Agency is the sense that one has control over one’s own actions and the consequences of those actions. Despite the critical role that agency plays in the human condition, little is known about its neural basis. A novel theory proposes that increases in agency disinhibit the dopamine system and thereby increase the number of tonically active dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area. The theory, called ADDS (Agency Disinhibits the Dopamine System), proposes a specific neural network that mediates these effects. ADDS accurately predicts a variety of relevant neuroscience results, and makes many novel predictions, including that increases in agency will 1) increase motivation, 2) improve executive function, 3) facilitate procedural learning, but only in the presence of immediate trial-by-trial feedback, 4) have little or no effect on learning-related effects of stimulus repetition or on standard eyeblink conditioning, 5) facilitate the development of automatic behaviors, but have little or no effect on the production of behaviors that are already automatized, 6) amplify the cognitive benefits of positive mood, and 7) reduce pain. The implications of this new theory are considered for several purely psychological theories that assign prominent roles to agency, including self-efficacy theory, hope theory, and goal-focused positive psychotherapy.

Routine outcome monitoring (ROM) of psychotherapy improves client outcomes and reduces premature terminations. Two ROM systems with the most empirical support are the OQ System (Lambert, 2010) and the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS; Duncan, 2012; Miller et al., 2005). We evaluated if the global distress measures, the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS; PCOMS) and the Outcome Questionnaire-45.2 (OQ-45; OQ System) show similar outcome trajectories and rates of reliable and clinically significant change when completed by the same clients. Participants (N = 290) were clients from archived data collected in a training clinic for a psychology doctoral program in the western United States, who completed both the ORS and OQ-45 across treatment. Bi-variate correlations between the ORS and OQ-45 were highly correlated at the first session (r = -.73), and for later sessions linear and quadratic estimates were only moderately related (rs = -.31 to -.57). Statistically significantly more clients indicated both reliable change and clinically significant change on the ORS compared to the OQ-45. The results indicate that these measures are correlated but not interchangeable in relation to the conclusions they generate about treatment outcomes. Measurement tools should be carefully considered given the potential for different conclusions to be drawn regarding treatment progress and outcomes.

This case study describes the progress of a client receiving goal focused positive psychotherapy over 34 sessions, capturing the subtlety and responsiveness of the theory in action. The client self-identified as a Mexican American heterosexual female in her early 20s who had experienced intense anxiety and recurring bouts of depression since elementary school. The primary therapeutic principles of goal focused positive psychotherapy- including hope, strengths, virtuous approach goals, incremental change, and culture- are described alongside germane interventions (one good thing, capitalization, and self-compassion). The client experienced reduction of the initial symptoms (anxiety, pessimism and low self-worth, and deficits in time management and organization). Beyond symptom diminishment, the client achieved increased agency, clarity of virtuous values, genuine caring for others, engagement with a broader range of feelings, and self-compassion. The client's cultural strengths served as a central resource for growth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

OBJECTIVE:This case study describes one client's progression through goal-focused positive psychotherapy (GFPP), a positive psychology inspired treatment. The study aims to contribute a more nuanced understanding of GFPP by illustrating the clinical use of approach goals, hope, positive emotion, and client strengths-interventions that constitute the heart of GFPP.METHOD:The case study methodology illuminates the 33-session treatment of a self-identified European-American heterosexual female in her mid-twenties, presenting with several interpersonal concerns, and symptoms of depression and anxiety. The client met the DSM 5 criteria for generalized anxiety disorder and borderline personality disorder.RESULTS:Processes and outcomes are documented through clinician and client perceptions, and weekly assessments of symptomatology and subjective well-being.CONCLUSIONS:The case study demonstrates a successful application of positive psychology consistent with GFPP's existential and humanistic psychology roots. The study should provide clinicians and theorists a greater understanding of GFPP processes and perspectives in an applied context.

Recently self-compassion has become an important construct in psychology.This study furthers the cross-cultural understanding of self-compassion through sampling Turkish and United States (US) students.The participants were 386 university students (273 from Turkey and 113 from the US).The levels of total self-compassion and the sub-scales of the self-compassion measure were compared across the samples, along with self-compassion's correlation with subjective well-being variables.Finally, self-acceptance and positive-relationships were examined as mediators of the correlation between self-compassion and the variables of life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect for each country.While no statistical differences were found between the samples in levels of total self-compassion, the Turkish sample was significantly higher than the US on two sub-scales (self-kindness and over-identification). Mediation analyses using self-acceptance and positive interpersonal relationships as mediators revealed differences between the Turkish and US students when examining the relationships between self-compassion and the components of subjective well-being.The results are discussed in the context of individualist and collectivist cultures, and the need to re-consider Neff's components of self-compassion for collectivist cultures.

