Anger Management for Substance Use and Mental Health Clients
Your Live PresenterOlivia Williams, PhD, LPCA
Join us live on Friday, August 13, 2027 for an interactive anger management webinar led by Olivia Williams, PhD, LPCA. Learn the cognitive-behavioral anger management model, the anger cycle, and practical coping-skill sequences for substance use and mental health clients in real time, with the chance to ask questions and discuss real clinical scenarios with the presenter and your peers.
Aug 13, 2027
3:45 PM EST
CE Hours
Webinar
A live webinar link and access details are sent by email after you register. Attendance for the full session is required to earn your 5 live CE hours.
Your Presenter
Olivia Williams, PhD, LPCA
Developmental Psychologist / Licensed Professional Counselor Associate
Olivia Williams is a developmental psychologist and licensed professional counselor associate specializing in ADHD, anxiety, and child and adolescent mental health. Her sessions draw on CBT, family systems, and solution-focused approaches to bridge research and clinical practice. In this live webinar, Olivia guides participants through mapping the anger cycle, teaching cognitive and behavioral coping skills, and adapting anger management for clients with co-occurring substance use, blending evidence-based frameworks with the kind of case discussion and Q&A that only a live format allows.
Why Attend This Webinar Live?
Helping a client manage anger is rarely a matter of teaching a single technique. Deciding when to slow a session down, how to respond to a client who is defensive or in early recovery, and how to keep the therapeutic alliance intact while addressing harmful behavior all call for clinical judgment. Attending live gives you something a self-paced course cannot: the ability to ask questions in the moment, work through nuanced clinical scenarios in real time, and learn from the questions your peers raise.
Bring your toughest clinical questions. Olivia answers participant questions throughout the webinar, so you leave with clarity on the situations that actually show up in your caseload rather than generic guidance.
Work through realistic anger management and relapse-prevention scenarios as a group. Hearing how experienced clinicians reason through defensiveness, mandated clients, and co-occurring substance use builds the clinical judgment that written materials alone cannot teach.
Complete a full 5 CE hours in one focused, structured session. Your live CE certificate is issued after the webinar, giving you a meaningful block of your renewal requirement in a single day.
Understanding the Scope: Anger, Substance Use, and Mental Health
Problematic anger is common, frequently overlooked, and closely tied to both substance use and a range of mental health conditions. Understanding the scope of this issue helps mental health professionals recognize the importance of evidence-based anger management and the role they play in reducing harm to clients and those around them.
Research published in national epidemiological studies indicates that a meaningful share of U.S. adults report a history of inappropriate, intense, or poorly controlled anger, and that problematic anger often goes untreated. Studies show that alcohol and other substances can lower inhibition and heighten reactivity, increasing the likelihood of aggression, while anger and irritability are common features of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety. These patterns underscore why every mental health professional needs practical, evidence-based training in assessing anger and delivering cognitive-behavioral anger management, particularly for clients with co-occurring substance use.
Live Anger Management Webinar Overview
This live continuing education webinar was developed in 2025 for mental health professionals and is delivered in real time by Olivia Williams, PhD, LPCA. Problematic anger cuts across nearly every clinical population, and it is especially significant for clients in substance use treatment, where anger and craving often reinforce one another. This 5-hour live webinar provides licensed professional counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, and addiction counselors with practical, evidence-based training in the cognitive-behavioral anger management model, the anger cycle, and coping-skill sequences that clients can use between sessions.
The webinar begins with a working understanding of anger as a normal emotion that becomes problematic when its frequency, intensity, or expression causes harm. Participants learn to assess anger, distinguish it from aggression, identify triggers and cues, and recognize how anger interacts with substance use, trauma, and mood disorders. Special attention is given to engaging clients who are defensive, mandated, or ambivalent about change without escalating conflict in the room.
Beyond assessment, this training emphasizes the core mechanics of treatment: mapping the anger cycle, restructuring anger-driving thoughts, teaching de-escalation and relaxation skills, building assertive communication, and creating relapse-prevention plans for both anger and substance use. Because it is delivered live, you can raise your own clinical questions and hear the presenter reason through them alongside you, from how to respond to an angry outburst in session to how to tailor coping skills for a client in early recovery.
