7 Best Online Anger Management Classes [2023 Updates]
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- Written by Sean Newton, B.S., Former Health & Fitness Writer
Medically reviewed by
Gopal Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.
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Betterhelp
- Reach out whenever you need to by text
- Smartphone app is available wherever you go
- Anger management classes and group therapy available
20% Off First Month: healthcanal
Talkspace
- Fully qualified therapists
- Sessions by text, phone, or video
- Some insurance accepted
$85 off your first month: HEALTHCANAL85
Calmerry
- Sessions by text, phone, or video
- Some insurance accepted
- Less expensive
40% Off Coupon: HEALTHCANAL
Whatever your viewpoints or opinions, there sure is a lot to get angry about these days. A lot of it, we simply cannot do anything to change or improve within the short term. It’s not a surprise, therefore, that a lot of people are more-or-less angry a lot of the time.
Bottling anger up is healthy for you and letting it out may not be healthy for anyone. The energy that comes with anger is supposed to help us deal with dangerous situations, but in the modern day, it just leaves us wound up with nothing to do about it.
That’s where anger management comes in. As the name implies, it’s possible to manage your anger in a healthy way. It is possible to express your dissatisfaction, relieving the emotional pressure if nothing else, without taking that anger out on the people around you.
Best Online Anger Management Classes (September. 2023)
- Betterhelp – Editor’s choice
- Talkspace – Best For Mental Health
- Calmerry – Best Value
- Online-Therapy.com – Best Combo
- Open Path – Least Expensive
- Logan Group – Best for Satisfying Court
- Anger Master – Best Guarantee
Why Should Join Anger Management Classes?
Here’s an important piece of information that most of us don’t hear: anger[1] is not necessarily a good or bad thing. It’s an emotion, a reaction to the world around you, and an honest reaction can never really be bad. However, an expression of that emotion definitely can be either positive or negative.
Most of us have experience with this sort of thing. Someone cuts you off in rush hour, being rude and thoughtless but leaving you no outlet for your outrage. If you work in the service industry, you probably deal with irritating people all the time.
If you’re cut off, do you yell at your passenger? If a customer is rude, are you rude in return? Both of these are probably unhealthy expressions of anger that don’t resolve anything and just make other people unhappy as well.
The point of anger management is to learn strategies for controlling anger so you don’t act thoughtlessly. It can also help people express anger in a healthy, productive way in an effort to support emotional health.
7 Best Online Anger Management Classes 2023
BetterHelp
BetterHelp is another full-service therapy option, allowing you to work with a therapist from home. It also offers group therapy and online courses for many problems, including anger.
- Message your therapist
- Anytime contact with text messaging
- Smartphone app or website
- Anger management classes and group therapy are available
- Pricey
- Check to see if probation officers will accept it
Like some of the other options on this list, Betterhelp connects you with a therapist for regular, weekly sessions. Text messaging through their secure connection means you can reach out whenever you need some help.
Unlike some equivalent options, however, BetterHelp does offer online courses and group therapy sessions. They are offered at no extra cost, so while it’s not free anger management classes, there might be some savings.
Talkspace
$85 off your first month: HEALTHCANAL85
Talkspace is a great option for someone seeking to learn strategies for anger management as part of improving mental health. Work with a therapist over text, phone, or video on a weekly basis.
- Work with licensed counselors
- Offers psychiatrists to prescribe medication
- Text, phone, or video sessions
- May work with your insurance provider
- Expensive
- May not satisfy court requirements
- Doesn’t offer a completion certificate
Online therapy has become a big business, especially in the wake of COVID. As a result, there are a bunch of offerings for someone looking for a convenient way to improve themselves at their own pace. Talkspace is one of the better options, offering full online therapy with a mental health professional, as well as some supplemental services.
It may not be what a probation officer is looking for in terms of an online anger management course, though. Since there’s no end date, there’s no completion certificate. If simply managing anger is your goal, however, this might be a good option.
Calmerry
Calmerry is similar to Talkspace or Betterhelp, but with not as many bells or whistles. It’s a little cheaper as a result, so it can be a great option for self-improvement and therapy.
- Licensed counselors
- Weekly therapy sessions
- Communicate by text, phone, or video
- Less expensive
- Some types of therapy require you to call to start
- Probably doesn’t satisfy a court order
- No certificate of completion
You can connect to Calmerry either online or through an app on your smartphone. The services will connect you to a therapist who you can work with to improve your anger management skills, as well as a number of other issues.
Anger management is definitely a specialty that is offered by Calmerry. As with a number of other options, however, it’s not really an anger management program as it is just regular therapy moved online. If you need a certificate that satisfies court requirements, this might not be the best option.
Online-therapy
Online-therapy.com doesn’t just focus on anger management but offers a general therapy service. While it’s great for personal growth, it may not meet the requirements for court-ordered anger management classes.
- Highly structured therapy
- Regular, weekly therapy sessions
- Security and confidentiality guaranteed
- Individual therapy
- Costly
- Not available in all 50 states
- May not satisfy court requirements
- Doesn’t issue certificates of enrollment or completion
Online-therapy.com matches you with a licensed therapist, meeting weekly for either phone or video sessions. They structure their approach around cognitive behavioral therapy and use easy-to-digest lessons to supplement therapy.
You certainly can focus on anger management as an aspect of your therapy. Online-therapy.com doesn’t offer specific anger management classes. There’s no end date for therapy, either, so things like certificates of course completion aren’t available.
Note that there is the very similarly named onlinetherapy.com. The dash makes a difference.
