I was driving this morning and as usual was listening to a podcast. The podcast was an interview with a lady called Andrea Brandt, who is a therapist and author based in California. She was discussing her book 'Mindful Anger: a pathway to emotional freedom'.

At the beginning of the podcast she talked about how anger is quite often perceived as a highly negative emotion and is stigmatised by society. I know through my practice that clients can feel a lot of shame when they have outbursts of anger or rage. Listening to Andrea, I really enjoyed her take on what to do when you experience moments of anger (which we all get from time to time). She talked about seeing anger as an important sign-post. When we get angry something is clearly wrong; either a need isn't being met, or we are feeling unseen, or we are being triggered in some way. Our anger is pointing to this.

She goes on to suggest people can use their anger mindfully by bringing some awareness into what may be bothering them. I like this as it brings some self-compassion into the mix, which can support a person to see their anger in a different way.

Andrea has a 5 step mindfulness program online which might be useful for people who want to build some awareness about what their anger is about.