What to Do While You Count To 10: A Practical Guide to Anger Management

by David Walton Earle

What to Do While You Count to 10 presents an effective system for managing strong emotions resulting in better communications, relationships, and decreasing tension, shame, guilt, and conflict.

Thinking about anger in positive terms is alien to most people’s experiences. However, a healthy expression of emotions - anger included - is a component for building and maintaining successful relationships. Instead of the past chaos and pain trying to live in an unattainable perfect world based upon another’s definition, this book contains techniques necessary for returning to the real world and use feelings in a healthy and constructive manner. This change allows love and respect to flourish by building relationships instead of destroying them.

What to Do While You Count to 10 decreases a guilty conscience of how your anger hurt others and increases the coping skills necessary to change powerful and sometimes destructive emotions into a positive force for good. Read about a sample therapy session and learn to recognize uncontrollable emotions and understand how to manage them. From the wisdom found in this magical little book, you will be better able to express love instead of destruction.


Many people who enjoy the benefits of introspection, especially AA, NA, Al-Anon and other 12 step programs will gain many bits of life’s mysteries now offered in, What to Do While You Count to 10.

113 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Gloria Bockrath · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an easy and fast read. David presents a simple but not easy guide to managing anger and other emotions.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

What to Do While You Count to Ten provides a program for anger management: and while this is another topic that would seem to have been 'done' time and again, - David Earle manages to provide some differences that distinguish his approach from others on the topic.

The opening line offers one such revelation: "When anger is used correctly, it can have positive results!" Now, other books may conclude as much; but only eventually - not in their introduction. It's taking somewhat of a risk to produce an anger management book that opens with reviewing the positive results of anger; but then What to Do While You Count to Ten is for the risk-taking reader seeking something different on the subject.

Psychology students should take note: this isn't your usual Freudian approach which leaves revelations to the client and has the therapist subtly encouraging: direction is created by the therapist who uses allegories and concepts to 'teach' his client: "When emotions are not dealt with they are exhibited in unintentional and destructive behavior." Because the interactions between client and therapist are more give-and-take, adopting a kind of Adlerian approach to cooperative problem-solving, readers are drawn into a process whereby the client peels back his emotional layers and examines the wellsprings of anger and its lack of management.

Many believe that anger should be 'controlled'; but notice that Earle's terminology advocates 'management' here. There is a difference; and one which readers learn about more easily through the eyes of this therapist/client interactive process than your usual approach of pairing exercises and psychology alone.

With its charts, exercises, and personal give-and-take reinforcing basic concepts, it's hard to become lost or confused about the program being presented in What to Do While You Count to Ten - and it's easy to apply it to one's own experiences and belief systems.

And that's the greatest strength of this book: its ability to link behavior patterns to belief systems, examine their inconsistencies and where they don't serve a greater good, then provide recommendations and suggestions for change.

Now, that's effective self-help reading!