Holistic Behaviour Support and Anger Management
A Neurotypical and Non-NDIS Turn
By Dwayne Wannamarra Kennedy PhD (he/him)
lady writing in journal sitting with cuppa by fireplace in cozy room
1. Introduction
Historically, Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) and structured Behaviour Support Plans (BSPs) have been predominantly conceptualised and deployed within the disability and neurodivergent sectors to manage challenging behaviours stemming from cognitive or communicative deficits.
However, the foundational mechanisms of functional behavioural analysis are increasingly being recognised as highly effective when adapted for neurotypical populations experiencing acute or chronic anger management difficulties.
In individuals without intellectual or developmental disabilities, anger outbursts are rarely driven by basic communication barriers; instead, they are rooted in complex emotional misregulation, rigid cognitive distortions, and maladaptive stress-response systems.
This paper establishes a robust, multidisciplinary Applied Behaviour Support Framework specifically tailored for neurotypical individuals.
By integrating current behavioural science, cognitive-behavioural paradigms, and organisational psychology, this framework provides actionable models optimised for three distinct environments: corporate workplaces, relationship counselling, and academic or clinical research settings.
Practice Insights:
This paper comes across as kind of academic in language. We personalise this a bit by adding this note. My work with clients is diverse, as diverse as the clients we see. So we learned early on that actually, behaviour support tends to be more for the people who support children, young adults and adults with disabilities. Yes, of course we work directly with people with Autism and other disabilities. But what we learned that really moves the needle a lot for those individuals, is that when support people change their behaviours - and they learn how to support people - the whole environment shifts.
When the environment changes - then things really open up. People have more choice, based on a better understanding.
So we then realised that gosh, behaviour support is for so-called normal people, in some ways more so than everyone. Why? Because so-called normal people, in mainstream societies, have so many false assumptions and hangups that prevent them actually supporting a person with disability let along themselves.
Just look at the range of cases we see - loss and grief, aging transitions, trauma recovery, stress and anxiety from work, family and relationship breakdown, couple counselling issues, parenting, dealing with schools that refuse to change and adapt to support methods, home schooling issues, gender and sexuality issues, identity concerns, intimacy, loneliness, social isolation… across these and hundreds more areas we see an overwhelming pattern.
What we realised is that behaviour support principles and very practical solution focused goals are incredibly powerful and helpful. We began more intentionally applying these skills across many cases where clients gained benefits - when they wanted more than talk therapy type counselling. So our overall practice improved because we saw measurable client outcomes and higher client satisfaction.
So this is rub. Behaviour support is not only for people with disabilities. It is a form of helping that is incredibly useful, powerful, and practical. When used in a sensitive way while applying empathy and unconditional regard with our clients - these methods discussed in this paper make a lot of sense.
We might then just add, that contraindications might suggest that certain areas person centred behaviour support (PCBS) might not be appropriate. We might agree, but this entirely depends on how you define PCBS.
For example, in grief and loss - there is a time when you would not even dream of using an applied behavioural support focus to solve the “problem of grief.” No way. But we have found that even people in deep grief want to see a light at the end of the tunnel. So gently pointing them in that direction may involve sometimes a very practical approach, like a gentle suggestion to help them process grief in healthy ways.
We might for instance suggest a simple personal ritual to remember the person or animal companion who passed away. Or to journal after the loss of a job or career transition, to enable the person to reflect and appreciate their experience while gaining a slightly different perspective. Journalling helps also with sharing in therapy their insights, and provides a deeply safe and personal space for reflecting and looking back or looking to the future. These may seem on one hand like simple suggestions that have nothing to do with behaviour support - but from the perspective of specialist behavourial therapy, we see these examples as enabling therapeutic and skill-based steps to help individuals cope with transitions.
The rest of this paper looks at stages within behaviour support methods, and leaves you to imagine ways to apply these insights in everyday circumstances.
Imagine as you ask yourself, how might I want to ask my therapist to apply this practical insight to my life and issues? What outcomes might I want to seek from therapy to make it even more practical and helpful?
