Mentoring Young Adults
with Anger:
Turning the Heat into Fuel
By Ken Rabow
Most angry young adult feel frightened, overwhelmed, and deeply frustrated but lack a language for that pain.
When we listen to what is beneath the anger, everything begins to change.
What lies beneath:
1) The unheard young adult. Many have spent years feeling talked at, corrected, and managed. Anger is what finally gets a reaction. When they become truly heard, the volume reduces on its own.
2) The overwhelmed nervous system. For a young adult carrying anxiety or sensory overload, one more demand can tip them over. The anger is a boil-over, not a decision. We build a daily routine that lowers the baseline pressure so there is less to boil over.
3) Negative Self-Speak (NSS): That inner voice telling them they are failing, that it is hopeless, that everyone is against them. Anger turned outward is often that inner critic turned inside out. Naming it, and separating the young adult from it, takes away NSS’s power.
My work is about what is beneath and working to heal those issues in real-life day-to-day work. Once they feel genuinely heard and start to see real progress, the storms grow further apart and shorter.
Thank you for taking the time to understand how I can help your child.