Reflection on Currie's article - 'Doing Anger Differently...'

This reading made so much of sense for me as I am working in a high school, with teenage kids. Adolescence and angst often come together and I have encountered so many kids who have told me that they have an 'anger problem'. I don't really know how I feel about labelling their behaviours as 'anger' as it stigmatizes a very normal emotion - anger, into something that is seen as a problem. I remember my supervisor's infamous mantra that it is not anger, but what you do with it that determines if it is a problem or not. I liked how the author described music as a metaphor for emotion. Emotion is fluid and not static and addressing the varying states of emotion is a process rather than an intervention to be prescribed. The case examples provided about encouraging the boys to pick up a language to talk about their emotions were very helpful ideas to my work. In some ways, projecting anger as an external object to be discussed, removes some of the intensity and feelings of guilt and shame that often stops us from talking about our feelings.