ANGER

For Difficult Emotions

Understanding poorly expressed anger, internal anger, and particularly unexpressed anger is a critical element in preventing all destructive behaviors. The term "Anger Management" is quite unfortunately misunderstood, and the truth is most people in our anger management classes have experienced some type of severe emotional pain or trauma that has contributed to their present-day problems expressing their anger in a way that is useful to them. The goal is not "to never get angry," but rather to learn "how and when to be angry”. Participants in this group report and process their weekly experiences with anger, and frustration, as well as learn tools from a specified curriculum of 8 tools to understand and manage their anger response.

PARENTING

For Responsible Parents

Positive Parenting is a combination of support group and skills class that provides specific child information and tailored techniques for parenting pre-school aged children, latency-aged children (ages 6-12), and adolescents. Each group has its own distinctive character based on the specific needs of the people in it. During the group sessions we discuss the most common issues that arise across ethnic and socioeconomic groups, i.e. parenting roles, problematic parenting styles, and techniques to enhance parenting. We also discuss issues related to Single Parents, Blended Families, Nuclear Families, LGBT Families, Grandparents Raising Children, Parents Raising Children with Persistent Illnesses.

CONFLICT

For Better Outcomes

The style we use to communicate is often learned from much earlier experiences in our lives when our language skills were newly formed. When faced with stressful, difficult, or uncomfortable discussions and disputes, most people revert to the communication styles used in their family of origin. These tactics usually need updating to be most useful to us in our present lives. For many of us, an unwillingness or inability to manage conflict usually leaves us with unmet needs, unexpressed emotion, anger, resentment, depression, and sometimes illness. This class focuses on understanding and improving communication styles, effective listening, healthy ways to argue, negotiation, disagree, complain, and say no -- while maintaining self-respect and the respect of others.