Understanding Anger Management Certification
The field of anger management is not new. In fact, the term “Anger Management” was
coined back in 1975 by University of California Irvine
professor, Raymond Novaco, Ph.D. In the
mid and late 1990’s anger management started to become more popular in the
media and with psychotherapists. As
anger management has grown and its popularity and acceptance increased, there
have been various organizations over the last few years that have begun to
offer “Certification Training” in anger management to meet the demand for these
services. There are a handful of
organizations around the country that offer various types of “Certification Training”
in anger management. Live in person
Certification Trainings can last from one day to three days, depending on the
provider, while others offer home study CD and DVD products to either supplement their trainings or are added as additional
requirements of their training. The use
of the word “requirement” is also somewhat
loose because there are currently no
state or federal laws that regulate anger management certification training
or providers. There are faith based
trainings in anger management certification as well as certification as an
Anger Management Therapist, Anger Resolution Therapist, Certified Anger
Management Facilitator, Certified Anger Management Professional and perhaps
even more.
There are certification training providers located all
throughout the county ranging from
California,
Texas, Illinois,
New York, and Florida who all have different models of intervention and all offer different variations
of training requirements, continuing education and supervision. Our organization, Century Anger Management
(www.centuryangermanagement.com) has previously offered a one day content training
which grants a “Level 1” content training certificate. In order to receive a Level 2 certificate, we
require an additional 4 hour supervision requirement prior to the candidate
being able to hold themselves out as certified in anger management. We will be publishing shortly, a continuing
education requirement for our model. Our training is extremely comprehensive,
and both providers and client feedback continues to be exceptional. We have close to 300 providers nationally, which
include probation departments, substance abuse agencies, domestic violence
agencies, psychotherapists, clergy, law enforcement, parenting providers,
mental health organizations, and recovery centers to name a few.
Our content training is for anger management only. We do not certify executive coaches or organizational
development specialists. We have left
this up to professional organizations that exclusively train providers for this
niche service. No where in our
advertising do we suggest that our training is comprehensive these areas, nor do
we make mention of it. Our training is focused on giving providers skills to
teach anger management groups, primarily to adults and we offer applications to
teaching adolescents. We have kept the
content training to one full day because we don’t believe it is necessary to
duplicate the teaching of our model additional days for different age groups or
work settings. We view this as both a
cost savings to consumers and an ethical business practice.
The 8 Tools of Anger Control, which are featured in our
client workbook, “Anger Management for the Twenty-First Century” can be applied
to both adults and teenagers with just simple modifications which we discuss. In the future, we will be adding one
additional day to provide more experiential involvement, which currently lacks
from many training programs, as well as additional instruction. We also believe that the Century Anger
Management model can be used to work with clients for one-on-one anger
management. Some people like to call
this “executive coaching”, while others may call it something else. Regardless, we simply believe there are other
applications for our model to be used to provide anger management
services. We know that our anger management
training is exceptional, credible and highly useful for current and potential
providers of anger management. We know
this because we have reviewed over 250 participant evaluations of our
trainings. We also continue to receive success
stories from our providers in their field agencies or private practices every week.
In light of not having a state or federal
agency to regulate anger management, our organization has been proactive in
gaining more approvals that almost any other training organization in the
nation for anger management. Approvals
include the California State Board of Corrections (Corrections Standards Authority), CAADE, CAADAC,
Board of Behavioral Sciences, NAADAC, CAARR, and the Texas Board of Alcohol and
Addiction.
We recognize that Domestic Violence training is regulated
and the standards for training are more exhaustive; however, Domestic Violence
and Anger Management are two totally different disciplines with different requirements
for participants of these programs. When
and if standards are created by a state or federal organization, we will most
certainly comply as I believe all other certification training organizations
around the country will do as well. We
believe that our training “requirements” are adequate and appropriate, and we
continue to strive to improve them.
No organization in the field of anger management can dictate
regulations and requirements for all providers of certification training at
this juncture. If this were the case,
it would create a conflict of interest, because it puts personal business
interests before consumer needs. This is
unfair to all other providers in the field and is the reason why governmental agencies
exist in the first place. It helps to
regulate and standardize without bias. Consumers
must be aware that there are no currently no standards that are universally accepted
and governmentally regulated. In September of 2006, our content training will be extended to 16 hours, which is extremely common among most of the of anger management training providers in the nation.
We welcome any anger management provider who has been through
our training to comment on this blog with feedback about the quality of Century
Anger Managements training and your experiences as a provider. We welcome any prospective consumers of our
training to ask us questions and we would be happy to answer them in this
public forum.
Tony Fiore, Ph.D.
Ari Novick, Ph.D.
www.centuryangermanagement.com
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