Chennaiites explore rage therapy as a healing technique

We’ve all had that moment when our laptop freezes mid-deadline and we want to fling it out the window, or when we drop our favourite mug and just stare at the pieces, wishing life had an “undo” button. What if you actually could break something, and then fix it carefully, beautifully, with gold? That’s exactly what a group of Chennaiites did last weekend at a rage therapy workshop inspired by Kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken pottery. Here, you’re handed a bowl, a bag, and permission to let it all out — to break, release, and then rebuild. What starts with a thud and a little chaos ends with patience, gold paint, and the quiet satisfaction of repair.Inside the bright studio, laughter mixed with the sound of ceramic cracks. Once the bowls shattered, participants collected their shards, glued them back, filled the gaps with clay, and painted over the scars with gold. Turns out, breaking things on purpose can be oddly soothing, especially when you’re the one putting them back together.Sharan Sivakumar and his wife, Saathvika, who attended the workshop to do something different than their usual weekend routine, shared, “We’ve not done anything creative in ages, so we decided to make it a date. It turned out to be such a great experience.” “I couldn’t even break the bowl on my first try, but managed on the third go! But it was really fun,” adds Saathvika.“With any kind of physical exercise, oxytocin is released in the body,” says psychologist Priyanka Kapoor. “The body lets go of pent-up energy, activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms you down emotionally as well. Rage therapy can bring temporary relief and lightness, but psychotherapy is often needed alongside it for deeper healing. It’s subjective, what works beautifully for one person might not for another.”So, the next time you feel like breaking something, maybe do it where someone hands you glue and gold paint after. Because sometimes, the best kind of healing starts with a little crack.‘Unlike other rage rooms, where you just smash, here you break, then rebuild’“We started doing Kintsugi-inspired workshops across 32 cities in India. Initially, it was purely about the art form, but people began sharing how emotionally freeing the experience was. That’s when it evolved into a rage therapy format. Unlike other rage rooms, where you just smash and leave, here you break, then rebuild. It’s about patience, reflection, and leaving with something beautiful you made yourself,” shares Aravindh Sivalingam, who had held a rage therapy workshop in the city last week. Written By: Aashna Reddy