There is not much evidence for the effectiveness of traditional anger management techniques even though anger management is commonly cited as something that should be offered to young people.

Mentalization based approaches would not tend to see anger as requiring a fundamentally different approach to managing other mental states.

1. The basic stance of MentalizationBasedWork is aimed at increasing awareness and sensitivity to one's own and others mental states and to develop capacities to recognise such feelings, preferably at an early stage.
2. Similar to Cognitive Behavioural approaches, Mentalization based approaches would take a neutral non-judgemental approach to angry FEELINGS but would sharply separate angry feelings from angry BEHAVIOUR. For many highly troubled young people, anger may be a highly appropriate almost adaptive state of mind in relation to their life experiences and the key worker would wish to adoptive a respectful curious stance towards such feeling states. This respectful stance is not adopted towards angry and violent behaviour.
3. Being able to Notice and Name early warning signs that point towards an anger outburst is a key feature of most anger-management programmes.
1. This fits the process of the Mentalizing Loop.
2. It is also an element of a cognitive behavioural approach

When anger erupts

There is material on dealing with Affect storms and Manage Violence gives information on de-escalation, and Body Language, etc.

Anger and Mentalizing

Anger rapidly reduces mentalising and also capacity to problem solve. Because of this, reasoning with people in angry states (these might be best described as Psychic equivalence) is often unproductive and the focus should be on de-escalation and reducing the effect of Affect storms.