Positive Psychology Interventions in Practice

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Foreword

A decade ago, colleagues and I posed the question ‘Does positive psychology have
a future?’ In doing so, we were setting out to explore what we saw as three potential
avenues for the future evolution of positive psychology. First, that it disappeared,
because all psychology subsumed the positive. Second, that it continued as an inde-
pendent discipline, while in parallel becoming more broadly absorbed by psychol-
ogy as a whole. Or third, that it became increasingly marginalised as a specialist
subdiscipline (see Linley et al. 2006).
The advent of this book is a striking testament to the fact that over this interven-
ing decade, positive psychology has followed the middle course. It has become ever
more embedded within psychology as a whole while still maintaining its own
vibrant ecosystem of research and practice. I suspect a better outcome for positive
psychology—and most importantly, its beneficial impact on the people of the
world—we could not have hoped for.
The chapters of this book show how much has changed in relation to the applica-
tions of positive psychology, together with our ability to document and evidence the
positive influence that positive psychology can have on people’s lives. Earlier writ-
ings on positive psychology applications and interventions tended to be speculative
and theoretical. In Positive Psychology Interventions in Practice, we see these
applications and interventions brought to life with evidence and data. Targeted
insight and understanding allow us to develop more nuanced perspectives on what
works for whom and why, when, and where.
Throughout these chapters, we see positive psychology being integrated within a
wider literature of research and practice, across myriad areas of practice and inter-
vention. These perspectives start with the self—as any viable intervention always
must then blossom out to consider targeted interventions for desired outcomes,
before embarking on the exploration and enabling of human flourishing in specific
environments—through relationships with others, at school, or in the workplace.
Embracing the challenge and opportunity of the modern world, the chapters then
embrace the positive potential of technologies and design, before concluding with
an invitation and instructions for effective engagement on the development and
implementation of positive policy—our ability to impact the greatest number in the

vii
viii Foreword

most positive ways, through leveraging positive psychology interventions against

the fulcrum of government legislation and practice.
In everything throughout, the emphasis is on practice. To change, we must act.
To improve, we must strive. To serve others, we must step forward. Positive
Psychology Interventions in Practice provides us with the evidence, the frame-
works, and the practical steps we need to take to have a positive impact on our
world.
We should all seize the opportunity that is before us and do so.

Capp & Co Ltd, The Venture Centre, Alex Linley

University of Warwick Science Park
Sir William Lyons Road, Coventry,
CV4 7EZ, UK
[email protected]

Reference

Linley, P. A., Joseph, S., Harrington, S., & Wood, A. M. (2006). Positive psychology: Past, present
and (possible) future. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1(1), 3–16.
Contents

1 Positive Psychology Interventions: The First

Intervention Is Our Self��������������������������������������������������������������������������    1
Piers Worth

Part I Clinical and Focused Interventions

2  Positive CBT in Practice��������������������������������������������������������������������������   15
Fredrike Bannink
3  Flourish: A Strengths-Based Approach to Building
Student Resilience������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   29
Tayyab Rashid, Ruth Louden, Laurie Wright, Ron Chu,
Aryel M
­ aharaj, Irfan Hakim, Danielle Uy, and Bruce Kidd
4  Active Ageing as Positive Intervention:
Some Unintended Consequences������������������������������������������������������������   47
Vera Roos and Ronette Zaaiman
5  Fostering Humour������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   65
Willibald Ruch and Jennifer Hofmann

Part II Education and Development

6  Well-Being and Well-Doing: Bringing Mindfulness
and Character Strengths to the Early Childhood
Classroom and Home������������������������������������������������������������������������������   83
Thomas J. Lottman, Sarah Zawaly, and Ryan Niemiec
7 Applying Positive Psychology in the Primary School:
Celebrating Strengths, a UK Well-­Being Project���������������������������������� 107
Jenny Fox Eades and Judith Gray

ix
x Contents

8 Transforming Our Schools Together: A Multi-­School

Collaboration to Implement Positive Education ���������������������������������� 123
Denise M. Quinlan
9 Fostering Positive Changes in Health and Social Relationships
in Children������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 143
Mariana Lozada, Natalia Carro, Marcela Kapelmayer,
Viviana Kelmanowicz, Andrea Czar, and Paola D’Adamo
10 Learning Healthy Relationships ������������������������������������������������������������ 163
Sue Roffey

