Working with Angry Clients: Making Anger An Ally

Presented by Alyce LaViolette, MS, MFT on 10-22-2021 at 9:30 a.m. Pacific (12:30 p.m. Eastern) to 11:30 a.m. Pacific (2:30 p.m. Eastern)

Anger is energy and it can be used, if focused positively, to solve problems, ask for a raise, ask for behavior change, create social movements, and more. Anger is a secondary emotion and looking at the emotions that lie beneath the tip of the iceberg is critical to empowerment. Childhood trauma and experiences create triggers to anger.

In this 2-hour continuing education webinar for therapists, Alyce LaViolette will focus on the positive and negative impacts of anger on individuals and their relationships. She will outline various styles of anger and how they affect conflicts and assessments of other individuals as dangerous. Ms. LaViolette will present interventions that can work with a variety of clients in therapy. Anger management techniques include somatic experiencing, mindfulness, re-evaluating perceptions, and empowerment. Additionally, Ms. LaViolette will explain how understanding gender bias in regard to the expression of anger can be an essential part of intervening successfully with angry clients. This webinar will also help participants examine their own beliefs about anger and how those beliefs influence one's work with clients.

This introductory continuing education webinar is designed to help mental health professionals: 

  1. Explain anger as a positive emotion.
  2. List at least two clinical skills for working with angry clients such as Time-Out.
  3. Describe childhood triggers and survival skills that create emotional reflexes.
  4. Outline clinical techniques regarding choice and power. 
  5. Describe a technique for working with angry clients that involves preventative thinking. 

Statement of program material’s accuracy, utility, and risks: None indicated by the presenter. References will be provided for source material.

Declaration identifying any potential conflict of interest and/or commercial support: None.

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact GoodTherapy here.

Continuing Education (CE) Information

2 CE contact hours will be provided by GoodTherapy for attending this web conference in its entirety. 

GoodTherapy is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements.

GoodTherapy.org, provider #1352, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. GoodTherapy.org maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 3/30/2022 – 3/30/2025. Social workers completing this course receive 2 clinical continuing education credits.

GoodTherapy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

GoodTherapy, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0395. GoodTherapy, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0022 and for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0031.

To receive CE credit hours for an archived event, you will need to complete a survey as well as a 12 or 15-question exam, verifying that you listened to or watched the event in its entirety. Archived CE events generally are considered "homestudy" by licensing boards.

Registration Information

Premium and Pro Membership with GoodTherapy includes access to this web conference at no additional cost, as well as other member benefits such as a profile listing in GoodTherapy's Therapist Directory. Not yet a member? Sign up for a Premium or Pro Membership, here.

Just want CE credits? Sign up for a monthly or annual CE Subscription with GoodTherapy to get unlimited access to our CE Program, including this event, other live CE web conferences, and hundreds of hours of homestudy courses.

Mental health professionals who are not members can access the homestudy recording for $15.50. Sign up here to purchase this CE course and earn a CE certificate.

If the event is canceled by GoodTherapy, registrants who purchased the event will be notified and the charge for the event will be refunded

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact us.

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Meet the Presenter

Alyce LaViolette, MS, MFT

Alyce LaViolette, MS, MFT

Alyce LaViolette is a pioneer in the field of intimate partner violence and anger. She began her work with victims of abuse in 1978 and founded Alternatives to Violence, one of the first programs in the country to work with perpetrators of family violence in 1979.  

Ms. LaViolette speaks and trains nationally and internationally. She is on the State Department's Speakers' Bureau, and most recently spent time in Vietnam working with community advocates, NGOs, Law Enforcement, the media, and the Communist government to create programs that will impact family violence. She is currently providing a virtual series in Japan covering gender issues, sexual harassment, work with victims and perpetrators or domestic violence, and parenting in violent or high conflict couples.  

Ms. LaViolette has written articles for peer-reviewed journals, a booklet entitled "Battered Women, Power and Family Systems Therapy," a parenting curriculum with Jane Shatz called "For Our Children," and one of Sage Publication's best-selling books, It Could Happen to Anyone:  Why Battered Women Stay.

Ms. LaViolette has a private practice in Long Beach and West Los Angeles. She works with high-conflict couples, individuals, and families and also does group therapy. She consults with individual therapists and groups. Ms. LaViolette also provides expert testimony in criminal, family court, civil, and federal cases.

You can learn more about Ms. LaViolette and her work by visiting alycelaviolette.com.

Continuing Education Provider Approvals

  • aceGoodTherapy.org is Approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy.org maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • Logo GoodTherapy.org has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6380. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. GoodTherapy.org is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
  • aceGoodTherapy.org, provider #1352, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. GoodTherapy.org maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 03/30/2019 - 03/30/2022.
  • GoodTherapy.org, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0395.
  • GoodTherapy.org, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0022 and for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0031.

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