Beyond Anger and Violence: A Program for Women

“Beyond Anger and Violence offers an ambitious, comprehensive, and fundamental framework for addressing the role past trauma plays in the lives of women who struggle with anger. It is grounded in both theoretical knowledge as well as clinical expertise, while also being a practical, informative, and “hands on” tool designed to educate women about the links between trauma and violence and to guide them toward more effective and less damaging coping strategies. Extensive, well-researched information for facilitators is included in all sessions, as well as detailed and empowering tools, exercises and activities focused on self-examination, self-soothing, and managing anger. An important and significant contribution to the field of women, trauma, and behavioral health.”

Norma Finkelstein, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Institute for Health and Recovery

“Exceptionally comprehensive, holistic and culturally sensitive, this curriculum and workbook provide an integrated theoretical foundation and practical tools for working with anger and violence specifically for women. Stephanie Covington has applied her unique and vast experience and appreciation of women's gender specific issues to the unaddressed and difficult subject of anger and violence in women's lives and provided an amazing array of helpful tools for working with anger and channeling it toward healing and constructive ends.”

Dr. Janet Surrey
founding scholar, Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, Stone Center, Wellesley College

“Stephanie Covington has really done it this time! She has developed a curriculum on anger and violence that does not actually emphasize “managing” anger at all. Rather, she accompanies women as they move behind their anger to see where it comes from and beyond it to create new relationships and envision new communities. Drawing on her broad-ranging experiences with women in all phases and places in life, she has distilled into a 20-sesson (40-hour) group all that a woman might need to deal more effectively with the impact of trauma and abuse that likely underlies much of her anger.
Dr. Covington takes the multiple contexts of violence and anger seriously. This is clearly more than a theoretical set of commitments (though the theory is laid out nicely); it reflects a much larger commitment to understand women’s lives from the inside out.
This is a participant’s workbook and a facilitator’s guide literally jam-packed with information, activities, and ideas that will engage women in their own exploration. It is an inviting and easy-to-follow curriculum that sacrifices none of the straightforward and honest language necessary for women to grow beyond their anger and violence.”

Roger Fallot
Director of Research & Evaluation
Community Connections

“Designed like the spiral of healing, this program starts by focusing on the self and moves out to relationships, then one’s community, then onto the society. It keeps circling back to give participants time to reflect on what they learned in the last session, to practice self-soothing techniques, and then moves ahead to explore additional material.”

Sue Osthoff
Director
National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women