Part III Workplaces, Technology, and Communities

11 Positive Psychology at Work: Research and Practice�������������������������� 185
Suzy Green, Olivia Evans, and Belinda Williams
12 Applying Positive Organisational Scholarship
to Produce Extraordinary Performance������������������������������������������������ 207
Jandi Kelly and Kim Cameron
13 Positive Technologies for Improving Health and Well-Being�������������� 219
Cristina Botella, Rosa Maria Banos, and Veronica Guillen
14 How Design Can (Not) Support Human Flourishing �������������������������� 235
Anna E. Pohlmeyer
15 How Can Positive Psychology Influence
Public Policy and Practice?�������������������������������������������������������������������� 257
Roger G. Tweed, Eric Mah, Madeline Dobrin,
Rachel Van Poele, and Lucian Gideon Conway III
List of Contributors

Fredrike Bannink Bannink Therapy, Training, Coaching and Mediation Practice,

Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Rosa Maria Banos Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological
Treatment, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Cristina Botella Department of Basic Psychology, Clinical and Psychobiology,
Jaume I University, Castellon, Spain
Kim Cameron Ross School of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI,
USA
Natalia Carro INIBIOMA (CONICET-University of Comahue), Bariloche,
Argentina
Ron Chu University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada
Lucian Gideon Conway III Department of Psychology, University of Montana,
Missoula, MT, USA
Andrea Czar AWE, Buenos Aires, Argentina
University of Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Paola D’Adamo INIBIOMA (CONICET-University of Comahue), Bariloche,
Argentina
AWE, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Madeline Dobrin Department of Psychology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University,
Surrey, BC, Canada
Olivia Evans The Career Guide, Melbourne, Australia
Jenny Fox Eades Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire, UK
Judith Gray Frodingham Infant School, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, UK

xi
xii List of Contributors

Suzy Green The Positivity Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment, University of
Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Veronica Guillen Centro Clínico Previ, Valencia, Spain
Irfan Hakim University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada
Jenny Hofmann Abteilung für Persönlichkeitspsychologie und Diagnostik,
Psychologisches Institut, Zürich, Switzerland
Marcela Kapelmayer AWE, CABA, Argentina
Jandi Kelly Ross School of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI,
USA
Viviana Kelmanowicz AWE, Buenos Aires, Argentina
University of Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
University of Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Bruce Kidd University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada
Thomas J. Lottman Children, Inc., Covington, KY, USA
Ruth Louden University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada
Mariana Lozada INIBIOMA (CONICET-University of Comahue), Bariloche,
Argentina
Aryel Maharaj University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada
Eric Mah Department of Psychology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey,
BC, Canada
Ryan Niemiec VIA Institute on Character, Cincinnati, OH, USA
Rachel Van Poele Department of Psychology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University,
Surrey, BC, Canada
Anna E. Pohlmeyer Department of Industrial Design, Delft University of
Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
Denise M. Quinlan Māori Hill, Dunedin, New Zealand
Tayyab Rashid University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada
Sue Roffey School of Education, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW,
Australia
Vera Roos Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark,
South Africa
Willibald Ruch Abteilung für Persönlichkeitspsychologie und Diagnostik,
Psychologisches Institut, Zürich, Switzerland
List of Contributors xiii

Roger G. Tweed Department of Psychology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University,

Surrey, BC, Canada
Danielle Uy University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada
Belinda Williams The Whole Being Group, Sydney, Australia
Piers Worth The Faculty of Society and Health, School of Social Sciences and
Education, Buckinghamshire New University, Buckinghamshire, UK
Laurie Wright University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada
Ronette Zaaiman Optentia Research Focus Area, North-West University,
Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
Sarah Zawaly Children, Inc., Covington, KY, USA
Chapter 1
Positive Psychology Interventions: The First
Intervention Is Our Self

