But for male survivors it can still be very difficult to feel that their rage is acceptable. The therapist must also draw attention to the ways the buried anger is being acted out in the present.įor most women survivors of trauma or abuse, anger is the most difficult emotion to deal with.
It is essential that the therapist recognizes and validates the survivor’s buried anger. By the time therapy is begun, the underlying anger is usually deeply buried, especially in females.
If this cry for help goes unnoticed, the survivor will often enter adulthood with an internalized despair, and many go on to develop chronic depression or problems of drug and alcohol dependence. The buried layers of anger frequently emerge during adolescence in self-destructive and anti-social behaviours. In addition, a child in a dysfunctional family may learn that it is not safe to express feelings of outrage, anger and criticism. Children who are abused and molested sustain fundamental damage to their boundary and attachment systems, so that they are unable to either recognize or utilize the danger signals of anger.
