South offering anger support group
by Rita Langston, Reporter

    Living with an angry person or perhaps facing the need to deal with anger issues themselves, students can now find help and group support in an anger management group newly forming on South Campus.

    "We know what anger is. We have all felt it, and it is normal and healthy, and can be productive, unless it gets out of control," Triesha Light, counselor and associate professor of psychology, said.

    Students can now test their own anger management skills at the first meeting of the Anger Management Group on South Campus.

    The Anger Self-Assessment (also self-scoring) provides insight into what different situations make them angry, as well as discovering if they have the proper skills in place to manage their anger, she said. Light will serve as the group facilitator.

    "Students can be angry with their spouse, boss, parents, God or themselves. Self-anger can lead to depression and debilitative anger can lead to rage," she said.

    Light said group participants will have the opportunity to work through each step in the process of anger management, using the acronym ANGER.

    Accept the anger. Name what triggered the angry. Get it out-learn how to ventilate in a socially acceptable way. Energize and release the anger. Resume involvement with the person one is angry with.

    The last step sometimes necessitates learning how to confront, as well as some assertiveness training, Light said.

    "This is a support group, not therapy or counseling, but a way to become educated in anger management," she said.

    The group will have its first monthly meeting Saturday, Feb. 8, 9-10:15 a.m. in the SUB, Faculty Dining Room on South Campus. The organizational group meeting is open to all students, men and women, from all campuses.

    Light also facilitates the Motherless Daughters Group, which meets on the second Saturday of the month, 10 a.m.-noon in the SUB Faculty Dining Room on South Campus.