Temper damper

>> Anger management therapist helps
clients control their inner rage

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Fabienne Le Panse

Age: 43

Occupation: Drama teacher/anger management therapist

Bio: This dedicated Montreal West resident has been working as a drama teacher for roughly 20 years, both in the public/ private school system and through the Pegasus theatre, a drama school/troupe that she cofounded with her husband Wayne. Initially developing an interest in anger management after witnessing one too many instances of kids being bullied at her various workplaces, Fabienne was disheartened to discover there were precious few resources in Montreal to help people deal with their anger issues. So, together with her partner Maria, she did a great deal of studying, got officially certified, and soon began developing a series of anger/emotion management workshops herself, workshops she’s been conducting for both adults and children the past two years now. If you’re finding yourself seriously pissed off all the time, and/or if you’ve allowed all that anger to fester up inside and it’s started to rear its ugly head as depression, then perhaps you might want to contact her at (514) 281-0067 or selfdoc@aei.ca to see about attending one or more of the workshops she’s currently conducting at the Westmount YMCA. The cost is $15 per workshop.

Are the bulk of her attendees violent lunatics who’ve been court-ordered to her workshops? “No, everyone comes by choice. We get a lot of people—about 70 per cent of our participants— whose anger has turned into depression, who feel like they don’t have the skills to function anymore in the world. And, of course, we also get many people who have a lot of anger and don’t know what to do with it. It just comes up in them for no reason, like a fuse it blows, and they don’t understand what’s going on and feel they simply can’t cope with it any longer.”

Outside of the obvious, that the world is a horrific place and life usually feels like it isn’t worth living, why are these folk so angry? “Well, it’s learned behaviour. These problems cut very deep and come from very far within our own childhoods. For almost everyone, the workshops bring up memories of childhood, where they were either victims of anger or anger was an emotion they were not allowed to express.”

Is she ever afraid that, if she arrives to a workshop a little late or says something controversial, some maniac is going to walk up to the front of the class and punch her in the face? “Um, well, I haven’t come across that situation to date, although I guess it could happen, but there’s always two of us teaching so if there ever are any problems, one of us can take the person aside while the other continues teaching the group. Anyway, we let people express their anger, their pain, so we’re not directly challenging them on it, and in this type of situation there really is no danger.”

Last book read: The Return of Merlin, by Deepak Chopra.

Childhood ambition: To become a missionary “and help people.”

Musical preferences: Mozart, Chopin, Vivaldi.

Words of wisdom: “Live your life authentically, be true to yourself.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net