Piers Worth

Abstract This book is focused on positive psychology interventions (PPIs) in prac-

tice. This chapter advocates that we pause ahead of looking at PPI themselves and
consider that any positive psychology practitioner seeking to facilitate an interven-
tion with others, should recognise that the first intervention they bring is their own
self—the qualities of attention, openness, and presence along with a willingness to
suspend personal prior experiences. If, in turn, they can acknowledge what Carl
Rogers (1961) described as the ‘actualising tendency’, they are trusting and accept-
ing of the unique unfolding that may occur within individuals and groups, and
potentially offering Rogers’ core conditions for growth. The chapter takes a pro-
vocative step in suggesting that the kind of behaviours this may involve, are a reflec-
tion of Fredrickson’s (2013) research and writing on love. The chapter concludes
with a proposal that this perspective is a central reflection of the professionalism
and professional practice of any positive psychology practitioner.

Abbreviation

PPI Positive psychology intervention

Introduction

For those of us introducing and facilitating a positive psychology intervention (PPI)

for others, my proposal is that who you are as a person, what you live and bring, will
affect everything that you do, and are as important as learning an intervention. My

P. Worth (*)
The Faculty of Society and Health, School of Social Sciences and Education,
Buckinghamshire New University, Buckinghamshire, UK
e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 1

C. Proctor (ed.), Positive Psychology Interventions in Practice,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51787-2_1
2 P. Worth

motive in writing this chapter is to illustrate a small number of the perspectives and
insights that may be involved in the ‘self-as-instrument’ (Cheung-Judge 2001). We
see individuals entering the discipline and work of positive psychology from many
educational and professional backgrounds. Motivated by a commitment to personal
and professional practice and development in the discipline (Schon 1991), and pro-
fession of ‘intervening’ with others, this chapter offers psychologically-related
theoretical and research insights (e.g., Ryan and Deci 2000; Joseph 2015) to help
individuals to bring themselves to the positive psychology intervention in a percep-
tually open and resourceful way.
In the chapter we will reflect upon the perceptions and habits that shape your
reactions to the work you undertake. Reflecting our discipline, we will in turn antic-
ipate the positive in you that will influence and shape what you bring to positive
psychology interventions. The chapter will explore the presence and the influence
of Carl Rogers’ concept of the actualising tendency (Rogers 1961; Glassman and
Hadad 2009) and its capacity to shape your beliefs and expectations within the prac-
tice of positive psychology. The chapter will conclude with a consideration of the
reflective and reflexive impact of the perspectives on our practise of positive
psychology.

Our Busy ‘Auto Pilot’ World

We see and encounter our world through habits of perception. As sense-making

beings, we seek commonly and compulsively to understand, anticipate, and predict
causation within the world we live in (Martin et al. 2007). All our experience shapes
how we believe the world to be. We analyse, categorise, and label the world we
encounter. By doing this, by judging, naming, labelling, and predicting our world,
we feel safer and potentially more in control (Hogg and Vaughan 2008). Our work
and professional responses also become shaped by these habits, and in turn they
become how we explain experiences to ourselves (Martin et al. 2007; Seligman
2006).
To complicate matters further, we live in a digitally frantic world. Our comput-
ers, telephones, and tablets, all create a flood of information and demands on us that
may, in reality, be at best cognitively distracting from the world around us and at
worst impossible to deal with. This level of information and stimulation floods us
with demands to do or act—requiring a response primarily from our rationality
rather than our being or heart. Coping with these demands may push or force us to
live out of habit, on ‘autopilot’, or by automatic reactions, rather than meeting our
experiences in their fullness, in each moment.
This life context and style runs the risk that we become, at the same time, poten-
tially disconnected from our ‘being’ while flooded with demands on our ‘doing’.
We want to review, within this book, positive psychology interventions in practice.
Yet, what I propose within this chapter is that the first and primary intervention with
others comes from being, our self, as the primary vehicle for connecting with and
1 Positive Psychology Interventions: The First Intervention Is Our Self 3

influencing others. It is in the finding and understanding of our self that we become
prepared and resources to ‘intervene’ with others. The purpose of this chapter is to
review what, in practise, this might mean, and how we may develop and access its
characteristics.

