Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Positive psychotherapy (PPT) is a therapeutic movement within positive psychology to broaden the scope of traditional psychotherapy. It rests on the central hypothesis that building positive emotions, strengths and meaning, in addition to undoing symptoms, is efficacious in the treatment of psychopathology Positive emotions, strengths and meaning serve us best not when life is easy but when life is difficult. For a depressed client, having and using strengths such as optimism, hope, zest, and social intelligence can be more important to counter depression than they are in good times. PPT is based on three assumptions. First, psychopathology results when a person's inherent capacity for growth, fulfillment and happiness is thwarted. Most traditional psychotherapies, with the exception of client-centered therapy, assume that psychopathology engenders when: symptoms leak from the unconscious; maladaptive behaviors are strengthened by conditioning or environmental reinforcement; irrational and faulty thinking effects behavior and feeling; or troubled relationship patterns lead to resentment. On the contrary, PPT assumes that a client has good and bad states and traits, which influence each other and are also influenced by the larger culture and environment in which clients live. All clients have an inherent capacity for growth, fulfillment, flourishing and happiness, when this tendency ... log in or subscribe to read full text