32. Getting Up Close&Personal With Anger - Mindfully - a podcast by Laura Reagan, LCSW-C

from 2016-05-12T23:29:33

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Welcome! My guest for this episode is Dr. Andrea Brandt, a psychotherapist, speaker, and author who has much knowledge and experience to bring to the table. Her book, Mindful Anger: A Pathway to Emotional Freedom, explores revolutionary thinking on the topic of anger. Join us as we discuss mindful anger.

What you’ll hear in this episode:

  • Mindfulness and anger are not usually thought of as partners.
  • Anger is almost always viewed as a negative emotion.
  • “The Pleasure Principle” that humans live by teaches us to avoid anger.
  • The goal? To get wisdom from your anger
  • Anger helps us set boundaries, meet needs, and accomplish change.
  • Andrea shares a personal example from her own family, where a passive-aggressive approach to anger stemmed from the murder of her grandfather by the Chicago mob in the 1920’s!
  • Andrea later went through therapy and learned to get in touch with her feelings.
  • She remembers being startled by the power of the energy in tandem with anger.
  • “Anger is a very corrosive emotion if you don’t have the tools to deal with it.”
  • Conflict and anger CAN strengthen relationships and don’t have to destroy them.
  • Andrea shares how she uses snowglobe imagery to help clients deal with anger with mindfulness.
  • “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”: how our anger belief systems are learned during childhood.
  • Andrea’s book can help with anger in the following ways:
    • Deepening your understanding of anger
    • Learning new ways of perceiving and dealing with anger
    • Using exercises to learn to benefit from anger
    • Learning how to catch the impulse of anger
    • Realizing what your triggers to anger are
    • Learning to use assertive communication
    • Using mindfulness and meditations in response to anger
    • Helping passive-aggressive people deal with anger more directly
  • “It’s not ANGER that needs to be managed, but the impulse that precedes the anger.”
  • “Passive-aggressive people are deeply committed to INACTION.”
  • Andrea discusses the mind-body connection to anger.
  • How sensorimotor psychotherapy can be effective and powerful in dealing with anger
  • Connect with Dr. Brandt at abrandtherapy.com or email her at abrandt@abrandtherapy.com. Find her book on Amazon!

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