What Do You Bring to the PPI Interaction?

As we enter and start to encounter and deal with any situation, we bring all of our
experiences to date with us. These shaping and guiding memories or internal sche-
mas are our expectations of how the world around us works and how we would wish
it to work (Maltby et al. 2010; Martin et al. 2007; Hogg and Vaughan 2008). If you
were to summarise your story, its big themes or patterns, what would they be? These
are a combination of expectations and beliefs. They form both what we see and
expect. They are, in turn, habits of perception. When we originally had an experi-
ence that shaped our views of the world, our perception and reaction were occurring
within our awareness. Over time, in what we come to believe is their predictability,
they become habits of perception, and something we do outside awareness or
unconsciously.
For those of us drawn to and engaged in positive psychology these may also be
beliefs about the positive in life, the balance of the positive and the negative, or chal-
lenging experiences in our world, and what kind of outcomes we may seek via a
positive psychology intervention. These beliefs will also include expectations
around helping others, their need for helping, and why you must help. If we must
help, then we actually need those who require help. Perhaps, bizarrely, we are
dependent on them. Help may actually represent a measure of your personal value.
The ability to help others change may in turn represent your personal success.
If you offer help, an intervention, to others, you may need them to accept and
respond as a mark of your own value. Their reaction and your success becomes a
form of pressure from you on or direction towards them.
To explore these ideas further, please consider what your habits of perception
are? What are your beliefs or expectations? What do you expect to see and find in
the world around you, particularly your work? How might these habits of perception
shape the direction of work you undertake, such as a positive psychology interven-
tion? Do any of these habits or perceptions have the qualities of ‘should’ or ‘must’?
What should you be doing? What must you be doing? What story has brought you
to this point? How, in turn, do these direct or drive the work you undertake? How
much of your mental awareness is either processing the events or experiences, or is
rehearsing how you believe you will respond? How much do you really see? Even
if you only explore and answer a proportion of these questions, please consider what
influence your insights may have on your approach to facilitating or creating a posi-
tive psychology intervention?
4 P. Worth

Our Individuation: Our Actualising Tendency

Joseph and Linley (2006) made a profound step within the practice of our discipline,
by asserting and assuming one of Carl Rogers (1961) tenets, the actualising ten-
dency, as a ‘central foundation stone’ of positive psychology. Given the power of
this assertion in its own right and, if accepted, the potential influence on the educa-
tion of individuals entering the discipline, this section seeks to articulate and define
these ideas.
The actualising tendency is a theory that proposes all biological life, including
human beings, will grow towards its inherent best given the necessary conditions for
growth (Glassman and Hadad 2009). This implies, whatever our circumstances,
age, or context, there is some part of us that will be drawing us towards our best. If
we combine this perspective with that of Carl Jung, and what he termed ‘individua-
tion’, the view would become that not only do we seek to grow towards our best, but
also we seek to grow towards our own wholeness (Levinson et al. 1978). Glassman
and Hadad (2009) write as if this is a literal biological process, which the descrip-
tions appear to imply. Thorne (2002), however, presents this more as metaphor and
symbolism of something that occurs within us all. Joseph (2015) acknowledges that
the concept of the actualising tendency remains unusual if not challenging even in
modern time. As professionals and practitioners the idea creates the invitation and
need to reflect on how our behaviour and work might change if we accept its
presence.

 iving and Working with the Belief of the Actualising

L
Tendency?

