Anger expression

[RayneeDeigh]

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Hey everyone,

So I'm working on a paper for my therapy class. We're allowed to write about any topic involving therapy as long as it's written in the form of a persuasive thesis. I've decided to write about whether or not encouraging clients to express their anger in therapy is beneficial to them or not. I could have sworn that I'd read material about this before but two days of searching the literature has turned up nothing. I have articles about expressing anger during conflict with others, but nothing about therapy specifically. Anybody have any references they just happen to have in the back of their brain?

 

[erg923]

Hey everyone,

So I'm working on a paper for my therapy class. We're allowed to write about any topic involving therapy as long as it's written in the form of a persuasive thesis. I've decided to write about whether or not encouraging clients to express their anger in therapy is beneficial to them or not. I could have sworn that I'd read material about this before but two days of searching the literature has turned up nothing. I have articles about expressing anger during conflict with others, but nothing about therapy specifically. Anybody have any references they just happen to have in the back of their brain?

Might want to look into "empty chair" technique and some of the primal scream therapies. Empty chair is quite mainstream, but some of the others were larger confined to Berkley and the Bay area during the 70s. Dont know if there is alot of formal treatment outcome literature or empirical work on the subject.

I think its pretty obvious that this be could very helpful for some and detrimental to others.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Empty Chair...and Primal Scream....the first two things I thought of too. IIRC, EC has more support that PS, which was more of a passing fad. You can always tie in catharsis, though some people are more comfortable with that stuff than others.

 

[PinkSoil]

See what turns up with Nancy McWilliams. I know that she felt as though an expression of anger towards the therapist is a sign of autonomy in the relationship.

 

[biogirl215]

Do you mean anger in general or are you including or excluding anger toward the therapist?

 

[RayneeDeigh]

Do you mean anger in general or are you including or excluding anger toward the therapist?

I meant in general but if the paper doesn't seem long enough when I'm done I'll add a section on anger toward the therapist.

Thanks for your suggestions everyone, they came in handy today as I gathered materials. I know the answer seems pretty obvious but I really don't have the energy to tackle a huge project for my paper so I thought I'd make my life easier and pick something that had a clear answer.

I was hoping I'd find articles about that fad 10-20 years ago where people were encouraged to hit each other with foam bats in marriage counseling, but no such luck.

 

[biogirl215]

You could always use that Simpsons clip where they figure out that they can take the foam OFF the bats! 🙂

...I'm sorry--that was totally unhelpful.