hi Louise, I’ve added a picture to your post and here’s a comment to explain why!

When your blog entry came through earlier I had a very brief chat with one of the chaplaincy team who was in the office and she immediately said that she would use the anger game, to which I replied “what’s that?”. She then got a piece of paper and brought over to my desk the paper and two felt tip pens. She then said that it’s a race to see who can cover the paper the quickest and end up with more of their own colour on the page. We then just scribbled and got angry and laughed for about 30 seconds and this was the result! I think the phone rang before we had a chance to talk about how she had gone on to use this and in what contexts but maybe she’ll take over the story from here…

The anger game is a really good discussion starter. You can use it as a competition in a group, or just as a fun activity at the beginning of a one to one. It really does make you feel a bit angry when you play it, so it is great for getting students (and adults!) in touch with their anger in a positive way which then can be used to chat about such things as, what does it feel like when you get angry? how do you normally re-act to anger? etc. It is a bit of a silly game, and sometimes students need convincing to try it…but when they give it ago, they all seem to love it.
There is a book by Nick Luxmoore called Working with Anger and Young People. Nick works as a counsellor in schools and does a lot of group work. He gives loads of practical, creative ideas for working with groups and some amazing insights which have really enhanced my work with young people. It’s also really easy to read. If you haven’t found this book yet I suggest it would be very applicable and useful for your group of angry boys.
All the best.