Gelso and Woodhouse highlight a lack of empirical efforts to bring a core identity of counseling psychology, the use of client strengths, into therapy. Additionally, the positive psychology movement is devoid of a system of positive therapeutic processes designed to help clients toward optimal human functioning. This investigation sought to explicitly identify positive processes thought to regularly occur in mainstream therapies by interviewing therapists. Interviews produced 266 significant statements leading to five themes: (a) amplification of strengths, (b) contextual considerations, (c) strength-oriented processes, (d) strength-oriented outcomes, and (e) positive meaning-making. Therapists reported using client strengths to broaden client perspectives and create hope and motivation, to create positive meanings through reframing and metaphors, to identify strengths through the interpersonal therapeutic process, to match client contexts through strengths, and to amplify strengths through encouragement and exception finding. Identified themes are recommended as a taxonomy of positive processes for future research.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide counseling students with a framework that will allow them to broach gender with male clients and to navigate conversations that may elicit anxiety for beginning counselors. This will be done through the case example of Whitney, a graduate student who just started internship. Her client is Rick, a client in his 50s, who is coming to services because of receiving a DUI and needing to complete counseling for his diversion mandate. Whitney is younger than Rick and has the experience of having some discomforting exchanges with him, such as remarks on how “bright” she is and a passing comment her outfit. The strategies proposed in this case study are grounded in the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies and in Relational Cultural Theory and will give students a framework for understanding clients who may respond like Rick.
Global rates of stress and mental health distress have reached all-time highs. Given the scale of the problem, the development and dissemination of stress management strategies ought to be accessible, trainable, and low-cost. Growing evidence indicates that the utilization of compassion-based skills has positive effects on stress reduction, enhanced mental wellbeing, and emotional resilience. In this chapter, the science of compassion will be highlighted and reviewed. This chapter explores the psychological and neurobiological foundations of compassion and how those factors can be trainable motivations and behaviors. The science of compassion demonstrates that people can reduce stress in their lives by engendering the perspective taking, emotion regulation, and relational skills within compassionate behaviors. Given contemporary workplace stressors, the application of compassion to address stress and wellbeing in the workplace is explored.
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