Who Should Attend This Live Webinar?
This live anger management training is designed for licensed mental health professionals across all disciplines and experience levels, working in private practice, community mental health, substance use treatment, hospitals, schools, and other settings where they encounter clients struggling with anger.
Counselors provide the majority of outpatient mental health services in the United States and frequently work with clients whose anger damages relationships, work, and recovery. This training helps counselors assess anger, deliver cognitive-behavioral anger management, and teach coping skills with greater confidence and structure.
Social workers encounter angry and dysregulated clients across diverse practice settings including hospitals, community agencies, schools, and private practice. This ASWB ACE-approved webinar provides social workers with practical, evidence-based tools for managing anger and coordinating care across systems.
Family therapists see how anger drives conflict, escalation, and disconnection within couples and families. This training provides MFTs with strategies for addressing anger within the relational context, reducing reactive cycles, and building healthier communication among family members.
Anger and substance use frequently fuel one another, and unmanaged anger is a common relapse trigger. This NAADAC-approved webinar helps addiction professionals recognize the anger-substance use connection, teach coping skills that support recovery, and integrate anger management into relapse-prevention work.
Psychologists conducting assessments, providing therapy, or supervising trainees need current knowledge of evidence-based anger management. This webinar covers assessment, the cognitive-behavioral model, and coping-skill interventions relevant to psychological practice.
Live Webinar Learning Objectives
Upon completing this live anger management webinar, mental health professionals will be able to:
- Describe anger as a normal emotion and identify when its frequency, intensity, or expression becomes clinically problematic
- Distinguish anger from aggression and hostility, and explain how each affects treatment planning
- Assess anger, including triggers, cues, and the physical, cognitive, and behavioral components of the anger response
- Explain the relationship between anger and substance use, including how each can trigger and reinforce the other
- Map the anger cycle and use it to structure the cognitive-behavioral anger management model with clients
- Apply cognitive techniques, including identifying and restructuring anger-driving thoughts and expectations
- Teach behavioral coping skills, including timeouts, relaxation, de-escalation, and assertive communication
- Engage defensive, mandated, or ambivalent clients without escalating conflict in the session
- Develop relapse-prevention plans that address both anger and substance use
- Apply culturally responsive and ethically sound strategies when treating anger in diverse populations
What This Live Webinar Covers
Build a working framework for anger as a normal, adaptive emotion that becomes problematic when it is too frequent, too intense, or expressed in harmful ways. Distinguish anger from aggression and hostility, and explore the physical, cognitive, and behavioral components that make up the anger response.
Learn to assess anger, including triggers, cues, and patterns of expression, and to screen for co-occurring substance use, trauma, and mood disorders. Examine how alcohol and other substances lower inhibition and heighten reactivity, and how unmanaged anger becomes a relapse trigger.
Apply the cognitive-behavioral model to anger, including psychoeducation about the anger cycle, identifying and restructuring anger-driving thoughts and expectations, and testing more balanced appraisals of provoking situations.
Teach practical coping skills clients can use in real time, including timeouts, relaxation and grounding techniques, self-talk, and assertive communication that expresses needs without aggression. Learn how to sequence and practice these skills so they hold up under real provocation.
Develop strategies for engaging clients who are defensive, mandated, or ambivalent about change. Learn to respond to anger in the room, avoid power struggles, and use motivational and collaborative approaches that build a working alliance.
Close with relapse-prevention planning for both anger and substance use, along with the ethical and practical landscape: managing risk and safety, documentation, culturally responsive adaptation, and clinician self-care when working with high-conflict presentations.
This webinar is $100 on its own. With Unlimited Plus ($129/year), you get this live webinar plus all 24 live sessions across the year and our full library of 100+ on-demand courses. If you plan to attend more than one live event, the annual plan pays for itself immediately.
