NAMA November Newsletter

Anger Management and Domestic Violence: Integration — Ron Potter-Efron, PhD, MSW. Dr. Potter-Efron consciously connects anger management and domestic violence, two long separated fields, and addresses treatment options and intervention methods that meet the needs of individual clients, couples, families, and groups. The integration of domestic violence and anger management treatment with an emphasis on safety while also providing anger management skills and techniques have been a long time coming. Ron’s latest work,Handbook of Anger Management and Domestic Violence Offender Treatment (2015), is the basis of his presentation.

SMART Anger Management: A comprehensive program for probationers – Howard Kassinove, PhD. SMART stands for Selection Menu for Anger Reduction Treatment. It is based on the philosophy that anger management has to be tailored by a knowledgeable therapist who is working with a unique individual in a particular setting. Developed by Dr. Kassinove and Dr. Chip Tafrate, it gives anger management specialists the option of selecting from a menu of useful and tested interventions for any particular case. The presentation combines some theory and research, with practical examples and video presentations.

Coaching Bad: How Anger Impacts Sports – Christian Conte, PhD. This presentation will be filled with interesting and inspiring ways to understand how anger and athletics interact. Dr. Conte is a storied presenter and is the star of the new Spike TV Network series, “Coaching Bad,” also featuring NFL great Ray Lewis. He will share his passion for counseling violent offenders and the radical empathy techniques that help him overcome judgment.

A Pathway to Healthy Anger: Mindfulness, Self-compassion and Other Skills in Self-awareness – Bernard Golden, PhD. This presentation is based on the book of the same title set for release this spring (2015) by Johns Hopkins University Press. Dr. Golden will offer a unique framework to help clients cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion in their thoughts, feelings, and physical states associated with anger arousal. It highlights practices in compassion-focused therapy.

Irritability: Construct Clarification and Differentiation – Michael Toohey, PhD. Dr. Toohey will discuss irritability as a transdiagnostic construct as especially related to anger and aggression. Definitions and measures of irritability will be reviewed.

Keys to Defusing Anger and Hostility in Marriage: Part 2 – Lynette Hoy, LPC and Steve Yeschek, LCSW. How can you help couples overcome the angry behavior and hostile attitudes that block love and intimacy? This presentation highlights the keys for helping couples move from anger to compassion with specific counselor interventions. Motivate couples to change through research-based approaches for overcoming anger: interrupting escalation, developing empathy, connecting through assertiveness and breaking the chain of resentment.

Anger and Addictions – Glen Cannon, LCPC. The purpose of this presentation is to educate participants on the relationship between anger and addiction. Both chemical and process addictions will be discussed, along with their reciprocal relationship with anger. Pertinent research on anger and addiction will be discussed.

Anger Management: Integral/Developmental Approach – Laura Moss and Rich Pfeiffer, PhD. Dr. Pfeiffer and Ms. Moss will offer the latest state-of-the-art skills, concepts, and techniques for working with clients from a holistic perspective. The presentation will discuss and demonstrate significant developmental structures, stages, and states of consciousness, as well as powerful and effective techniques and tools for affect regulation.

The Use of Active Symbolism in Anger Reduction – Adam Guss, LCSW. This presentation will discuss four components of the symbolic anger cycle. Mr. Guss will offer applications of active symbolism through an emotional mandala and verbal process. Each component of the symbolic anger cycle will be clarified and demonstrated.

Violence Management – Andy Prisco, PERT Supervisor, Western State Hospital. This presentation will discuss the state-of-the-art Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) program, which represents the latest evidence-based best practices for mitigating violence and managing aggressive behavior on a least-to-most intervention methodology.

Forgiveness: A Strong Antidote for Anger – Seigel Bartley, PhD. This presentation highlights the latest research on forgiveness and anger, clinical models on forgiveness, and the positive outcome experienced through acts of forgiveness. This training course will help participants gain the following skills: learn evidence-based benefits of controlling anger, reducing interpersonal stress and aggression through acts of forgiveness. Understand how the practice of forgiveness helps to eliminate a destructive anger cycle. Understand the importance of helping individuals to forgive themselves to reduce inward anger.

Fighting Community Violence by Creating Community Partners – Cornell Brunson, DTh, LCADC. The Duluth community model of domestic violence treatment will be presented. This model involves agencies working together to intervene in domestic violence cases and to effect change through the sharing of information in order to expedite proper assistance with housing, counseling and treatment.

