I'm glad he's recognized that what he does is a form of bullying and definately doesn't want to do that.

I know, from my side of things...I do push his buttons when I can see he's reached a state beyond hearing me when the fight or flight instinct is kicking in.

What we've agreed on (in principal, so far) is that we need to recognize and stop when it gets to that point. An agreement can be made for a cool down time to come back and talk about things when we calm down.