The Anger Coach:

Bryan Anderson '08

Hometown: Los Angeles | Resides in: Los Angeles | Majored in: Psychology | Advanced degree: Master's in social work from Columbia University | Job title: Clinical social worker and owner of Grab The Wheel Kids: Anger Management and Social Skills

Any parent or educator will tell you that anger problems profoundly can hinder a child’s ability to thrive both in and out of the classroom. Enter Bryan Anderson ’08, who is carving a niche for himself in the field of social work by providing young children with the proper tools to better understand and manage their emotions. Grab The Wheel Kids — a Los Angeles-based therapy practice and consulting firm that he recently founded — offers anger management and social skills coaching to children (including children on the autism spectrum) and training opportunities to parents, teachers and therapists, based on a finely honed curriculum he developed. Anderson literally has written the book on this topic — “Grab the Wheel: Helping Young Children Manage Explosive Anger” — which will be published this spring.

All in the family: For Anderson, psychology is the family business. His mother, Nancy, is an elementary school psychologist and his father, George, developed a curriculum of pioneering anger management techniques that is widely used within the mental health field.

Grabbing the wheel: With the support of his mentor and former supervisor Dr. Stephanny Freeman, who co-directs the Early Childhood Partial Hospitalization Program at UCLA, Bryan adapted his dad’s curriculum to the needs of small children. The resulting book, “Grab the Wheel,” (co-authored with Freeman, Dr. Tanya Paparella and Kelly Ferraro), helps children learn to cope with difficult situations.

The “Good Choice Wheel”: At the core of Anderson’s book is a “Good Choice Wheel” that lays out the four most important coping skills that young children need — strong words, listening, saying how they feel and trying something different. Each skill is represented by a character, and each character reinforces a particular set of behavioral skills.

Makeshift impressionist: He coaxes laughs from kids by performing impressions. His go-to impression: Barack Obama.

In his own words: “People are so open at Kenyon. They are so open to each other. I think that the way that people are included at Kenyon really gave me the ability to go with the flow and get along with anybody, no matter how different they are from me, where they might come from, and what kind of experiences they have had. Kenyon opened my eyes up to the rest of the world.” 

Find Bryan Anderson at: grabthewheelkids.com | on Twitter: @GoodChoiceWheel | on Instagram: @grabthewheelkids | on Facebook: facebook.com/GrabTheWheel