Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Associate therapist @elizabeth.ferreira and I talk about healthy (and unhealthy) anger. We challenge the common framing of anger as a “secondary emotion,” and explore why anger matters, how it relates to trauma, and what it can tell us about our wants and needs. We discuss how to access healthy protest and work with less healthy forms of anger like explosive rage, repression, defensiveness, passive aggression, and righteousness. Elizabeth shares insights from both her personal experience as someone with CPTSD and her clinical practice.
Key Topics:
0:00 Introduction: Why anger matters, and why it’s misunderstood
3:32 How trauma shapes our relationship to anger
5:40 Bypassing anger in therapy
9:04 What happens when anger is suppressed
12:29 Reclaiming anger: submit, explode, or something else
15:45 Anger as a signal of wants and needs
16:20 Boundaries, protest, and complex trauma
25:01 When CPTSD makes it hard to know what you want
30:06 Dissociation, structural trauma, and accessing anger
35:04 Why we need others to co-regulate big emotions
43:20 Emotional responsibility, self-awareness, and repair
53:26 Reconnecting with wants and needs through play
Subscribe to Being Well on:
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/being-well-with-dr-rick-hanson/id1120885936
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5d87ZU1XY0fpdYNSEwXLVQ
Who Am I: I'm Forrest, the co-author of Resilient (amzn.to/3iXLerD) and host of the Being Well Podcast (apple.co/38ufGG0). I'm making videos focused on simplifying psychology, mental health, and personal growth.
Subscribe to Rick on YouTube: youtube.com/@RickHanson?sub_confirmation=1
Get Rick's Free Newsletters: rickhanson.com/writings/newsletters-from-dr-rick-hanson
Follow Rick Here:
🌍 rickhanson.com
📸 instagram.com/rickhansonphd
I'm not a clinician, and what I say on this channel should not be taken as medical advice.
You can follow me here:
🎤 apple.co/38ufGG0
🌍 forresthanson.com
📸 instagram.com/f.hanson
Associate therapist @elizabeth.ferreira and I talk about healthy (and unhealthy) anger. We challenge the common framing of anger as a “secondary emotion,” and explore why anger matters, how it relates to trauma, and what it can tell us about our wants and needs. We discuss how to access healthy protest and work with less healthy forms of anger like explosive rage, repression, defensiveness, passive aggression, and righteousness. Elizabeth shares insights from both her personal experience as someone with CPTSD and her clinical practice.
Key Topics:
0:00 Introduction: Why anger matters, and why it’s misunderstood
3:32 How trauma shapes our relationship to anger
5:40 Bypassing anger in therapy
9:04 What happens when anger is suppressed
12:29 Reclaiming anger: submit, explode, or something else
15:45 Anger as a signal of wants and needs
16:20 Boundaries, protest, and complex trauma
25:01 When CPTSD makes it hard to know what you want
30:06 Dissociation, structural trauma, and accessing anger
35:04 Why we need others to co-regulate big emotions
43:20 Emotional responsibility, self-awareness, and repair
53:26 Reconnecting with wants and needs through play
Subscribe to Being Well on:
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/being-well-with-dr-rick-hanson/id1120885936
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/5d87ZU1XY0fpdYNSEwXLVQ
Who Am I: I'm Forrest, the co-author of Resilient (amzn.to/3iXLerD) and host of the Being Well Podcast (apple.co/38ufGG0). I'm making videos focused on simplifying psychology, mental health, and personal growth.
Subscribe to Rick on YouTube: youtube.com/@RickHanson?sub_confirmation=1
Get Rick's Free Newsletters: rickhanson.com/writings/newsletters-from-dr-rick-hanson
Follow Rick Here:
🌍 rickhanson.com
📸 instagram.com/rickhansonphd
I'm not a clinician, and what I say on this channel should not be taken as medical advice.
You can follow me here:
🎤 apple.co/38ufGG0
🌍 forresthanson.com
📸 instagram.com/f.hanson
