Integrating Positive Psychology, Behavioral Activation, and the Serious Leisure Perspective in Mental Health Counseling: a Case Report

Abstract

In the academic literature, including the field of positive psychology, there have been articles advocating how leisure activities can be used within a behavioral activation framework. To this end, differing academic writers advocate the use of scheduling leisure activities to increase enjoyable behavioral activity (e.g., Mazzucchelli et al. 2010), but do not elaborate on how leisure can be used within a behavioral activation framework. This paper fills this void by explaining (1) how the serious leisure perspective (SLP) can help mental health counselors and other applied human service professionals structure potential activation targets based on differentiating between pleasure-based casual leisure and mastery-based serious leisure, and (2) how the SLP can be used as a potential structure for grading activation assignments. The last part of this paper provides a mental health counseling case report of a middle-aged man who had stage four renal disease, severe depression, and mild anxiety who became healthier by intervention that linked the SLP, behavioral activation, and positive psychology.