Is Anger Management A Viable Specialty Practice?

With the popularization of anger management in the media, many counselors, teachers and educators are flocking to Facilitator Certification Training in Anger Management. Many of these potential providers are attracted by the potential for providing anger management for profit.

As the major provider of anger management facilitator certification throughout the world, we are asked daily about the potential for establishing an anger management practice as a sole practice offering or as a separate area of specialization. Recently, we at Anderson & Anderson begin asking our active Certified Anger Management Facilitators (CAMF) for information regarding their current number of groups, executive coaching clients and related monthly income from private practice.

In January of 2017, a phone survey was made of the entire list of 45 Certified Anderson & Anderson Anger Management Facilitators in Los Angeles County. Of this group, 44 acknowledged earning what they considered to be an acceptable income from their anger management practice. Additional information was obtained from the one provider who was not profiting from his current practice. As it turned out, this provider offered only one group. This group was scheduled for Friday evenings from 7-9. The provider explained that this was the only time which he had available to schedule a class. 

Those providers who were successful offered classes days, evenings, Saturdays and Sundays. It is reasonable to conclude that the one provider who was not successful may have sealed his own fate by the lack of flexibility in his schedule. I personally interviewed this provider and asked if he would attend a class o Friday evenings if there were other options, his answer was no. I suggested that most potential clients would give the same answer.

During our survey, we learned that most Certified Anger Management Facilitators are Licensed Mental Health Clinicians or Substance Abuse Counselors who work full-time and have a small practice on a part-time basis. These Clinicians are not sophisticated in advertising, marketing, or the use of the Internet and most other small business practices.

Therefore, the question relative to the viability of anger management as a specialty practice is not much different than that of a psychotherapy practice. Essentially, it depends on the investment both financial and otherwise made by the provider. However, most anger management providers are able to do well at this time based on the inverse number of trained anger management providers in contrast to the need worldwide.

The average income from the part time practice of anger management ranges from a high of $12,000 per month for one provider with 5 locations to $2,000 per month for one provider who has two groups that meet once per week on Saturdays.

George Anderson, MSW, BCD, CAMF.