In this episode, Dr. Peter takes close look at an alternative way to manage, work through, and let go of anger, informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS), and especially by the work of Jay Earley.  After a brief review of the major tenets of IFS, we discuss how to work through the different ways that manager parts, firefighter parts and exiled parts hold and manage anger.  We look at the functions of anger in the internal system and especially at the process, the steps of working through and resolving anger held by parts in different roles.  Then Dr. Peter discusses how parts of him hold and respond to anger in a particular subsystem of parts within his broader internal system.  

In this live experiential exercise, Dr. Peter leads listeners through an experiential exercise that explores why anger might feel important, necessary, even indispensable for parts.  We look at how anger can develop from parts feeling forced to choose between attachment needs and integrity needs being met.  Dr. Peter and the audience members shared a lively, personal debriefing and discussion of their experience of the exercise.   

(Please note that sound effects are used in this episode and may be triggering to parts.)

In this experiential exercise I invite you and your parts to approach Jesus in the psychological, emotional, relational, and bodily anguish He suffered in His humanity in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Which parts of you might avoid Jesus, turn away from Him in His suffering -- and why?  Here is an opportunity to gently learn more about how our parts react to Jesus and to gently connect with them in understanding and compassion.  

We explore the inner experience of Jesus and the psychological, emotional, relational, and bodily anguish He suffered in His humanity in the Garden of Gethsemane as the drama of of salvation history unfolded.  We also explored the reactions of the apostles Peter, James, and John to the experience of Jesus' agony.  

In this experiential exercise, we invite parts of us to share their stories of why they hold anger toward God.  Dr. Peter offers an invitation to parts to see if we can listen to those stories in an open, nonjudgmental way, understanding that there are always reasons for anger at God, reasons that stem from misunderstanding and misinterpretations of experiences.  Parts are angry more at their images of God -- their idols -- than at who God really is. Live audience participants share their experience in debriefing and Dr. Peter also answers questions.  

Summary:  Dr. Peter walks you through the four tracks or pathways Catholics commonly follow with their anger at God, tracks proposed by Michele Novotni and Randy Petersen in their 2001 book Angry with God, and elaborates on them extensively.  These four tracks are 1) Trust in God Track; 2) the Cover-Up Track; 3) the Wrestle with God Track; and 4) the Long-Distance / Disconnect Track.  We discuss how to better resolve anger issues with God through a wide variety of means with a focus on practical solutions.  Dr. Peter emphasizes the importance of God images, felt safety and protection, a sense of trust, the infused virtue of Faith, courage and fortitude, and the critical role of emotional co-regulation in working through anger at God.    

In this episode, informed by Internal Family Systems and grounded firmly in a Catholic worldview, Dr. Peter guides you to connect with your spiritual manager parts who protect you against your own anger at God, getting to know those parts' concerns about why anger at God is dangerous or unacceptable.  This is an important step in the journey to working through your anger at God.  We discuss how to work safely with your parts, with a spirit of cooperation and collaboration, not rushing.  Come join us on an adventure inside.  At the end, audience participants debrief, share their experiences with Dr. Peter and he answers questions.  

In this episode, Dr. Peter reviews the limitations of current Catholic resources on anger, and then reviews secular resources, including interpersonal neurobiology and the structural theory of dissociation.  We examine the role of the body in anger responses, and discuss more wholistic ways of working constructive with parts that experience anger, rather than trying to dismiss anger, suppress it or distract from it.  The entire transcript is available at https://www.soulsandhearts.com/iic.