Articles in the Guardian and the Manchester Evening News are highlighting an aggressive individual and his (possibly) failing Anger Management classes throw my specialism and those that deliver it in to sharp contrast this week.

In brief Philip Croft had been sent on the course after attacking someone. On his way home from the course he was stopped by a police officer for speeding and delivered a “but was met with a four-lettered rant.”

The judge he ended up in front of was not missing the obvious either as he said “There’s a certain irony that on your way back from an anger-management session you behaved like this with a police officer."

The humour in the situation is further heightened by the admission that he was angry because at the class he was attending the “session had ended early because people in the group were causing a disturbance” and this upset him.

Now we have all stopped for a wry smile and laughed...

Beating Anger Derby is promoting  the message to parents “Its help you need not shaming.”

An article in Children & Young People Now web site focuses on an analysis of reports to Parentline and a subsequent web survey of parents. The figures are both interesting and startling. They showed of 39,258 calls, 27 per cent were seeking advice on children’s behaviour with parents frequently reporting feelings of helplessness. 

The survey on the other hand showed that only 56 per cent of parents had sought help for their child’s aggressive behaviour and 44 per cent reported that children misbehaved almost every day and in 70 per cent of cases this misbehaviour involved angry outbursts, swearing and aggression towards parents or their siblings. From this survey nearly 4 out of 10 parents were unsure of why their children were behaving like this.

Here at Beating Anger we believe in helping parents and guiding them through...

It was a happy coincidence that as National Anti Bullying Week started I ran a weekend Anger Management Course and two of the delegates cited bullying earlier in their life as causes of their anger. The theme this year is “Stop and Think – Words can Hurt.”

The first was, on the surface, a simple enough story. He told us of being repeatedly mentally and physically bullied throughout his early school years. That was, until, he grew bigger and stronger. Instead of bottling his anger up inside he let it out and fought back. “At last” I may hear you say, and part of me said that also. The issue here was that when he let it out he felt powerful at last. He did not want to lose that feeling so he continued to explode. It wasn’t long before the bullied had indeed become the bully.

He acknowledged in the group. He was not proud of it. “I simply feel the need to get the first shot in every time. Attack before I could be attacked.” It was not physical anymore it was all verbal but there was no doubt he was a bully and he was ashamed of it.

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