People often ask how I got into anger management. Actually, the truth is that ten years ago I was looking for a supplemental mental health business to my clinical practice that was cash-based, so I wouldn’t have to rely on unstable insurance payments for my livelihood, I found it necessary to acquire private health insurance.
As I recall. I was having coffee with a friend of mine who is a Bail Bondsman in Southern California, who deals with anger people every day. When I expressed my frustration with the insurance limits on my clinical practice, he said “why don’t you get into anger management?”
Somehow that resonated with me, even though I had never thought of it before, planning to get into home health care services. Seemed like it would fit my personality, fit my professional background as a psychologist, and would be good for the world.
And it would be a cash-based business.
I quickly discovered I could receive certification as an anger management facilitation by attending about 16 hours training by a leader in the field. (Interestingly, there are no state regulations for the practice of anger management) Of course, I was fully qualified under my psychologist license, bu the truth is you do not have to be professionally state licensed to do it. Visit http://ontarioexteriorsolutions.ca/ for more info .
After completing my certification training, I hired someone to put up a website for me which I named The Anger Coach. Very soon I received my first call from a local business owner who said he wanted to come in that afternoon with a cash payment for anger management for himself plus his two sons. explaining he said “If my two sons are so angry, they must getting it from somewhere so I need help too.”
At that point, I was encouraged, very excited, and I knew I was in business. For about two years I conducted classes several times a week, using the system in which I had been trained. But relationships became strained with mother ship. Another provider who was tethered to the same ship was having similar troubles, so we had lunch one day and decided to develop our own system of anger management which we thought would be a vast improvement over the system in which we had been trained.
Hence, Century Anger Managementwas born along with the client workbook Anger Management For The Twenty-first Century”
Our next step was to start training other people how to do it. This we started to do with much success. holding certification trainings through California. Then we added an online training so we could certify people in our system across the country and in other parts of the world.
At this point, we have certified hundreds of qualified people, including many military providers who use our system to help returning troops handle their emotions when back with their families. Our system is also used in many substance abuse rehabilitation facilities like Haven House Detox, correctional facilities, and faith-based community programs.
The personal reward value to all this has been tremendous. Anger Management has doubled my income over the last ten years and provides a great feeder into my private therapy practice. The success of our company also taught me that instead of complaining,stressing, and demanding, it is often much more productive to find a way to build a better mousetrap – at any age. (I was about 60 years old when all this started).
I still conduct local classes twice a week from which I get constant feedback from clients about their struggles in communicating with others and managing their anger. They tell me what works for them – and what doesn’t. I listen and often make changes to the system based on their feedback.
For instance, I am learning that having a partner attend a class or two greatly increases the success of the primary client. The system just works much better if both people understand it and are on board with it. The next step will be to find a way to make this happen on a regular basis; the challenge, of course, is that many times the partner does not see themselves as part of the problem!
I see another mousetrap in my future…….
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