2. Functional Behavioural Assessment (FBA)
To modify any problematic behaviour, its function must be systematically decoded. In neurotypical adults, anger is seldom a random emotional eruption; it is a (dys)functional and learned behaviour utilised to alter the individual's immediate environment. A FBA for this population isolates the behavioural function into two primary categories:
Escape or Avoidance: Utilising an angry outburst to evade a stressful, high-pressure, or shame-inducing scenario (e.g., storming out of a difficult performance review or shutting down during a marital conflict).
Control or Attainment: Deploying aggressive or intimidating behaviour to force compliance from others or to re-establish a sense of certainty in an unpredictable environment.
The Neurotypical ABC Data Model
Traditional behavioural interventions rely on the Antecedent-Behaviour-Consequence (ABC) framework. For neurotypical individuals, as for many other settings, the model can be refined to account for internal, cognitive processes rather than relying solely on external, environmental triggers.
Antecedents (A): While an antecedent can be environmental (e.g., a critical email from a manager or a partner’s tone of voice), it is heavily mediated by internal cognitive distortions.
These include "thresholding" ("If they dismiss my opinion one more time, I cannot handle it") or rigid, internal "must/should" rules regarding how the world ought to operate.
Behaviour (B): The observable, measurable manifestation of anger.
This ranges from overt verbal aggression (shouting, door-slamming) to covert, passive-aggressive behaviours (intentional withdrawal, stonewalling, or subtle workplace sabotage).
Consequence (C): The immediate environmental feedback that reinforces the behaviour.
If a partner ceases a difficult conversation because the individual yells, the behaviour is successfully reinforced via negative reinforcement (escape). If a colleague yields a project boundary to appease an angry teammate, the behaviour is reinforced via positive reinforcement (attainment).
3. Environment-Specific Interventions
A. The Corporate Workplace
In organisational ecosystems, unmanaged anger manifests as interpersonal friction, high turnover, and toxic micro-climates. Semba (2025) demonstrates that structured anger management interventions in corporate settings yield quantifiable reductions in organisational dysfunctional behaviour and interpersonal withdrawal. When employees are trained to recognise their behavioural patterns, instances of destructive peer criticism drop significantly.
Furthermore, Umbra and Fasbender (2025) note that anger in the workplace does not inherently have to result in psychological resource depletion. If an employee is coached to replace maladaptive outbursts with problem-focused coping mechanisms, the physiological arousal associated with anger can actually be redirected constructively toward goal attainment, task focus, and assertive boundary setting.
B. Relationship Counselling
In marital and relationship counselling, anger frequently functions as a defense mechanism against vulnerability or shame. Behavioural support in this arena shifts from simple containment to the optimisation of regulatory fit. Pepping et al. (2024) emphasise that emotional misregulation often occurs not because an individual lacks a coping mechanism, but because the strategy they choose fails to match the contextual reality of their environment.
In a relationship context, suppressing anger or utilising "cathartic" releases (such as shouting or slamming objects) exacerbates relational trauma. Instead, couples counselling must focus on replacing aggressive demands with structured assertiveness training and the conscious regulation of interpersonal dynamics.
C. Academic and Clinical Research
For researchers mapping behavioural trends, it is vital to contrast neurotypical emotional volatility with neurodivergent aggression. As documented by Im (2021), while neurodivergent aggression may require interventions addressing sensory overstimulation or communication gaps, neurotypical anger assessment relies heavily on tracking cognitive appraisals and executive functioning. Researchers utilise standardised diagnostic metrics—such as the Brown Aggression Scale or the Clinical Global Impression Scale—to objectively quantify the frequency, duration, and intensity of anger behaviours across civilian demographics.
4. The Three-Phase Behaviour Support Framework
Phase 1: Proactive Strategies (The "Green" Phase)
Proactive strategies are executed when the individual is entirely calm and receptive. The objective is long-term skill acquisition to raise the individual's baseline emotional threshold.
Interoceptive Awareness: Training the individual to identify the early physiological biomarkers of a fight-or-flight response (e.g., localized body heat, accelerated heart rate, or chest constriction) before cognitive control is compromised.
Cognitive Restructuring: Drawing from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) paradigms to identify, challenge, and reframe irrational thoughts or perceived slights.
