How I research the guides and worksheets

I’m Andrew Askins. I make Kettle, and I’m responsible for everything in its guides and tools. I’m not a clinician. I’m someone who has struggled with anger for most of my life and wanted to understand it better.

Which sources I use

I look for evidence in this order:

1. Research and clinical guidelines. That means systematic reviews and meta-analyses first, then individual peer-reviewed studies, clinical guidelines such as NICE’s, and the DSM-5-TR for definitions.
2. Recognised health bodies: the American Psychological Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, the NHS, SAMHSA, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Harvard Health and the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
3. Whoever came up with an idea. If a worksheet or a metaphor has an originator, I credit them. I don’t treat their description of it as proof that it works.

I don’t cite other apps’ blogs, articles written to rank in search, lists with no sources, Wikipedia or AI summaries.

How a page gets written

1. Research comes first. Before any drafting, each claim goes into a research file with its source, where in that source the support is found, and any numbers exactly as the source prints them.
2. Every source gets opened and read. If a source can’t be found, or it doesn’t say what the claim says, the claim is cut.
3. The draft is written from that file. A new claim goes back through the first two steps before it can appear.
4. Then each cited source is opened a second time and compared with the sentence that cites it. Anything overstated is fixed or removed.
5. The published page links to the source at the claim, lists its references at the end, and shows the date it was last reviewed.

Where I use AI

I use an AI assistant, Claude, to help search the research, draft pages and re-check citations against their sources. It doesn’t get the last word. I read every page before it’s published, and what a page says is on me.

How I talk about evidence

• I say how strong the evidence is. If findings are mixed or weak, the page says so.
• If something is a teaching metaphor and not a tested model, I call it a metaphor.
• My own experience is labelled as experience. It isn’t evidence.
• I don’t diagnose you. A guide can describe what problem anger looks like, but it can’t tell you whether you have it.
• I don’t present Kettle as treatment. Kettle is a journal.

If your anger is hurting you or the people around you, a guide is not enough. Here’s where to get help.

Who pays for this

Kettle earns money one way, through Kettle Plus. Nobody pays to be mentioned on this site, and it carries no ads or affiliate links.

When pages are reviewed

Every guide and tool shows the date it was last reviewed. I review a page when I learn something that changes it, and at least once a year.

Tell me when I’m wrong

If you find an error, a broken link or a claim that goes further than its source, email me at support@kettlejournal.com. I’ll check it and correct the page.