Understanding Anger: Create Your Personal Genogram

A genogram is a diagram depicting the connections between given people or concepts. Creating an anger genogram can help you to understand what triggers your anger, how you react in angry situations and better ways to respond, if necessary. An anger genogram can also help you as a professional to make sense of a client's problems and reasons for outbursts --- as well as help them make sense of it. An anger genogram is a simple but powerful tool to help you or someone you know get anger under control.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencil or pen

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Instructions

• 1

  Draw a circle in the middle of a piece of blank paper. Place your name, picture or a something you choose to represent you in the circle.

• 2

  Draw several straight lines out from the middle circle so it resembles a sun's rays. Place smaller circles at the end of each line. Write down any triggers you have for anger, such as waiting at the doctor's office or being called a nasty name, in each circle. Draw more circles if you need to.

• 3

  Draw a few lines from each smaller circle and place a square at the end of each one. Write down your negative reaction to each trigger you identified, such as yelling at a person or punching a wall.

• 4

  Draw a few more lines from each smaller circle and place a triangle at the end of each one. Write down any positive coping skills you have for each trigger you identified, such as walking away or counting to 10.