Get Unlimited Plus: $129/YearHow the Live Webinar Works
1. Register. Reserve your spot for the August 13, 2027 webinar. Individual registration is $100 for all 5 CE hours, or attend at no additional cost with an Unlimited Plus membership.
2. Receive your access link. After you register, you will receive a confirmation email with the live webinar link and instructions for joining. A reminder is sent before the event.
3. Attend live. Join on Friday, August 13, 2027 from 10:00 AM to 3:45 PM EST. Attendance for the full session is required to earn your 5 live CE hours. Participate in the Q&A and case discussion throughout the day.
4. Complete the post-test and earn your CE certificate. Complete the post-test (required for all live webinars) and course evaluation to receive your 5-hour live CE certificate. Your certificate includes all information required by licensing boards.
The Anger Cycle and Coping-Skill Sequence: The Core of CBT Anger Management
The cognitive-behavioral anger management model is built on the anger cycle: the predictable sequence of triggers, appraisals, physical arousal, behavior, and consequences that repeats when anger goes unmanaged. Helping clients see this cycle and insert coping skills at each stage is what turns anger management from a lecture into a skill. This live webinar walks through each step and gives you the chance to ask how to apply it with your own clients.
Step 1: Identify the Trigger. Help the client recognize the external events and internal states that typically set off anger, so they can anticipate high-risk situations rather than being caught off guard by them.
Step 2: Notice the Appraisal. Examine the thoughts and interpretations that turn a trigger into anger, such as assumptions of disrespect or unfairness, and begin restructuring these anger-driving appraisals into more balanced ones.
Step 3: Recognize Physical Cues. Teach the client to catch the early physical warning signs of escalating anger, such as muscle tension, a racing heart, or heat in the face, which serve as a signal to use coping skills before anger peaks.
Step 4: Apply Coping Skills. Insert practiced coping skills at the point of arousal, including a timeout, slow breathing or relaxation, grounding, and calming self-talk that interrupts the escalation before it becomes behavior.
Step 5: Choose a Response. Help the client select an assertive rather than aggressive response, expressing needs and setting limits in a way that addresses the situation without causing harm.
Step 6: Review the Consequences. Reflect on the outcome to reinforce what worked, troubleshoot what did not, and strengthen the client's motivation to keep using the sequence, especially where anger and substance use intersect.
Live Anger Management CE Approvals
This live anger management webinar is approved for continuing education credit by the following national and state organizations. Our approvals ensure that mental health professionals can earn live CE credit accepted by their licensing boards.
NBCC: Therapy Trainings® has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7439. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Therapy Trainings® is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. This live anger management webinar qualifies for 5 NBCC clock hours.
ASWB ACE: Therapy Trainings®, #1945, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 12/6/2024-12/6/2027. Social workers completing this live anger management webinar receive 5 continuing education credits.
NAADAC: This live anger management continuing education webinar has been approved by Therapy Trainings®, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for 5 CE hours. NAADAC Provider #270493. Therapy Trainings® is responsible for all aspects of its programming.
Kentucky: Therapy Trainings® is approved by the Kentucky Board of Social Work as a continuing education provider. Provider #KBSWSP 202308.
Ohio: Therapy Trainings® is approved by the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage and Family Therapist Board (CSWMFT) as a continuing education provider.
Florida: Therapy Trainings® is a CE Broker approved provider for the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling. CE Broker Provider #50-40520. You can self-report your completed hours using this provider number.
Live Anger Management Webinar: Frequently Asked Questions
See the Full Live CE Schedule
This anger management webinar is one of 24 live CE sessions we are offering throughout the year, covering ethics, telehealth, trauma, family systems, and more. Browse the full schedule to plan your live CE, or get every session included with Unlimited Plus.
Reserve Your Spot for August 13, 2027
Earn 5 live CE hours in a single day with Olivia Williams, PhD, LPCA. Register for this webinar on its own, or attend every live session this year with Unlimited Plus.
Live CE certificate issued after the webinar. NBCC, ASWB ACE, and NAADAC approved.
Course curriculum
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About this course
- $100.00
- 2 lessons
- 0 hours of video content