Click for EARLY BIRD Registration (until 11/30/2014).
Web address: http://www.namass.org/conference2015.htm
Download the conference flyer.
Co-Sponsored by: NAMA and the Midwest Chapter of NAMA

Dr. Potter-Efron consciously connects anger management and domestic violence, two long-separated fields, and addresses treatment options and intervention methods that meet the needs of individual clients, couples, families, and groups. Anger management specialists will find this book a useful overview and reference for anger and anger management techniques, as well as domestic violence approaches.

Woven through this book is a fair and balanced treatment of gender issues, reflected in the diversity of case examples that address jealousy, chronic anger, behavioral problems, group and individual modalities, and more. Readers are also shown how anger develops and can lead to verbal and physical outbursts, the five types of rage reactions, and how to treat anger turned inward. Dr. Potter-Efron also details four different approaches to treating anger: behavioral, cognitive, affective, and existential/spiritual. Mental health professionals are provided numerous questionnaires and worksheets to utilize with their clients. This handbook is an essential guidebook that illustrates effective theory and practice.

“Dr. Potter-Efron’s groundbreaking book is brilliant. The integration of domestic violence and anger management treatment with an emphasis on safety while also providing anger management skills and techniques has been a long time coming. This book provides a map to significantly improve the very poor outcomes of older domestic violence treatment models. The National Anger Management Association (NAMA) wholeheartedly endorses this extremely helpful handbook.” — Rich Pfeiffer, MDiv, PhD, President, Board of Directors, NAMA; Co-Director, Growth Central.

“Ron Potter-Efron has done a masterful job in writing an intelligent, balanced, and wise exploration of the origins and treatment of dysfunctional anger. It is a must-read for anyone desiring a deeper understanding of anger, rage, and violent behavior. Highly recommended.” — Lou Cozolino, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Pepperdine University; Author, “The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Healing the Social Brain.”

“‘Handbook of Anger Management and Domestic Violence Offender Treatment‘ represents a major advance in the treatment of individuals and families affected by high conflict, abuse, and physical violence. The author has a sophisticated understanding of these problems – their varied manifestations, causes, and consequences. Eschewing gender-based paradigms and false perpetrator/victim dichotomies, Potter-Efron instead offers interventions that are both gender-inclusive and systemic, based on cutting-edge social science research. Overall, this is one of the two or three best books ever written on family violence treatment.” — John Hamel, LCSW; Editor-In-Chief, Partner Abuse; Author, “Gender-Inclusive Treatment of Intimate Partner Abuse, 2nd Edition: Evidence-Based Approaches.“

Pre-order the Handbook of Anger Management and Domestic Violence Offender Treatment with the 20% Discount (Code: IRK71) athttp://www.routledgemh.com/9780415717182

Twenty colleagues successfully participated in the Certified Domestic Violence Specialist-I Certification Seminar in Charlotte, NC in October. The training event, presented by Ron Potter-Efron, PhD, and Pat Potter-Efron, MS, has been video-recorded and a distance learning course is being developed. Stay tuned for more information.

Coming up: Certified Domestic Violence Specialist-I (CDVS-I) Live Training
March 14-15, 2015
Hyatt Place, Lombard, IL

1. The croissant was invented in Austria
2. In eastern Africa, you can buy beer brewed from bananas
3. African Grey Parrots have vocabularies of over 200 words
4. A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue
5. Australia was originally called New Holland
6. “Lonely Planet’ for travelers is based in Melbourne Australia
7. The sentence “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter in the English alphabet
8. The Grand Canyon can hold around 900 trillion footballs
9. All the blinking in one day equates to having your eyes closed for 30 minutes
10. Your foot has 26 bones in it
11. The average human brain contains around 78% water
12. Your brain uses between 20 – 25% of the oxygen your breathe
13. 1 nautical knot equates to 1.852 Kph (1.150 mph)
14. If you add up all the numbers from 1 to 100 consecutively (1 + 2 + 3…) it totals 5050
15. Sponges hold more cold water than hot
16. Lightning strikes the Earth 6,000 times every minute
17. Fire usually moves faster uphill than downhill
18. Cats have over 100 vocal chords
19. Camel’s milk doesn’t curdle