Positive Psychology

This branch of psychology focuses on understanding human well-being and happiness, and provides tools to better deal with life's challenges, be content, find meaning and remain engaged with life despite external conditions so you may thrive and achieve a sense of purpose and fulfillment.

Using strategies from positive psychology can motivate and help individuals understand and develop their personal strengths.

Christopher Peterson, author of A Primer in Positive Psychology and professor at the University of Michigan, noted in a 2008 article published by Psychology Today, that it is essential to understand what positive psychology is as well as what it is not. According to Peterson, Positive Psychology can be summed up in three words: “Other People Matter”.

He stated, "Positive psychology is a call for psychological science and practice to be as concerned with strength as with weakness; as interested in building the best things in life as in repairing the worst; and as concerned with making the lives of normal people fulfilling as with healing pathology”. However, he also cautions us to not ignore the very real problems that people are experiencing and treating under the guidance of psychologists and psychiatrists adding, “The value of positive psychology is to complement and extend the problem-focused psychology that has been dominant for many decades”.

Positive Psychology is not a replacement for cognitive behavioral psychology or psychotherapy treatments. Positive Psychology complements all allopathic and holistic therapies.