If we hold a belief that individually we will grow towards our best given the sup-
portive conditions, then what we propose is this changes everything in the relation-
ship we might hold with those we facilitate in a positive psychology intervention.
We may know the shape an intervention may have and the direction it may draw
individuals. We know, within the context of the theory of our discipline, that some
interventions fit us, or elicit our motivation, in ways that others will not (Lyubomirksy
2007). However, if we believe that the experiences and the outcome of an interven-
tion will be unique to an individual and an expression of their individual, personal
unfolding, then in turn we need to hold an openness, a willingness to let the unex-
pected happen, not to judge, push, or shape an outcome with our expectations.
Whichever view we take or accept, if we assume a move towards our best, and
wholeness, then it has an implication of openness and acceptance to the reaction of
those on or towards whom we are intervening.
If you were to accept the presence of the actualising tendency, how do you feel
this would shape or change your habits of perception or attention? How would it
1 Positive Psychology Interventions: The First Intervention Is Our Self 5

change your relationship with those you are working with as a positive psychology
practitioner?

Bringing About, Eliciting the Actualising Tendency in Others

Rogers (1961) proposed three core conditions for growth, which, if offered to an
individual, received or found by them, facilitate the actualising tendency, and sub-
sequent personal growth is probably inevitable. He found this from years of clinical
practice, and subsequently applied this in an education environment (Rogers et al.
2014). The first was offering ‘unconditional positive regard’ which is where we
prize another individual for being human and for their humanity, even if we may
have questions, for example, with their behaviour. The second was experiencing
empathy for another individual, the ability to have a sense of their experiences and
their perspectives, and to communicate this via our attention or words. The final
condition is the capacity for what was called ‘congruence’, an acceptance of our-
selves, in the moment, and overall, and being willing to work from this, and to let
others see us doing so. In simple terms, congruence is living from the position of
giving ourselves unconditional positive regard, and an ongoing empathy for our
own experiences and letting others see us in our humanity, modelling, living, what
we might wish to offer them (Glassman and Hadad 2009).
In our humanity, this offering of core conditions is always an effort or potentially
incomplete, but Rogers (1961) believed the attempt was more important than neces-
sarily this being ‘right’ (Glassman and Hadad 2009). Rogers’ views on the core
conditions for growth, which in turn elicit and support the actualising tendency,
arguably become a ‘loop’. If we offer the core conditions to others, we support the
development of their actualising tendency. If we bring about the actualising ten-
dency, in turn we may bring about further expressions of the core conditions for
growth from others to us, and those in their context. While this is a theory and a
practise described in its own right, the willingness to relate to it describes what
would, in turn, imply a mindful approach, and a willingness to engage with the
moment-by-moment ‘life’ and change present in a positive psychology intervention
(Kabat-Zinn 2004; Segal et al. 2002). Consider exploring the implications of prac-
tising and experiencing the core conditions? Do you believe you experience these
now? Where? From whom? Which of these core conditions do you offer now?
Which of them is harder for you to offer? Why? Is there a way in which you might
develop this perspective and skill?
6 P. Worth

 ow Do the Ideas and Assumptions of the Actualising

H
Tendency Link to Other Areas of Positive Psychology?

I believe what I am suggesting in bringing this approach to a PPI is a reflection of

theories proposed by Barbara Fredrickson (2013) on love. The aliveness, openness
to, and acceptance of others in this approach of offering the core conditions for
growth to facilitate a PPI is potentially a reflection of the interconnectedness
Fredrickson sees as fundamental to micro moments of love. The behaviours we
offer to others have the potential to broaden-and-build their emotional experiences
in the openness they create in those experiencing the PPI (e.g., Fredrickson and
Joiner 2002). Fredrickson implies they may turn full circle and become an openness
we give ourselves. However, I believe we can go further in proposing this is a reflec-
tion of love, by linking her ideas to Fromm’s (1957) psychotherapeutic exploration
of what he termed the ‘art of loving’ considered in the next paragraph.
This quality of attention to others involves an openness, a capacity for listening
and attention, and a stillness to respond creatively and a potential vulnerability that
represents a functioning at a peak of our own strengths and emotional capacity.
Fromm (1957) asserts this quality of ‘giving’ is an experience of our strength,
power, vitality, and potency. It involves or creates an aliveness and joyousness. This
form of giving may be an attention to those we are with, but the openness is a reflec-
tion of ourselves, our aliveness, and our life. Perhaps, in turn, the quality of focus
and attention may also create the characteristics of flow (e.g., Csikszentmihalyi
1992). In a manner that preceded and reflected the ideas of Fredrickson (2013),
Fromm saw this quality as an act of respect that was in turn a reflection of love. This
is a respect in which we are willing to see an individual or others as they are, in their
uniqueness and individuality, with a concern for and an openness towards the growth
of those we love (Fromm 1957).
Again, as a forerunner to the positive psychology ideas put forward by Fredrickson
(2013), Fromm (1957) saw love as an attitude, a way of behaving that shaped his or
her relatedness towards the world. Love is an action and an activity, not solely
bound up with a person or focus of our love. The characteristics, nature, or quality
of our action and activity involve not simply looking at the surface of others, but
involves looking in. A surface will portray differences, whereas insight, ‘in-sight’
towards another will involve our relatedness and connection. Fromm argues that this
form of love can only take place between equals. Through this we move beyond
seeing others as those that need help—we experience and relate to the compassion
we share with others. If we accept these perspectives they have a profound influence
and challenge to our professional practice in positive psychology.
1 Positive Psychology Interventions: The First Intervention Is Our Self 7

