Instilling Hope in People with Chronic Conditions

Abstract

It is sometimes observed that models of psychotherapy overemphasize pathology and underemphasize the importance of recognizing, cultivating, and sustaining positive aspects of thinking and experience. In response to this observation, the field of positive psychology was introduced (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000). Positive psychology involves the study of: • Positive emotions, such as confidence, hope and trust, • Positive traits, such as strengths, virtues and abilities, and • Positive institutions (Seligman 2002). Positive psychology attempts to understand valued emotions or subjective experiences including well-being, contentment, and satisfaction with the past, hope and optimism for the future, and flow and happiness in the present (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000). It also studies valued individual traits, including the capacity for love and work, courage, interpersonal aptitude, spirituality, wisdom, high talent, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, and future-mindedness (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000). Positive Psychology and Chronic Conditions The need for a positive psychological approach to psychotherapy may be more pronounced when treating individuals with chronic conditions. Some clients may perceive cognitive behavioral therapy strategies, such as Socratic questioning, elicitation of automatic thoughts, and frequent summaries of presenting problems , as overly negativistic, pessimistic, frightening, or otherwise threatening. These responses may occur irrespective of whether alternative approaches to thinking and behaving are introduced. Some clients will have a strong need for reassurance and may request a more optimistic approach on the part of their therapists (Moorey and Greer 2002). In these circumstances, positive psychology approaches to cognitive behavioral therapy that emphasize hope and optimism may be useful. 172