Open Path
Open path focuses on anger management, and teaching skills like meditation and stress reduction, all available to go over at your own pace. Guaranteed to satisfy court needs.
- Free first lesson
- Specialized in anger management
- Online courses
- An instant certificate that satisfies court requirements
- Less expensive
- No general therapy
For a one-time registration fee of about $5, you get access to all of Open Path’s courses. You do have to pay additional fees for the course hours. However, there are a bunch of benefits. In addition to a free first class, you also get hard-copy certificates at the completion of the course.
Learn skills like mindfulness meditation, stress reduction, and communication. Open Path is actually a non-profit, helping people learn to control anger.
Logan Group Anger Management Classes
The Logan Group offers self-paced courses, focused on anger management skills. It also offers more focused courses, like how to deal with road rage.
- Instant certificate of enrollment
- Self-paced courses
- Pay by course-hours
- Free account
- Anger management assessment
- Slightly more expensive
It’s not always clear ahead of time which anger management courses are going to be acceptable to probation officers or the court. The Logan Group specializes in helping people navigate the court system while improving their mental health. As a result, they offer a letter of enrollment when you sign up.
With that letter, you can find out if the course meets your needs before you shell out the cash. The Logan Group offers a range of social services, including substance abuse counseling.
Anger Masters
Anger Masters is accepted by courts everywhere in the U.S. Their courses focus on different aspects of anger management, including custom courses for specific needs.
- Pay by course-hours
- Alternatively, choose by course length in weeks
- Guaranteed accepted by court or money back
- Free certificate of completion
- Accepted in all 50 states
- Custom course lengths
- Mailed proof of enrollment
Anger Masters focus solely on providing anger management classes to people across the United States. Their program is accepted by jurisdictions throughout the country. It’s possible to sign up for courses either by hour or by week. You can also start and stop the course at any time.
All course materials are provided for free, as is a certificate of completion.
How To Choose Online Anger Management Classes?
While most of us can think of one or two people, at least, who might benefit from anger management classes, really anyone can benefit[2]. At the heart of most approaches to this problem is an understanding of:
- Managing emotions in a healthy way
- Expressing those emotions for a positive result
Those are good skills for anyone to have, ones that most of us could stand to work on to some extent. Together, these are part of a skill called emotional intelligence.
For people who genuinely struggle with a wild temper, anger management courses can serve as a lifeline. Unsurprisingly, people don’t enjoy being around working with people who can’t control their temper. They can face issues in their workplace, their personal lives, and really any time they interact with other people.
All that is great, but in practical terms, an anger management class needs to meet a few requirements to actually be of any help. Expense is always a consideration, as are things like a digital certificate of competition or enrollment. The method of teaching anger management can also make a big difference.
Cost
Managing money is always stressful and often infuriating. It’s not a good sign if the cost of the anger management course sets off your temper. The good news, most anger management courses are very affordable.
The cost can vary depending on how you want to approach an anger management class. For some services, like Talkspace or Betterhelp, anger management is one piece of an overall approach to mental health and self-improvement. These services tend to be more expensive, but also have a wider array of options.
With those full-service mental health options, you work with a mental health professional and licensed therapist. There isn’t a specific endpoint and you can keep working as long as you need to.
More affordable options focus on anger management specifically. They tend to offer classes in 4 hour chunks with a registration fee, so you can decide how much you need and how much you can afford. Some services may charge extra certificate fees for a certificate of completion. Others will hand out a free certificate.
Court Approved
Sometimes, anger can get really out of hand or just increase the odds of bad luck striking. When that happens, just about anyone can end up in front of a judge after doing something unwise. It’s not unusual for the judge to include anger management as a part of the sentencing when that happens.
Obviously, an online anger management class is a lot more convenient. Anger management courses often have court approval and can offer an online certificate of completion. It might be harder to get with Talkspace, Betterhelp, or one of the services that allow you to work with licensed therapists.
Skills And Methods
Not all anger is the same[2]. There is irritation and anger, which may not be caused by any one incident but slowly builds as perceived injustices pile up throughout the day. Aggressive anger is pretty hard to miss when someone is willing to act in some socially inappropriate ways to express themselves.
Passive-aggressive anger is very common, in which we harbor anger issues and express them, but never clearly or unequivocally. Temper tantrums are all about unfulfilled needs. Even justifiable anger can be a problem.
A few anger management techniques[3] will work with any type of anger. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for example, is a really useful type of therapy that helps people gain control of their thoughts and emotions. It’s also good for general personal growth.
Meditation is also widely used as a method for controlling anger. Other methods may be specific to the situation or type of anger.
Frequently Asked Questions
It can depend on the circumstances. However, a 4-hour course is usually between $25 and $30 dollars.
Not every anger management class will satisfy a court’s requirement. It’s important to make sure the course you sign up for is acceptable. Many services offer letters of enrollment, which allow you to check before paying. Others offer a money-back guarantee.
Meditation, deep breathing, and stress management are all common techniques. Mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy also are used to address anger problems.
+ 4 sources
Health Canal avoids using tertiary references. We have strict sourcing guidelines and rely on peer-reviewed studies, academic researches from medical associations and institutions. To ensure the accuracy of articles in Health Canal, you can read more about the editorial process here
- Controlling Anger — Before It Controls You (2021). Controlling Anger — Before It Controls You. [online] https://www.apa.org. Available at: https://www.apa.org/topics/anger/control.
- WebMD (2000). Available at: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/anger-management.
- Mayo Clinic. (2020). Anger management: 10 tips to tame your temper. [online] Available at: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/anger-management/art-20045434.
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