Anger Monster Maker: Make Your Temper a Monster, Name It and Shrink It

About the technique

Externalizing the problem is a core practice of narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston and set out in Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends (White & Epston, 1990). Rather than the child being the problem, the difficulty gets its own name and character, so the family can see how it pushes them around and when they resisted it. Child anxiety work uses the same move, treating worry as a bossy character a child can talk back to (Chansky, 2014).

Turning a temper into a monster does two things. It lowers shame, because the child is no longer the bad one, and builds agency, because a monster’s tricks can be spotted and beaten. Drawing the character makes this concrete and gives caregivers a less blaming way to talk about blowups. This can suit children whose outbursts are intense and fast, including many with ADHD, for whom emotion dysregulation is common (Shaw et al., 2014).

The evidence is practice-based. Externalizing is widely taught but untested as a stand-alone technique, and a scoping review of narrative therapy for children with ADHD described externalizing as a key intervention while calling for research on its actual impact (Ophir et al., 2025). Use it within a broader plan that includes caregiver work, and assess what drives escalating outbursts, including trauma or harm at home, with mandated reporting where it applies. Keep responsibility for hurtful behavior with the child: the monster explains the pull, not the choice, and repair still belongs to them. With young or easily frightened children, keep the character friendly.