Interventions for Enhanced Well-Being

1. Interventions for Enhanced Well-Being CiciliaEviGradDiplSc., M. Psi

2. Introduction • Disease Model of a mental disorder  a distinct deviation from normality that can be identified by a unique cluster of symptoms that are caused by a specific pathogen • Psychological problems are generally based on normal human emotional experiences that are either unnecessarily over or undercontrolled; and ineffective patterns in living between people in social interactions • Result of disease model  victim mentality • Therapist will see clients as helpless and need to be fixed • Self-fulfilling prophecy on the clients

3. Classification of Strengths • A critical factor in curing distress is the psychological strengths that people bring to the task • Positive psychology brings a renewed sense that we need to identify those human strengths that foster positive growth • It is a call to develop reliable and valid assessment instruments that can adequately address more comprehensive classification systems of human strengths

4. Positive Psychology Interventions • Positive therapy  an approach to treatment that is built on the enhancement of positive traits, the building of strengths, and helping clients find untapped resources for positive change • Fixing what is wrong is only half of the challenge! • Good therapy will instill hope; enhance courage, insight, optimism, honesty, perseverance, and the ability to dispute one’s own negative thinking • A positive orientation to therapy recognize that positive traits and adaptive behaviors may also serve as buffers against future stressors and difficulties

5. Therapists see clients as “active seekers of health” (Keyes & Lopez, 2002) • who can be very creative problem solvers if therapists just work with their clients to nurture already existing skills, talents, and strengths • Therapists need to amplify client strengths and decrease negative emotions

6. Positive Psychology in Educational Settings • Increase self-determination to help students adjust better after graduation, optimism, authenticity, high achievement motivation and goal oriented • Emotional intelligence  programs to help students to recognize and label their emotions, be more aware of multiple feelings, take responsibility of their emotions and teaches both listening and communication skills • Character/Moral education  teach students with positive moral values and virtues, ethical dilemmas, resist peers with pressure to violate personal values, good decision making and the promotion of citizenship

7. Interventions to Increase Resilience • Aim at promoting, enhancing or maintaining resiliency  two focus: • Reduce risk factors that may decrease or destroy resilience  within family and community (including Big Brothers/Sisters program, good public services/health/school, connected neighborhood) • Promote and build resilience in children and adolescents  ‘within-the-child’ qualities include positive self-esteem, good social skills, problem-solving and academic abilities, positive outlook on life and a good sense of humor

8. Seven traits of resiliency (Wolin & Wolin, 2000): • Insight  provide clarity and to pierce through denial and confusion • Independence  distance themselves from trouble • Good relationships  building healthy emotional ties • Initiative  create a sense of self-efficacy • Creativity  transform their emotional into creative works • Humor  keep a sense of humor and ability to laugh at difficulties • Good moral standards  able to act from a sense of conscience, even when others did not

9. Interventions to increase specific emotions • Increasing positive emotions • Relaxation; increase a sense of meaning and purpose; created through laughter, sense of humor, engaging in activities that are intrinsically motivating, by enhancing empathy, and with activities that involve both challenges and skills • Transform bad mood to good mood  Talking to a friend, listening to music, reading, exercising, taking a warm bath, walking outdoors, looking at the bright side of the situation • Increasing activity level is an effective way to stimulate positive mood • Increasing Happiness • The goal of religion, philosophy, social reform, the arts and psychology  increase happiness and well-being

10. Behavioral Interventions for Happiness • Behaviorist assumption  if a person experiences more positive emotions than negative, then he or she is happy • Read positive self-statements, watch happy movies, increase positive activities and listen to cheerful music • ‘Pleasant Events therapy’  make list activities that they enjoy and then simply to do more of the activities that produced the greatest increase in positive mood

11. Cognitive Interventions for Happiness • Happiness training course (based on CBT approach) • Cognitive retraining to be applied on belief and attitude about happiness  point out the irrationality or impossibility of that belief and suggest a substitute belief that is more amenable to lasting happiness • “It is absolutely necessary that I be loved by most people in order to be happy”  “I would like to be loved by those people who are important to me”

12. Fordyce’s Happiness Training Program • Fourteen Fundamentals of Happiness (1981): • Be more active • Spend more time socializing • Be productive at meaningful work • Get organized • Stop worrying • Lower your expectations and aspirations • Think optimistically • Orient yourself to the present • Work on healthy personality • Develop an outgoing social personality • Be yourself • Eliminate negative feelings • Develop and nurture close relationships  #1 source of happiness • Value happiness – put it first in your life

13. Writing as a Tool of Emotional Expression • James W. Pennebaker writing as a way to deal with difficult emotions resulting from trauma or other problems  instructions: • Write about any issue that you are currently living with • Find a location in which to write whew you won’t be disturbed • When you write, do not worry about spelling, grammar, or the quality of your prose. Just put it down on paper • When you write about the event, write about both what happened and your feelings surrounding the event  + and – • Generally, it is helpful if you plan to keep what you write private • Remember that after you are finished, you will probably feel somewhat sad

14. Applications of Mindfulness • Jon Kabat-Zinn mindfulness meditation, based on the idea that if we try to ignore or repress unpleasant thoughts or sensations, then we only end up increasing their intensity • Clients are taught to allow thoughts, images, and sensations to occur, observe them non-judgmentally, and then let them dissipate as other thoughts and sensations naturally replace them • Morrie and Liz!

15. Training on Forgiveness • McCullough (2000)  forgiveness allows us to move beyond a desire for revenge and to reinstitute social ties • Including emotional (overcoming resentments), cognitive (changing negative judgments) and behavioral (ending indifference)  forgiveness is getting over the hurt, resentments and aggressions that go along with being the target of abuse (minor or severe) • Forgiveness is an individual act  offending party does not have to know • Forgiveness is NOT simply tolerating or forgetting injustice, not denial, not minimizing the hurt

16. True forgiveness is about breaking free of both the wrong that was done to us and the person who did the wrong • Why we should forgive? • Anger and resentment in a long run only serve to hurt us • Act of forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves  a sense of shared humanity with larger community • As an opportunity to use one’s painful experiences in order to deepen a connection with others and increase a sense of compassion • Steps  uncovering, decision, work and deepening • Forgiveness  maintain healthy and supportive interpersonal relationships  higher Well-Being!