Survivor to Thriver Manual Chapter 4 - Stage 1, Step 6 Professional Help

Step Six Professional Help

Use your therapy sessions to explore using some techniques for expressing anger at your parents/abusers. Besides the "empty chair," psychodrama and other Gestalt therapy techniques that use role-playing and reenactment of family situations are especially powerful for survivors who want to practice expressing their anger toward their parents/abusers.
The major work of therapy during this stage is to develop a flexible control over your anger. Anger in itself isn't bad, but the expression of it can be harmful to you and to others around you, and so you need to learn to differentiate situations and responses to those situations. Identify situations where you lose control of your anger as well as situations where you need to use your anger more constructively to stand up for yourself. Work out new routines to handle your anger and then practice these routines in your therapy sessions before trying them out in your everyday life.