Turn Insight Into Action: ProactiveChange.com/psychotherapy

Happiness & positive psychology:
a proactive approach to life

Traditional psychotherapy has been focused on treating illnesses and dysfunctions. In recent years, there has been a trend in the psychotherapy professions to pay attention to happiness and well-being, as opposed to exclusively focus on dysfunctions. This is what Martin Seligman and others have called "positive psychology".

It is interesting to note how positive psychology came into being. Martin Seligman realized that he was “a pessimist and depressive and someone of high critical intelligence” and that he needed to change… (He) decided to put his considerable talents into finding out “what made life worth living”.

In quoting the above, I want to point out two key components:
(1) self-awareness (this is how I am, this not how I want to be); and
(2) a proactive attitude (I will find a way to be how I want to be).

To me, the crucial shift is the proactive attitude. It’s not just that we’re now focusing on the positive, on happiness (after all, people have always been wanting to be happy). But we’re now talking about the process of actively pursuing happiness (as opposed to simply hoping for it).

This is why, in my practice, I prefer to describe this as “a proactive approach to life” as opposed to a “positive psychology”.

I see my work as helping my clients experience other perspectives on life. This gives you the possibility of choosing how you want to behave from an expanded repertoire of possibilities, as opposed to just the “default mode” you have been living with.

NOTE: I use the phrases "proactive psychology" and "positive psychology" as ways to describe approaches to mental processes and behavior. I am not referring to the profession of psychologist.

See also:

- The proactive mind: Inviting change through curiosity (& control)

- Proactive psychotherapy

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