 uietening Inside in Order to See and Hear Openly, Rather

Q
than Through Habit

Given what I described earlier about our habits of perception, as you commence
working in a positive psychology intervention, a question you face is how much of
what you see and hear in front of you, will you actually perceive? Can you quieten
or stop the inner processing, interpretation, and labelling of what you encounter to
allow yourself to see what is in front of you (Davies 2012)?
A simple fact and reality of our cognitive psychology is the more we are engaged
in interpreting what we see, let alone rehearsing internally how we will respond and
act, the less we actually have available to us to perceive. The act of processing
removes or takes up cognitive capacity, and reduces our capacity to perceive. Can
we allow ourselves to just see, to perceive, to take in, before we actually have to act?
Can we allow ourselves time and opportunity to fully perceive, encounter, and
accept what we see, before choosing its meaning and deciding to act (Davies 2012)?
Davies proposes that this form of attention has a meditative or mindful quality. This
gives us the time to communicate our attention towards those we work with, to wit-
ness and accept what we encounter, before rushing into interpretation and action.
The quiet and gentleness on our perception before the action, arguably is one way
to offer the core conditions for growth. Are we able and willing to perceive, to not
fully know, and to be surprised? If so, we may perceive more than we had expected
or believed possible.

Listening and Mirroring in Depth

As we allow ourselves the time to perceive, to be with, to be surprised and to be

present with those we seek to help, we can listen in depth. What might the words,
the tone of the words, and the bodies of those who speak tell us about their experi-
ence or what they need? For example, is voice tone at variance with the words
spoken? Do the words say yes, but the tone say uncertainty? As positive psychology
professionals, do we allow ourselves to explore these experiences, and what we
perceive, without the rush to label or categorise. Our experience, our struggle to
understand, may mirror that of the person or people we are working with. When we
free ourselves to perceive openly, rather than to ‘do’, we give ourselves the oppor-
tunity to relate in the intervention we are supporting. We have the chance to notice
what the possibility of change is really bringing about for those we work with
(Machon 2010).
8 P. Worth

Surfing the Edge of Awareness

A pivotal experience of my own, in allowing myself to listen and perceive in depth,

is what I have come to describe as ‘surfing the edge’ of awareness. A gift of being
deaf is the amount of effort I have to put in to ensure I hear those I work with. I
know, most of the time, I do well. Yet one afternoon a decade ago, I began to notice
particularly the last 5–10 s of what individuals said to me. Their voice tone became
uncertain, their words were hesitant, and it was as if they were asking an incomplete
question, not of me, but of themselves. I simply mirrored to them their own half-­
formed question, which they in turn, then, answered. I had noticed, heard, the pro-
cess of what these individuals were working out for themselves, perhaps without
them realising what was emerging or happening. This edge of awareness proved an
area of priority for the individual because it was the point at which some new part
of themselves appeared to be taking shape, growing, and being born. While I will
always listen to all words spoken, I now place a major priority on the final, uncer-
tain, and half-formed words, which is a question the individual is asking of them-
selves. When the individual in turn asks their question to himself or herself, in
awareness, they then have the ability to act.
Attempt your own listening to others. Do not think or rehearse what to say until
they have finished speaking. Allow them to see the extent of your listening, and your
own working out, finding words for what you in turn need to say to them.

