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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Positive Psychology and Counselling

By Julia Barnard

Positive Psychology is an ever growing branch of psychology and since its ethos is about getting the most out of life, I believe it can be readily used in counselling.

For many years psychology has focused on looking at problems and seeing if anything can be done about them. As a result so much focus seems to have been on what's wrong rather than what's right with people. Somehow people have become victims of their genes and environment and the best they can hope for is to learn how to tread water. Positive Psychology offers more than this. It teaches people how to swim and to swim well. We don't just have to 'make do'. It recognises that people are capable of real growth and change.

There are many ways Positive Psychology can be used in counselling and in fact it often flows quite well into widely accepted techniques such as Solution Focused Therapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. For instance Solution Focused Therapy works to help the client recognise what they are already doing in their life, noting what's better for them and what worked well in the past. Focus is on the solution rather than the problem. Whereas Seligman's work on learning optimism is about recognising unhelpful thought patterns and learning to dispute and replace them. This is a fundamental aspect of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

Beyond this, Positive Psychology provides us with an opportunity to nurture what is already within the individual, but years of unhappiness and struggle mean the person is no longer able to recognise it. I see Positive Psychology offering a series of techniques (which have ever growing scientific support for) which can help people cope when things go wrong. The ideal would be to learn these techniques whilst things are good, enabling us to readily draw upon them during times of difficulty. This is the ideal. However, by integrating them into therapy an opportunity is given to introduce ideas and techniques the client can take with them. That being said, seeking out support during difficult times is a fundamental facet of Positive Psychology, whether this is through a friend or the assistance of a mental health professional.

Some of the ideas stemming from Positive Psychology that I think are particular prevalent to counselling include eliciting personal strengths, learning optimism as well as understanding the concept of control (i.e. the things we can and cannot control and what we can do about both). Work on gratitude and forgiveness will both have their place in a counselling environment. However, perhaps the most important concept so vital to Positive Psychology is the one of hope: the belief that things will get better. If a counsellor has no hope for their client, then what is the point?

Copyright Julia Barnard 2009

Julia Barnard is a professional counsellor living in Adelaide, Australia. She provides an online counselling service through her website http://www.makethechange.com.au, which offers counselling at a time and place that suits you. Julia also writes articles and tips for the website aimed at enhancing wellbeing and promoting good mental health.

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