Psychotherapy chapter 13 : Positive psychotherapy

• In a strengths based approach, we are less focused on what's wrong and more focused on what is good about ourselves and how we can  improve, what makes us happy while a deficit based approach would focus more on what is not good in ourselves and how to restrict behaviors and thoughts which can lead to a more negative perception of yourself
• The 65% barrier suggests that 65% of our personality and psychology is unchangeable and we have little control over it, it consists of 40-50% genetics and 10-20% environment. The remaining 45% is what we have control over
• According to PPT, happiness is the balance of our strengths. Knowing how and when to use them. These strengths are wisdom, temperance, justice, courage, humanity, transcendence
• Wisdom in PPT refers to our ability to acquire and use knowledge
• Temperance in PPT refers to our ability to exercise self-control
• courage in PPT refers to our will to go after your goals despite challenges
• justice in PPT refers to the building of a healthy life within a community, how you believe people should be treated
• humanity in PPT refers to the tending to and befriending of others
• transcendence in PPT refers to a spiritual connection, or a feeling that there is a bigger meaning to life
• PERMA stands for: Positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment, in PPT we need to develop all these things to create what is called “the good life”
• Positive emotion: we should aim to feel positive most of the time as it lessens the impact of the negative, positive feelings should occur 3 times for every one negative feeling. We can build a positive view of the past, appreciate good times(savor) and think how we can recreate the feelings. In the present we focus on things that make us happy and mindful. In the future we should look for hope and aspiration and optimism to maintain a positive view of things to come.
• Engagement in PPT: In which is it important to develop something that engages our strength, that thing that gives us flow, that we feel like we can do for hours. We must learn how to cultivate this and how to make something engaging. Passive sensory pleasure does not count as it does not engage your strengths.
• 1. Relationships in PPT: Humans need positive relationships as they can bring about positive emotions and facilitate happiness. We should find people who can make us happy and who engage our strengths, have positive meaning and influence in our lives
• Meaning in PPT: Believing that we are destined for more and that life has a meaning you should be in pursuit of. This can help us overcome challenges, and tells us everything is worth it in the end. There is something bigger than yourself that you are striving towards.
• Accomplishment in PPT: Something in your life that makes you proud of yourself, something that makes you feel like you can rise to the challenge and to difficult things, hard work pays off.
• The focus in PPT is that we need to live our lives happily and to do that we have to take care of ourselves. Therapy is not just about stopping negative emotions but also cultivating positive ones. The absence of the negative is not the presence of the positive, we still have to create positive things for ourselves to maintain wellness
• The highlighting of strengths is important because in PPT, It is not enough to only know there's nothing bad about you, it's important to recognize what makes you good, those are your strengths. Demonstrating strengths shows that there are areas in your life where you can excel.
• 1. Aristotle’s golden mean: Strength use varies by context, so there is no perfect mean; however, the right combination of strengths applied to the right degree in the right situation.  
• 1. Flourishing: a state characterized by positive emotions, a strong sense of personal meaning, good work, and positive relationships 
• 1. Tonic Strengths: Strengths that always show up in people and are used across situations to make decisions
• 1. Phasic strengths: Strengths that only appear in certain contexts and situations, can be used sometimes but not all the time
• 1. Savoring: being conscious of happiness, joy, and good things in the moment when they are happening. This helps us appreciate the things that happen to us more. Asking people to slow down and stop multitasking. Helps people be able to look back and reflect on good things that have happened to them to bring positivity in the future.
• Gratitude: Rettrains people’s thinking to help them be more aware and notice the positive as many people tend to focus on the negative. Practicing gratitude or the appreciating of good things helps combat depression, write down 3 good things that happened today.
• 1. Flow: a state of work in which you are very engaged and time passes quickly, you feel as if you are challenged and entertained and could do it forever
• Practical Wisdom:the ability to adapt to fluctuating situational demands by reconfiguring mental resources including strengths, shifting perspective, and balancing competing desires, needs, and life domains
• In PPT, causes of distress are attributed to the imbalance of strengths, you may not be using a strength or you are using it to an extent that is unhealthy or in an extreme form. For example: too much temperance would mean you never let yourself enjoy things or feel good, too much courage would mean making poor decisions.
• In PPT, a full life would include the engagement and cultivation of strengths and completion of the PERMA model. Our strengths are balanced so we are able to exercise necessary discipline, kindness, fairness, knowledge, bravery, and a larger purpose. We must be able to see the good things in our lives such as where, who and what they come from and how we can continue to feel this positivity
• 14 Session Model is the structure of PPT, each session focuses on a new aspect of PPT, the order can be changed around or the aspect of one of the days can be examined several times
• PPT Sessions 1-3: orientation to PPT; client writes “positive introduction” of self; assess signature strengths; develop action plan to incorporate strengths
• PPT Sessions 4-6: reappraisal of bitter memories; forgiveness; gratitude letter
• PPT Session 7: feedback/check-in
• PPT Sessions 8-9: cultivate positive emotions and growth from trauma
• PPT Sessions 10 -11:communication skills and strengths of others
• PPT Session 12: savoring
• PPT Session 13: altruism; helping others
• PPT Session 14: integrate treatment gains– the full life 
• Randomized control trials have proven that PPT has helped reduce depression, increased well-being, eliminate adolescent drug abuse, and helped people with cardiovascular diseases. RCTs in these groups has proved positive therapy to be helpful.
•  PPT is not a catch-all solution, it is often not good for people whose disorders are very symptom driven or who have disorders such as panic-disorder, selective mutism, and paranoid personality disorder. Some people may feel that the focus of therapy should be on their symptoms and how to alleviate them, not on their strengths. People with chronic PTSD will likely not respond well to PPT in the beginning and helping establish ways to combat symptoms will be better to focus on.