Positive psychology may help overcome fear, trauma

When Shannon Polly served as a juror for a drug case recently, she did something that made her go into panic mode: she sniffed a vial containing a dangerous illegal drug.

As part of the trial, jurors were asked to smell a closed vial of PCP to determine whether the drug has an easily distinguishable odour. Polly did so as directed, but a second later she felt she had made a terrible mistake — because she was pregnant.

Instantly, her heart started to race and her throat went dry.

“I started to ‘catastrophize,’” says Polly, who works as a corporate communications trainer, facilitator and coach in Washington, D.C.“I thought to myself, ‘what if my baby comes out deformed? My husband would hate me and divorce me, and my parents would disown me.’”

Polly says such sudden bursts of dark thoughts can happen to anyone, including someone such as herself: a practitioner of positive psychology. Polly was able to calm herself by applying one of the techniques she learned from new research into the science of positive psychology. She realized her fears were based on a false assumption, namely that sniffing a closed vial of PCP is harmful.

The technique, which she refers to as a “positive approach to coping with stress,” involves separating fact from fiction. She asked herself, ‘where is the evidence for what I am telling myself?’ Then she saw a gynaecologist, who confirmed that her fears were baseless.

In recent years there has been a large increase in public demand for learning about positive psychology, says Lisa Sansom, a Toronto organizational consultant and board member of the Canadian Positive Psychology Association (CPPA).

“The recent growth of positive psychology is enormous,” Sansom says. “It went from being an idea to a movement.”

Positive psychology as a scientific discipline was just an idea before Martin Seligman, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania and now best-selling author, founded the movement in 2000. Since then it has grown, says Toronto psychologist Tami Kulbatski, also a CPAA board member.

“We have positive psychology programs all over the world that are flourishing,” Kulbatski says. “A positive psychology course taught at Harvard University broke all (attendance) records of any course ever taught there; it had 1,500 students packed in a room.”

The CPPA recently staged the first academic conference on positive psychology in Canada. Held at the University of Toronto’s Victoria College on July 20 and 21, the conference featured doctors, scholars, researchers and positive psychology experts — including Polly and Kulbatski — presenting new research and practical ways to feel good, live well and be successful.

Sansom says the science of positive psychology is appealing to a wider demographic than ever before.

“What we’ve seen here at CPPA is … interest from many different sectors of society,” Sansom says. “It’s not just psychologists and counsellors who are interested, but also individuals, couples, parents, health-care (professionals).”

The practice of positive psychology should not be equated to clinical psychology, Sansom says. Positive psychology is practised by learning about the science and applying it to virtually any field: not just psychology.

“Practitioners in other fields — such as clinical psychology, education, health care, business consulting, coaching — learn about positive psychology research and apply it to their (own field),” Sansom says. “As such, you can have positive clinical psychology, positive education, positive health care, positive business, and so on.”

It is not necessary to be a registered psychologist in order to practise positive psychology, but that doesn’t mean anyone can practise it properly. Staying on top of this growing science through continuing education is critical to being an effective practitioner, Sansom says.

Kulbatski is an example of a clinical psychologist who has applied the science of positive psychology to her work. Rather than focusing on what makes her patients depressed — as traditional psychologists are — she is more interested in what makes them happy.

One method that she uses to treat depression is the “three good things” exercise. Right before going to bed at night, the patient is to write down three good things that happened to him or her that week. Then, the patient is to write what he or she might have done to cause those good things to happen.

“This exercise retrains our brains to focus on the positive things in our life,” Kulbatski said. “Our brains have a tendency to ignore what’s going well.”

The exercise is based on research that shows that practising gratitude enables one to increase his or her happiness by 25 per cent, she says.

Another indicator that the science of positive psychology is growing is the fact that the U.S. army is now using it as a training tool, says Polly.

“The U.S. army is the largest consumer of positive psychology in the world so far,” she says. “All 1.1 million American soldiers will be trained in resilience training.”

In resilience training, positive psychology strategies are used to heal traumatic experiences. One of its methods is forgiveness of oneself and others. Sansom and Polly suggest that resilience training can serve as an effective preventative measure for mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

But does positive psychology really work in preventing mental disorders, bringing happiness and achieving success? Julie Norem, a psychology professor at Wellesley College and author of The Positive Power of Negative Thinking, doesn’t think so. She believes that research done in the field does not back key statements made by positive psychology proponents.

“Many of the findings are weak, contradicted by other findings,” Norem wrote in an email. “The evidentiary basis for those statements is far from uniform; there are lots of exceptions, caveats, questions, overgeneralizations, unwarranted assumptions … all of which I think are crucial to understanding what data from positive psychology actually means in the context of daily life.”

Practitioners have likewise received criticism from those who see positive psychology as unrealistic.

“One of the biggest criticisms is that we overemphasize positive emotions and that we are saying you shouldn’t have negative emotions at all,” Polly said. “But we think negative emotions are very helpful.”

Louisa Jewell, president of the CPPA, says criticism comes from common misconceptions about positive psychology.

“Some people think positive psychology is about being happy all the time, but that is certainly not what it is all about,” Jewell says. “I think those people are misinformed.”

Norem disagrees.

“Happiness continues to be a strong focus (in positive psychology),” Norem wrote. “It is still the biggest ‘product’ sold by the movement.”

Despite such criticism, Sansom believes the rise of positive psychology is far from over. She expects positive psychology will soon become a major aspect of teacher training and of government policy for preventative health measures.

And in terms of acceptance, she believes “more and more people will understand positive psychology” in the coming years.

Is she positive about that?

“Oh, yeah!”

Q and A with a “positive interventionist”

Lisa Sansom is a Toronto organizational consultant and board member of the Canadian Positive Psychology Association.

Q: What is the most positive thing in your life?

A: Hugs from my kids.

Q: What is the most negative thing in your life?

A: I don’t deal well with last-minute changes in stressful situations.

Q: How do you deal with that?

A: Deep breaths.

Q: How do you cheer up friends and family?

A: Just be there for them.

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