What If Your Most Anxious Patients Are Actually Carrying Suppressed Anger?
A patient sat across from me, fidgeting with her hands, describing a familiar story: racing heart, sleepless nights, constant underlying tension that no amount of breathing exercises seemed to touch.
I've tried everything," she said. "Three different therapists, meditation apps, prescription anxiety medication. Nothing works."
Her jaw clenched, I noticed how her shoulders pulled up toward her ears. And when I gently pressed on the acupuncture points along her liver meridian, she winced.
I said carefully, "When was the last time you felt genuinely angry about something?"
Confused, she responded, "I don't really get angry. I'm not an angry person."
I knew exactly where we needed to start.
We've Been Trained to Fear Anger
After many years of treating patients as a Naturopathic Doctor and Acupuncturist, I've come to the startling conclusion:
Many of the people we're treating for anxiety, depression, and even physical ailments are actually suffering from something else entirely:
They're carrying years—sometimes decades—of suppressed anger that has literally taken up residence in their bodies.
In Chinese medicine, emotions aren't abstract concepts floating around in our heads. They're tangible energies that move through specific pathways in the body—the acupuncture meridians. These meridians are like guitar strings, each one resonating at a particular frequency. When you hold a tuning fork next to a guitar, it will resonate with the string that matches its frequency.
Anger and stress resonate with the liver and gallbladder meridians. When these emotions get stuck—when we chronically suppress them—they create what we call "liver qi stagnation."
The symptoms? Jaw tension, shoulder tightness, digestive issues, menstrual irregularities, sleep disturbances, and yes, what we often label as anxiety.
After six weeks of acupuncture combined with intentional anger release practices, my patient’s "anxiety" virtually disappeared.
More importantly, she discovered something profound:
She wasn't anxious. She was furious. Furious about a childhood of emotional neglect. Furious about years of putting everyone else's needs first. Furious about not being seen or heard in her own life.
Why We're Missing the Mark
Anger isn't the enemy. It's information. It's energy.
And when we systematically teach people to suppress it, we're creating the very symptoms we're trying to treat.
Our culture has made anger, particularly in women, socially unacceptable.
"Girls don't get angry."
"Professionals stay calm."
"Healers are peaceful."
So, we stuff it down, we breathe through it, we analyze it in therapy sessions, but we never actually let it move through and out of our bodies.
The result? That suppressed anger acts like a cork, holding down layers of grief, shame, fear, disgust, and even rage. It creates physical tension, disrupts our energy flow, and manifests as a host of symptoms that we then try to manage rather than resolve.
I see this pattern constantly in my practice, and I lived it myself for years.
My Own Awakening
I used to tell myself the same story many of my patients do: "I'm just not an angry person. I don’t feel anger."
It wasn't until I was deep in my own Qi Gong practice that I started feeling something unfamiliar moving through my body. At first, I couldn't even identify what it was. It took me weeks to recognize that what I was feeling was rage—not just anger, but decades of suppressed fury that had been living in my liver meridian, creating havoc in my reproductive system and keeping me stuck in patterns that no longer served me.
The process of learning to safely express and move that anger was transformational. My menstrual cramps disappeared. My cycle became regular. My libido returned. Strained relationships healed. I conceived a second child and had an incredible pregnancy after years of challenges.
I realized that once I started moving that anger, I had access to emotions I hadn't felt in years. Joy. Genuine peace. Creative energy. It was as if the anger had been blocking everything else.
What This Means for Our Patients
As healthcare professionals, we have an opportunity to revolutionize how we approach emotional healing. Instead of only teaching coping strategies or referring to mental health therapists, we can help our patients recognize that their bodies are trying to tell them something important.
When a patient comes in with chronic tension, digestive issues, reproductive problems, or persistent anxiety that doesn't respond to conventional treatment, I now ask different questions:
Where do you feel this in your body?
When did you last express anger about something that really mattered to you?
What would happen if you permitted yourself to feel furious for just five minutes?
The answers often reveal the real work that needs to be done.
This doesn't mean we abandon talk therapy or dismiss the very real neurochemical components of anxiety and depression. It does mean we need to expand our toolkit. We need to include practices that help people safely express and move emotional energy through their bodies.
Moving Energy, Not Just Talking About It
In Chinese medicine, you don't just discuss stuck energy—you move it. This might mean:
Vigorous exercise that allows for emotional expression
Intentional breathwork combined with movement
Safe spaces for vocal expression (“rage cages” and screaming into pillows!)
Qi Gong practices specifically designed to move liver qi
Activities like racquetball, where you can safely "smash" something
The key is doing this work intentionally and in a contained, healthy way. We can’t unleash anger on loved ones or in inappropriate settings. We must create safe containers for authentic emotional expression and release.
The Ripple Effect
When we help our patients—and ourselves—develop a healthy relationship with anger, lots of shifts happen. They stop being afraid of their own emotions. They develop better boundaries. They show up more authentically in their relationships. Many times, their physical symptoms resolve naturally because we've addressed the root energetic cause.
As healthcare professionals, when we do our own anger work, we become better practitioners. We stop taking on our patients' suppressed emotions. We maintain clearer energetic boundaries. We avoid the burnout and compassion fatigue that plague our profession.
A Different Kind of Medicine
I'm not suggesting we throw out everything we know about mental health treatment. I’ve personally seen great benefit from a variety of therapists, including a compassionate male therapist who helped me rebuild trust in the masculine and safely explore my grief, anger, and early wounds.
I am suggesting that we are not just minds walking around in bodies. We are integrated beings where emotional energy and physical health are inextricably connected.
The next time you see a patient whose anxiety isn't responding to conventional treatment, consider asking about anger. Notice where they hold tension in their bodies. Pay attention to the meridians that feel stuck or overcharged.
You might discover that what they need isn't another coping strategy or more therapy appointments. They might need permission to feel something they've been taught their whole lives to suppress. They might need to learn that their anger isn't something to fix—it's something to honor, express safely, and move through them and out of the body.
Because on the other side of that suppressed anger? That's where true healing lives.
Originally published on LinkedIn on September 5, 2025.
Dr. Laura Chan is a licensed Naturopathic Doctor, Acupuncturist, and certified Qi Gong instructor specializing in empath empowerment, emotional-energetic hygiene, and feminine life force awakening. With two decades of study under Qi Gong masters and energy healers, she shares high-functioning empath strategies at https://highfunctioningempath.com.
