Five Questions With: AUTHOR, Julie Christiansen
In her new book, "The Rise of Rage," author Julie Christiansen challenges readers to harness the most misunderstood emotion.
Welcome to my series, “Five Questions With,” where I introduce you to people from various industries and walks of life by asking them five questions about their work. This series is free for all readers.
The month of April will be, Five Questions With: AUTHORS.
I hope you enjoy getting to know these incredible authors, and please consider supporting them by checking out their books.
Julie teaches how to deliver anger management that creates radical lasting change for their clients. According to her, of all the human emotions, anger is probably the most misunderstood.
Her new book, Rise of Rage: Harnessing the Most Misunderstood Emotion, Christiansen teaches readers what real anger is, what real forgiveness looks like, and which safe, effective, and successful anger resolution tools work best in your context.
As someone who recently wrote about how anger is not my path (for a number of reasons), I clearly fall in the demographic of people Julie is writing to and about.
Which meant I was stoked to invite Julie Christiansen to this week’s edition of “Five Questions With.”
Enjoy.
1. Tell me about the moment (or moments) when it hit you that this book needs to be written.
It was back in the late 90s. I had been researching anger and strategies to help clients. I had already developed the Anger Solutions program and had started teaching mental health workers how to use it, but I realized that I needed another vehicle to get the information and resources in front of as many eyeballs as possible.
It seemed the best way to do that was to write a book!
The Rise of Rage is a culmination of everything I have learned since then, and it seems the perfect time for this information to go out into the world.
2. My favorite chapter title of yours is chapter 7: Kill the Monster when it’s a baby. Can you explain what this “monster” is, and why it’s so important to get rid of it early?
The monster in this case is emotional dysregulation and the ensuing bad decision making.
It is permissive parenting that results in entitled kids who don't know how to manage unmet needs or expectations, don't learn the value of healthy boundaries, can't accept NO for an answer, bullying, and the list goes on.
It is also about teaching kids prosocial behaviour throughout their academic careers and ensuring that their ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) are resolved before they head off to college or the world of work.
The simple truth is that if you don't kill the monster when it's a baby, it will grow up to eat you.
3. I have complicated feelings about anger. On one hand I totally see its psychological and emotional-well being value: we need to feel it, name it, express it. And I also see its sociological value: in the face of such grave injustices, we NEED to get angry as an empowering agent for change.
And yet, I also fear anger for its power to overtake us and bring about even more suffering in the world.
How do you respond to this push/pull dynamic myself (and others like me) might have toward anger?
This thinking is problematic because it assumes
anger is bad,
that anger and aggression are the same thing, and
that expressing anger will result in negative outcomes.
These beliefs are all myths!
Anger is what you FEEL. You have the power to choose how to respond. I believe we all have potential to do great evil, but we also have the potential to do immense good. It is up to us to decide how we want to apply our response to the things that make us angry.
That's why the subtitle of the book is: "Harnessing the Most Misunderstood Emotion.” With the right knowledge and the will to change, we can indeed harness anger and use it as fuel to do good in the world and be a force for radical, positive, lasting change.
4. What was the hardest chapter for you to write and why?
Most definitely, We Need to Talk. I had not intended for it to be so deeply centered in shame, but a conversation that occurred while I was working on that chapter confirmed the need for coverage of guilt and shame.
My beta readers confirmed that they really resonated with the notion of the weaponization of shame, so I knew I had hit the mark.
Even so, digging deeper into the history of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and Residential Schoolsmade me very sad.
5. How do you hope readers will be different as a result of reading “The Rise of Rage?”
I hope they will embrace the truth of what anger is and see how the myths they believed had been limiting their ability to fully express the complete spectrum of their emotions.
I hope they will apply the strategies I provide until they become skilled at identifying the problems that made them angry, and they become proficient problem-solvers rather than going for the quick fix.
I hope they will work to achieve the transformation they are worthy of, and that it begins a revolution of sorts, one that leads to less chaos and more harmony within society.