admin

How to Be Angry: An Assertive Anger Expression Group Guide for Kids and Teens                        
COMING JULY 2011
Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry.   –Lyman Abbott

How to Be Angry is a complete social-emotional curriculum that provides step-by-step guidelines for educators, counselors, social workers, youth care professionals, and parents to help small groups of kids develop specific anger management and assertive emotional expression skills. Participants will learn specific skills such as:

• Using I-Statements
• Standing Up to Bullies
• Disagreeing without Arguing
• Making and Refusing Requests
• Responding to Anger
• Finding Win-Win Solutions

Engaging, hands-on activities and discussions are customized for children ages 5-18 in school, treatment, and recreational settings and help youth reflect on important topics such as:

• Personal Anger Styles (Aggression, Passive Aggression and Passivity)
• Choices in Anger Expression
• Public Faces vs. Private Realities
• Body Language and Tone of Voice
• Replacing Self-Defeating Patterns and Committing to Assertive Behaviors

Each session of How to Be Angry features a special “Suggestions for Customizing the Curriculum” section that provides ideas for adjusting the activities, discussions, and Weekly Journal topics to the age, ability, interests, and developmental needs of group participants.

How to Be Angry also features a special “Notes for Parents” section that provides discussion-starters and advice for parents who want to extend their child’s learning experience beyond the group or adapt the lessons for one-on-one instruction.

How to Be Angry features two sessions on one of the country’s top stressors for kids: Bullying. Participants learn how to recognize bullying behavior in all of its forms, from obvious physical aggression to more covert forms of relational aggression, including social exclusion and cyber-bullying. Group members also learn and practice four rules for using assertive skills to stand up to bullies.

For information on bringing How to Be Angry workshops to your school or organization, please contact Signe via e-mail at Signe@SigneWhitson.com

Signe Whitson is a licensed social worker, writer, and mother of two girls.  She has over ten years of experience working with children, adolescents, and families.  Signe presents training workshops across the U.S. for parents and professionals on topics related to child and adolescent mental and behavioral health.

In her articles, books, and training workshops, Signe provides down-to-earth, practical advice for navigating the daily challenges of living and working with children, tweens and teens.  As a mother of two young daughters, Signe relates to parents on a personal level.  As a clinician with over 10 years of experience, she shares her professional knowledge and advice for approaching complex issues, such as coping with bullying, managing anger, and changing self-defeating patterns of behavior.

Her first book, The Angry Smile: The Psychology of Passive Aggressive Behavior in Families, Schools, and Workplaces, 2nd ed. (2009) comprehensively examines passive aggression in children, adolescents, and adults, while teaching readers practical skills for effectively responding to and changing passive aggressive behavior. 

Signe offers a full-day seminar on The Angry Smile, to provide parents and professionals with the opportuntity to explore the book’s concepts in depth and to practice the skills of Benign Confrontation.  For more information on Angry Smile trainings, please contact Signe at Signe@SigneWhitson.com 

Coming this July, check out Signe’s latest publication, How to Be Angry: An Assertive Anger Expression Group Guide for Kids and Teens.  How to Be Angry is a 15-session group curriculum designed to help educators, counselors, parents, and other helping adults teach kids ages 5-18 how to use assertive communication to express anger effectively.  The book includes customized age group suggestions and engaging ideas for at-home conversation starters to help parents pick up where group discussions leave off in facilitating constructive change and lasting anger management skills in a young person.  

To learn more about Resources and Workshops for teaching your child skills for assertive anger expression, please contact Signe at Signe@SigneWhitson.com
 
 In the Winter of 2011, keep your eye out for Signe’s third release, Friendship & Other Weapons: Group Activities to Help Young Girls Cope with Bullying.  Friendship & Other Weapons  is about breaking the code of silence that governs conflict in the early school years.  By creating safe, open, and fun forums in which group members can talk, learn, and compare experiences, elementary school aged girls gain skills for speaking up when it comes to expressing their feelings and confidence for confronting incidents of cruelty disguised as friendship. 

For information about Mother-Daughter workshops based on the lessons in the Friendship & Other Weapons curriculum, please e-mail Signe@SigneWhitson.com  
 

/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/cropped-signelogonoheart12.jpg

/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/cropped-signelogonoheart1.jpg