anger Management directly provides services to adults (regardless of whether they are parents or caregivers) and addresses the following:

• Difficulties with anger regulation and expression

Recommended Intensity

50 to 60-minute weekly sessions

Recommended Duration

Depends on the client's symptoms; a minimum of 3 months

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Community-based Agency / Organization / Provider
• Group or Residential Care
• Outpatient Clinic
• School Setting (Including: Day Care, Day Treatment Programs, etc.)

Homework

The homework consists of self-monitoring of anger episodes, an avoid and escape worksheet, progressive muscle relaxation practice, a problem solving worksheet, an assertiveness worksheet, imaginal and verbal barb exposure practice, a change your angry thinking worksheet, and between session reading of chapters (client manual).

Languages

The Practitioner’s Guide to Anger Management has materials available in the following languages other than English:

• Spanish

For information on which materials are available in this language, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed in this page).

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

Space that provides for confidentiality and that is free of distractions

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

A Masters-level degree in one of the behavioral fields preferred; though Bachelors-level professionals who work in other environments (e.g., criminal justice, education, housing) may be eligible as well

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Program Manual(s)

Practitioner Manual -

• Kassinove, H., & Tafrate, R. C. (2019). The practitioner's guide to anger management: Customizable interventions, treatments, and tools for clients with problem anger. Impact/New Harbinger Publications. https://www.newharbinger.com/9781684032860/the-practitioners-guide-to-anger-management/

Client Manual -

• Tafrate, R. C., & Kassinove, H. (2019). Anger management for everyone: Ten proven strategies to help you control anger and live a happier life (2nd ed.). Impact/New Harbinger Publications. https://www.newharbinger.com/9781684032266/anger-management-for-everyone/

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact

Training Type/Location:

Usually onsite, at a training location, or virtual

Number of days/hours:

Two full days of training are recommended to cover the full range of interventions

"What is included in the Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research section?"

• Note: The following studies were not included in rating The Practitioner’s Guide to Anger Management on the Scientific Rating Scale.

  Tafrate, R., & Kassinove, H. (1998). Anger control in men: Barb exposure with rational, irrational, and irrelevant self-statements. The Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 12, 187-211.

  Type of Study: Randomized three group trial

  Number of participants: 45

  Population:

  • Age — 20-56 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — 42 Caucasian, 1 Hispanic, 1 African American, and 1 Asian
  • Gender — 100% Male
  • Status —

    Participants were self-referred men with anger control problems.
    

  Location/Institution: Adirondack Samaritan Counseling Center, New York

  Summary:

  Note: This study examined only the exposure component of the program and cannot be considered for rating the program. The study explored the effectiveness of rehearsing rational self-statements based on rational-emotive behavioral therapy (REBT) to treat anger control problems. Subjects were randomized to one of three groups (rational, irrational, or irrelevant self-statements) and exposed to anger-provoking verbal barbs (in-vivo exposure) while they rehearsed the self-statements. Measures used included the Trait Anger Scale at intake, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, Working Alliance Inventory (WAI), and the barb technique. Results indicated that although subjects who rehearsed the rational self-statements showed the greatest improvement, significant pre-to-posttest anger reduction was also observed for subjects in the other two groups. Since the study was designed to examine the effects of self-statement content, and the barb exposure was delivered across all conditions, it is not possible to directly evaluate the effects of the exposure component and determine whether the exposure component was an active therapeutic element. Study limitations include the lack of a no exposure control group.

  Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

• Note: The following studies were not included in rating The Practitioner’s Guide to Anger Management on the Scientific Rating Scale.

  Grodnitzky, G.R., & Tafrate, R. (2000). Imaginal exposure for anger reduction in adult outpatients: A pilot study. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 31, 259-279.

  Type of Study: One group pretest-posttest design

  Number of participants: 6

  Population:

  • Age — 24-45 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — 100% Caucasian
  • Gender — 5 Males and 1 Female
  • Status —

    Participants were patients with anger control problems referred to a community mental health center by the county Court system, another mental health professional, or self.
    

  Location/Institution: Adirondack Samaritan Counseling Center, New York

  Summary:

  Note: This study examined only the exposure component of the program and cannot be considered for rating the program. The study evaluated the effectiveness of an anger treatment program in a small sample of adults. Participants completed the Trait Anger Scale at intake, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory at pretest and posttest, the Daily Anger Exposure Record and Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II) throughout the intervention, and the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) at posttest only. Results indicated that statistically significant change was found on most anger variables and the majority of patients met criteria for clinically significant improvement on indices of anger at post-test and 15-month follow-up. Study limitations include small sample size and the lack of randomization or control group.

  Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 15 months.

• DiGiuseppe, R., & Tafrate, R. C. (2003). Anger treatment for adults: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10, 70-84. https://doi.org/10.1093/clipsy.10.1.70

• DiGiuseppe, R., & Tafrate, R. C. (2007). Understanding anger disorders. Oxford University Press.

• Kassinove, K., & Tafrate, R. (2011). Application of a flexible, clinically driven approach for anger reduction in the case of Mr. P. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 18, 222-234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2009.08.008