This article introduces the empirical support for and theoretical tenets of Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy (GFPP), a comprehensive, evidence-based, psychotherapy model. GFPP's approach emerges from positive and social psychology research, and is informed by psychotherapy research from the common and contextual models. Its interventions focus on idiosyncratic and multiculturally-attuned client factors, particularly client strengths and goals, in an effort to increase subjective well-being and facilitate the client's experience of a meaningful, satisfying life. Enhanced client well-being provides more robust and abundant resources for proactively addressing presenting concerns without requiring intensive focus on client deficits, symptoms, or trauma. The mechanism of change is positive emotion, as informed by the broaden-and-build [Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218-226. doi:] biopsychosocial model. The therapeutic alliance creates a healing context cultivated through a focus on hope, strengths, and client-centred experiences of self-determination.

Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy presents the first comprehensive positive psychology psychotherapy model that optimizes well-being and thereby diminishes psychological distress. The theory of change is the Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions. The therapeutic process promotes client strengths, hope, positive emotions, and goals. The book provides the foundational premises, empirical support, theory, therapeutic techniques and interventions, a training model, case examples, and future directions. A three-year study is presented that reveals that Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy (GFPP) was as effective as cognitive-behavioral therapy and short-term psychodynamic therapies, which fits the meta-analyses of therapy outcome studies that no bona fide psychotherapy achieves superior outcome. However, GFPP was significantly more attractive to the clients. Descriptions are provided of the Broaden-and-Build Theory, therapy goals based upon clients’ values and personal meaning (i.e., approach goals and intrinsic goals), identification and use of clients’ personal strengths (including client culture), centrality of hope and hope theory, the implicit theory of personal change or the growth mindset, and finally Self-Determination Theory. The techniques and interventions of GFPP as well as the importance of the therapist’s intentions during therapy are presented. GFPP focuses upon the client and relationship while not viewing psychotherapy as a set of potent scripted treatments that acts upon the client. Goal Focused Positive Supervision is presented as a new model that supports the supervisee’s strength-based self-definition rather than a pathological one or deficit orientation. Training that includes the experiential learning of GFPP principles is underscored.

The final chapter presents empirical support for Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy (GFPP) in comparison to cognitive-behavioral therapy and short-term psychodynamic therapy. Topics for future research and development are addressed. The GFPP orientation toward the client and skills to enact the orientation are discussed. The three primary pathways of the Contextual Model, a meta-theory of psychotherapy, are used to outline future research. Pathway 1 describes the importance of forming a real relationship between the therapist and client. Pathway 2 consists of the client’s expectations of benefit that are created through therapeutic techniques. The final pathway is the client’s change through participating in the therapy interventions. Treatment model validity issues are reviewed by examining therapists’ therapy model allegiance versus treatment integrity. Assessing the therapist’s competence as an ability to facilitate GFPP experiences for the client is examined. Finally, areas of growth for GFPP are discussed, including a better integration of systems theory.

The final chapter presents empirical support for Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy (GFPP) in comparison to cognitive-behavioral therapy and short-term psychodynamic therapy. Topics for future research and development are addressed. The GFPP orientation toward the client and skills to enact the orientation are discussed. The three primary pathways of the Contextual Model, a meta-theory of psychotherapy, are used to outline future research. Pathway 1 describes the importance of forming a real relationship between the therapist and client. Pathway 2 consists of the client’s expectations of benefit that are created through therapeutic techniques. The final pathway is the client’s change through participating in the therapy interventions. Treatment model validity issues are reviewed by examining therapists’ therapy model allegiance versus treatment integrity. Assessing the therapist’s competence as an ability to facilitate GFPP experiences for the client is examined. Finally, areas of growth for GFPP are discussed, including a better integration of systems theory.

This chapter discusses the training of therapists based on the authentic commitment to promoting client well-being. Experiential learning of Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy (GFPP) principles facilitates allegiance to this model. Goal Focused Positive Supervision (GFPS) is offered as a new model emphasizing supervisee strengths, approach goals, capitalizing on successes, and hopefulness. A supervision case example is given to illustrate GFPS. Supervisee training includes a developmental orientation to autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Expansion of traditional supervision models includes attention to positive supervisee events and strengths. The contagious relationship between client hope and therapist hope is highlighted. Therapist hope is required to build the therapeutic alliance. Training includes the promotion of essential GFPP therapist skills, and training methods are suggested. The Partners for Change Outcome Management System is useful in training and therapy to measure client progress toward well-being and alliance formation.

