Choice
Creativity, risk-taking, and a certain measure of experimentation is required in this fifth step in the FOA model. This best accomplished with a licensed counselor (LPC or LCPC) who can assist you in this process using theoretical techniques and interventions. You may certainly proceed on your own yet it is recommended that you take these choices with you into a protected counseling session to engage in practice that will be safe as well as confidential.
So Many Choices!
A great starting point for this step is to consider what you already like to "do" when you are not angry. As a "doing" emotion, anger energy is best expressed in a practiced behavior. Do you like to walk? Play basketball? Dance? Do you enjoy cleaning? Baking? Working on your car? Any and all activities can be useful in collecting potential choices for using your anger energy. Previous responses of shouting, throwing things, or hitting do not need to be reinforced.
Choices Wheel Sheet
This
worksheet has been designed to help you to determine healthy choices for
expressing anger at various levels. It is recommended to complete the preceding
worksheets to help with determining anger scores and energy actions that may be
most helpful.
Think outside of the box.
Complete the pie chart in the downloadable PDF with five activities that would represent healthy choices. Then determine an anger score for each choice in a scale from 1 to 10 with the amount of anger energy that would benefit from using each choice:
Jumping Jacks may be a good choice for high anger (9/10)
Coloring may be a good choice for low anger (2/10)
Also helpful is to consider how long you may need to engage in that anger choice to use up that energy effectively:
Jumping Jacks for 5 minutes for moderate anger (5/10)
Jumping Jacks for 10 minutes for high anger (9/10)