Teaching healthy anger management.

TOPIC: Teaching anger management in the community.

PURPOSE: To describe anger management and offer guidelines for assessing potential participants and teaching healthy behaviors.

SOURCES: Drawing from the literature, more than 10 years of quantitative and qualitative studies by our research team, and 5 years of experience in conducting anger management groups, the author presents basic principles of teaching anger management. A model is described for a 4-week group for women.

CONCLUSIONS: Anger management has wide applicability to a variety of constituencies for both primary and secondary prevention. Advanced practice psychiatric nurses are well-qualified to provide this psychoeducational intervention.