This chapter provides an overview of the philosophy and foundational premises of Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy. Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy is described as a comprehensive psychotherapy model built primarily upon positive psychology principles to optimize well-being, which diminishes the effects of psychological distress. The theory of change is the Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions. The therapeutic process promotes client strengths, hope, and positive emotions in order to assist the client in attaining goals, making growth toward goals in psychotherapy and life more enjoyable. Issues of ethics, psychological metaphor, therapeutic alliance, client context, and a case example of a client with posttraumatic stress disorder are presented.

Chapter 2 presents the theory behind Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy (GFPP), a technique that facilitates clients’ thriving by creating a happier, meaningful life. Psychotherapy can help clients to enjoy a lifetime of well-being and growth toward their meaningful, virtuous goals through positive emotions. The Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions serves as the change mechanism for GFPP. It is important to select goals for therapy based upon client values and personal meaning (approach goals and intrinsic goals). Using clients’ personal strengths (including their culture) is of central importance, as is the promotion of hope in usually demoralized clients. The implicit theory of personal change or the growth mindset includes the belief in neural or brain plasticity. Self Determination Theory sets out competence, relatedness, and autonomy as the three determinants of motivation and the fundamental psychological needs.

The research and practice gap has long been lamented, but less is known about this divide with regard to clinical training. We surveyed psychotherapy researchers who also engage in clinical supervision, assuming they would be most likely to model research-practice integration in a training context, about how they integrate psychotherapy research and clinical supervision. We found that psychotherapy researcher-clinical supervisors valued psychotherapy research and found it useful for training purposes. Similar to other research, however, respondents indicated that they considered other sources of information, including their own clinical work, more helpful for directing their clinical supervision. Psychotherapy researcher-clinical supervisors also valued psychotherapy process and common factors research more than they did evidence-based and empirically supported treatments. Although the research-practice gap in clinical supervision appears smaller than in a practice context, there was still evidence of a gap. Reasons and implications for these findings are considered.

This chapter present the techniques and interventions of Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy (GFPP). Highlighted are the therapist’s intentions to emphasize the client’s strengths and to facilitate the expression of positive emotions, hope, and goals while focusing on the therapeutic alliance. Psychotherapy is not viewed as a set of potent scripted treatments that act upon the client. The therapeutic techniques include nonverbal communication, mirroring, open and closed questions, paraphrase and reflection, challenge, summarizing, empathy, interpretation, self-disclosure, immediacy, information giving, and direct guidance. The interventions include capitalization, self-affirmation, formula-first-session-task, reframing, success-finding, encouragement, visualizing success, miracle question, scaling questions, best-possible-self, count your blessings, self-compassion, and mindfulness. The practitioner is urged to use GFPP’s theoretical model to guide the treatment intentions and use any techniques and interventions that fit with the client and the GFPP model.

We address the need for culturally informed counseling skills by using a multiple case study design that evaluates the basic helping skills with four volunteer Mexican American clients and four European American counselors in the U.S. While viewing vignettes of each skill used in their counseling session, four clients responded to written measures and verbal interview questions immediately after each of their three sessions. A mixed methods (QUAL + QUAN) analyses of verbal and written client assessments of the skills yielded converging results revealing variability in the perceived helpfulness of the skills. The concern regarding being understood by the counselor (i.e. empathy) was the most important criteria used by the clients to judge the skills. Feeling understood was most enhanced by the skills of restatement and immediacy. The most negatively rated skills were challenge, closed questions, information giving and direct guidance. Recommendations for future research and practice are discussed.

Resumen en: We address the need for culturally informed counseling skills by using a multiple case study design that evaluates the basic helping skills with four vol...

Counseling psychologists are in a prime position to claim preeminence in the field of applied positive psychology. A number of misunderstandings or misconceptions of positive psychology seem to interfere, however, with the focus (or lack thereof) that has been placed upon training counseling psychologists to utilize and contribute to positive psychological scholarship and applications. In this article, the most commonly reported misconceptions are addressed, and foundational information regarding positive psychological constructs, theories, and processes most relevant to the applied work of counseling psychologists is reviewed. Counseling psychologists are encouraged to claim positive psychology as the logical extension of our humanistic roots and to consider how to both utilize and contribute to the growing body of positive psychological scholarship.