| Phase | Session focus |
| Individual therapy 3 - 4 hours | Recognizing motivation/readiness for change. In the individual sessions, the client learns the rationale of the method and the tools used in the group session. Measures schemas. |
|
| Group therapy |
| Session 1. psycho-educative | Overview of the group and group rules Each participant's goal, expectations of the group What makes people angry into context with other emotions |
| Session 2 psycho-educative | Anger is an emotion and aggression is a behavior Event > distressed > “wronged” > anger > mobilized to attack Learn to gain control over anger through anger circle Reactions to triggers, thoughts, feelings, arousal, and behavior |
| Session 3 psycho-educative | The vulnerable self-image and self-esteem. Awareness of the vulnerability of negative thoughts, how the body reacts. Alternative coping strategies, time-out, yellow cards. Alternative thinking errors (Mindfulness shift focus) |
| Session 4 psycho-educative | Anger and violence in the family perspective, compassion, respect and cooperation in relationships Children perspective |
| Session 5 psycho-educative | Understanding automatic thoughts and learning about core beliefs and underlying beliefs Identifying the meaning of the event and our perceptions. |
| Session 6 - 12 Group therapy | Each client describes how the week has passed with regard to his violent behavior. Each client has to analyze his violent episode through the cognitive tools. Event > negative thoughts > interpretation > feeling > arousal > action. Using Socratic questions, the therapists encourage the clients to come up with constructive alternatives of behavior. The rest of the group participates by helping the client to define an acceptable alternative behavior. |
| Session 13 - 14 Group therapy | Understand their own core beliefs in order to recognize them, question them, and acquire techniques for challenging them. Cognitive distortions forming core beliefs and ways of addressing them are identified by using rehearsal and homework |
| Session 15 Group therapy | Group members evaluate each other and identify areas where they need to be cautious in the future. |