What is Aggression Replacement Training?
Aggression Replacement Training is an internationally recognized method supporting the development of social and emotional competences.
Although the name suggests that aggression is the focus of the method, in reality training finds great application in dealing with both pleasant (like pride, joy, love, trust, etc.) and unpleasant (like anger, jealousy, shame, sadness) emotions.
As an international Master Trainer in Aggression Replacement Training PEACE – ART, I co-run certified trainings for psychologists, educators, teachers, therapists, educators, HR specialists, court and family probation officers.
What does Aggression Replacement Training do?
- The ability to control your own impulsiveness
Strengthening pro-social behavior
Teaching social competences that are non-aggressive and strengthening interpersonal relationships – developing morally mature attitudes and behaviors
Teaching and strengthening empathy
Strengthening family relationships
Learning non-aggressive problem solving
Noticing, appreciating and drawing on the potential of one’s own competences – learning to provide reinforcing, invaluable feedback
What exactly does the Aggression Replacement Training consist of?
Aggression Replacement Training consists of four components.
The first component is Anger Control Training.
It teaches you how to deal with your own anger so that instead of learned impulsive reactions, give yourself time to calm down, think and use a pro-social, non-aggressive way of dealing with the matter.
The second component is Social Skills Training. It teaches what and how to do in interpersonal situations to behave socially, and thus be ok towards yourself and others. Social Skills Training allows you to learn almost 90 various social competences, alternative to aggression, focused on understanding and responding to emotions, building relationships and self-awareness. Each skill is written down in a few simple steps and is adapted to the age of the participants of the Training.
The third component of Aggression Replacement Training is Moral Reasoning Training. Now that we know what not to do, and what and how to do, it’s time to think about why to do what is pro-social. Moral Reasoning Training supports participants in seeking answers to this key question. Moral Reasoning Training sessions are built as moral dilemmas, during which participants put themselves in the role of people in morally difficult situations, trying to make mature decisions. Participants during sessions of moral dilemmas also improve the ability to discuss without assessing and learn from each other.
The three basic ART components can be enriched by Empathy Training. It is build of 10 training sessions focused on issues such as showing interest in another person, skillful listening and tuning your emotional level with another person. Empathy training is extremely versatile and can be flexibly interwoven between sessions of the other three components of the Aggression Replacement Training.
Thanks to the basic components the Aggression Replacement Training helps build social and emotional competences in a very complete and comprehensive way. It teaches how to say stop, what to do in order not to behave aggressively, supports reflection on the reasons for prosocial choices to solve, and helps to build good, empathic relationships with others.