Assertiveness Training: Moving away from the suppression of anger—which Royston et al. (2023) note correlates heavily with subsequent explosive behaviours—and instead teaching individuals how to express boundaries clearly and non-aggressively using objective "I" statements.
Phase 2: De-escalation & Crisis Management (The "Yellow" & "Red" Phases)
When an individual begins to escalate (Yellow Phase) or enters a full anger crisis (Red Phase), the window for teaching skills closes. The sole focus pivots to harm minimization and physiological down-regulation.
The 6-Second Co-Regulation Rule: Responders, managers, or partners must deliberately pause for six seconds before responding to an agitated statement. This prevents reciprocal emotional contagion and breaks the escalation cycle.
Acoustic Counter-Mirroring: Instead of matching the volume and cadence of the angry individual, the responder intentionally lowers their vocal pitch, slows their speech tempo, and adopts an open, non-threatening posture.
Strategic Disengagement: If the individual reaches an explosive "Red" phase, attempts to reason, lecture, or force an apology must be abandoned. The priority is creating immediate physical distance to allow the adrenaline spike to subside naturally. Contemporary behavioural data strongly warns against historical "catharsis therapies" (e.g., hitting objects), as this actively rehearses and reinforces muscle memory for physical aggression.
Phase 3: Post-Crisis Processing (The "Recovery" Phase)
True behavioural modification occurs during the recovery window. Behavioural science dictates that processing an event too early—while cortisol levels remain elevated—will re-trigger the escalation cycle.
The System Reset: Allow a mandatory cooling period (ranging from 45 minutes to several hours) where no mention of the incident is made.
The Collaborative Review: Once the individual has completely returned to baseline, a neutral, non-punitive review is conducted. The individual maps out exactly what the internal trigger was, identifies where they missed their interoceptive warning signs, and creates a concrete plan to implement a proactive coping strategy (e.g., an intentional timeout) during the next localised antecedent event.
5. Conclusion
Adapting Applied Behaviour Support frameworks for neurotypical individuals provides a highly structured, objective, and measurable approach to managing anger. By moving away from the assumption that behaviour plans are exclusively for the disability sector, clinical researchers, corporate leaders, and relationship counsellors can utilise functional assessments to systematically dismantle aggressive patterns. The ultimate goal of this framework is not the absolute eradication of the emotion of anger, but the cultivation of robust emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, and adaptive communication strategies that preserve both organisational productivity and interpersonal harmony.
References
Im, D. S. (2021). Treatment of aggression in adults with autism spectrum disorder: A review. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 29(1), 35–80. https://doi.org/10.1097/hrp.0000000000000282
Pepping, N., Weinborn, M., Pestell, C. F., Preece, D. A., Malkani, M., Moore, S., Gross, J. J., & Becerra, R. (2024). Improving emotion regulation ability after brain injury: A systematic review of targeted interventions. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 1–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2024.2398029
Royston, R., Naughton, S., Hassiotis, A., Jahoda, A., Ali, A., Chauhan, U., Cooper, S., Kouroupa, A., Steed, L., Strydom, A., Taggart, L., & Rapaport, P. (2023). Complex interventions for aggressive challenging behaviour in adults with intellectual disability: A rapid realist review informed by multiple populations. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.01.18.23284725
Semba (2025) the effects of anger management on workers: A questionnaire survey of organisational dysfunctional behaviour and withdrawal from interpersonal relationships in the workplace. Behavioural Sciences, 15(2), 157. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15020157
Umbra, R., & Fasbender, U. (2025). The daily relations between workplace anger, coping strategies, work outcomes, and workplace affiliation. Frontiers in Psychology, 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1538914
About the Author Dwayne Kennedy PhD
Dwayne is a senior counsellor psychotherapist and specialist in behaviour support - and applies the field across NDIS and non-NDIS cases, with parents, in workplaces, and across mainstream settings from education and schools to aged care. Dwayne sees many more practical examples than can be shown above - in ways to apply practical behavioural support methods to person centred and strengths-focused work with people in society. His books are open to private and NDIS cases at the time of publishing this post - if you wish to connect send word via the form on home page.