Anger Alternatives Notice of Transition
Jerry Medol, the founder of Anger Alternatives and pioneer of exploring alternatives to commonly-held beliefs about anger, died on January 26, 2023. Jerry’s long legacy of work supporting men and women to reach new understandings of anger will long be remembered. Jerry helped many grow and empower their lives. His work is being carried on.
John Craft worked, studied, and mentored under Jerry for sixteen years. During the last several years of Jerry’s life, John and Jerry worked together to make the Anger Alternatives workshops, programs, and teachings available online. As Jerry’s health declined, he “passed the baton” to John Craft to carry on the work of learning how anger directs us toward being fully authentic. Following Jerry’s passing, John partnered with Laura Tria of New Light Sanctuary to continue the work and to make the programs continue. We held our first online workshop entitled “Gifts of Anger” in November of 2023, and continue to offer both personal consultations and scheduled workshops. Visit our Gifts of Anger website for more information at www.giftsofanger.com.
We are honored to continue bringing the Gifts of Anger into this world.
John Craft (johncraftcoaching.com)
Laura Tria (lauratria.com)
Jerry Medol was a sociologist and an internationally recognized expert in anger management training. He works with male and female clients as a teacher and an educator and trains professional colleagues in respect-based anger management tools and techniques. With more than 35 years in practice, Jerry is skilled at disarming aggressive dysfunctional situations and transforming them to respect-based relationships.
Jerry founded The Men’s Project of Kansas City in 1972, and served as its director for twelve years. The Men’s Project was one of the first three batterer-intervention programs in the United States, and it was the first male-supportive, non-shaming anger program in the US. Jerry founded Anger Alternatives in 1986.
He was the developer of the Medol Model which includes:
- The Passive Assertive Framework©
- Response-Training ©
- The “Stoppit!”© Program
In his Kansas City practice, Jerry worked to change aggressive, abusive and reactionary behaviors. He was experienced at training employees and staff from businesses and organizations in workplace violence and supervisory sensitivity issues.
Jerry was a Senior Elder and co-founder of MKP/KC, the Kansas City community of The Mankind Project – New Warriors, (initiated, Camp Butterfly, April 1998). He was an activist for men’s issues for over 35 years and is frequently consulted as a community and media resource for issues about men and about anger.
My goal is that anger healing be made into a public campaign to educate our communities and culture to handle anger and relationships in healthy ways.
For true freedom and anger healing, training must begin by teaching children tools to affirm their anger and separate anger related feelings from their anger related behavior
My mission is to support men and women to grow into their authentic personal power in ways that enhances their lives and the lives of their families”
Jerry Medol