Creating Form and Shape for Moving Forward

When we perceive, feel, and listen in this way as positive psychology practitioners
do we, in turn, become a ‘mirror of hope’ for the individual or group? If we work in
this way, whatever the coming PPI, I propose we are reflecting the self or selves in
the process of becoming (Machon 2010). Drawing on the structure of Snyder’s
(1994, 2000) model of hope, we may hear their goals, ‘will power’ and ‘way power’.
Working in this way allows us to conversationally give form and shape to the emerg-
ing hope within the PPI.
Using Snyder’s (1994, 2000) model, do you hear a ‘goal’, will power and way
power evident in conversation, in what individuals may describe to you? Which of
the two may be lacking in form or precision to support an individual’s action? What
questions may gently support an individual or a group becoming more exact about
a goal, will power, or way power?
1 Positive Psychology Interventions: The First Intervention Is Our Self 9

The Professional Implications of This Perspective

If as positive psychology practitioners, we accept perspectives like the actualising

tendency we are in a journey of ‘process’ rather than ‘ending’ (Joseph and Linley
2006; Machon 2010; Joseph 2015). For example, how we unfold towards the best in
us will change with time and age. An unfolding in our 30s will be different to one in
our 40s or 50s (Levinson et al. 1978; Levinson 1986; Vaillant 1977, 2002). We are
challenged therefore, in ourselves and in our work with others, to accept they are in
the process of becoming, rather than ever reaching an end-point. We bring to those
we work with that authentic acceptance of our own process of becoming, and of
theirs, and in turn the attentiveness to what this might be (Machon 2010). If, as
facilitators and practitioners, we can accept this is happening for those we work
with, our role changes to one of observation and stillness, that in turn witnesses and
supports the unfolding of others (Machon 2010).
Further, the related discipline of appreciative inquiry proposes that this depth of
attention and listening offers others the majority of what are termed ‘the six free-
doms’ which are believed to release a personal and/or organisational power when
experienced. These ‘freedoms’ are described as being known in relationship, to be
heard, to be positive, to act with support, to dream in community, and to contribute
to the world around them (Whitney and Trosten-Bloom 2010). I believe as positive
psychology practitioners we would infer a positive psychology intervention pro-
vides most if not all of these freedoms to those we seek to support. Offering the
rarity of attention and belief to others in the way implied in this chapter initiates a
capacity to relate and respond to the creative growth that may emerge in a positive
psychology intervention.
Worth (2015) implies that the willingness to work openly with the uncertainty of
what may occur in those we facilitate is in turn an acceptance of the fundamental
qualities of creation occurring in life, and our lives. This acceptance of uncertainty
and creativity is part of what is described as the ‘hero’s journey’ (Worth 2015).
If we can accept that the attitude we bring to a PPI is a reflection of actions and
behaviours of love, we will be accepting and honouring the human qualities of those
we are with (Fromm 1957). Yet Fromm challenges us deeply: he asserts to love in
this way must also involve our own self-acceptance and self-love. Through this a
PPI, in turn, becomes a paradox, a part of our own positive psychology practice
towards ourselves.
To work in this manner is an act of love, art, and creation. The skill it involves
includes discipline, patience, concentration, and reflection, as part of our journey of
development as positive psychology practitioners (Fromm 1957). While I have not,
to date, seen these types of ideas in positive psychology writing, I know they exist
in other disciplines, such as social work, organisation development, and coaching
(Cheung-Judge 2001; Curran et al. 1995; Heydt and Sherman 2005). This chapter is a
description and an advocacy of what these writers would call ‘self-as-an-instrument’.
A positive psychology practitioner facilitating an intervention becomes an ‘instru-
ment of the profession’. He or she, in a helping relationship, is guiding a process of