Anger is a normal, healthy human emotion.  The way in which a young person interprets situations and events has important implications for anger management and sometimes our young people need help managing their feelings of anger successfully – this is called emotional regulation.  Most anger occurs in the context of a trigger event or is secondary to another underlying emotion.

There is little point in learning anger management techniques which only serve as a putting a plaster on the problem.  What is helpful though is to try and unpack the anger and begin to work through the primary emotions that nobody sees that give way to the secondary emotion – the venting or outbursts that people do see.   The volcano is a useful metaphor to use when explaining the cause of anger with a young person.