Positive Psychotherapy with a Pulse: Achieving Depth through Dialogue

Abstract

The majority of psychotherapeutic approaches work on the basis that addressing what is “wrong” with individuals will facilitate recovery. Positive therapies adopt a different approach, demonstrating that adaptive change can be achieved by addressing well-being and what is “right”. Unfortunately, research indicates the effectiveness of positive psychotherapeutic interventions is sometimes suboptimal, perhaps due to their reliance on written and talk-based strategies. Drawing on evidence from leading theories of cognition (e.g. Interacting Cognitive Subsystems and Dual Representation theories), the present paper suggests that therapeutic effects positive interventions might be augmented through greater use of experiential methods, namely ‘chairwork’. The practice-focused paper sets out the PPIs in their current form and describes how chairwork could be applied in these areas of well-being, including gratitude, personal strengths, forgiveness, benefit-finding, and existential meaning. Research is needed to establish the efficacy of experiential PPIs and to determine whether are advantageous compared to traditional positive interventions.