Positive Psychology in the Clinical Domains. Research and Practice

Description

• Focuses on clinical applications of positive psychology issues only
• Describes a variety of interventions, from positive psychotherapy, to person-centered counseling, to mindfulness
• Provides clinicians with different strategies to choose from according to patients’ needs

This book builds the bridge between the fields of clinical and positive psychology research and practice. It presents a variety of interventions aimed at promoting positivity in clinical populations. Although clinical psychology has addressed issues such as happiness, resilienceand optimal functioning, the field has stuck to the medical model and paid more attention to distress and negativity in human existence. Positive psychology, on the other hand, has been considered a “psychology for all” and has devoted attention and resources to theinvestigation of positivity in general populations, Only recently, the relationships between positivity, distress and psychopathology have been investigated. This book integrates research and practice from both fields. Its first part provides a theoretical framework for describingconcepts such as hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing, resilience, character’s strengths, positive health and positive functioning, with a special reference to their clinical implications and their psychosomatic underpinnings. The second part provides a review of positiveinterventions in clinical practice and psychotherapeutic settings. These interventions are derived from positive psychology as well as from longstanding traditions in clinical psychology and psychiatry, and from eastern clinical and philosophical approaches.   

Chiara Ruini, PhD. is Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Bologna, Department of Psychology. Since 2006 she has been teaching the course “Clinical Applications of Positive Psychology” for students attending the Master Program in ClinicalPsychology. The course is taught in English and is attracting an increasing number of European and International students, suggesting a growing interest for the application of positive psychology issues to the clinical domains. Chiara Ruini has authored more than 60 articlespublished in peer-reviewed international journals, has edited a book entitled “Increasing Psychological well-being across cultures” for the Springer series Positive Psychology across Cultures and serves the Editorial Boards for international Journals such as Psychotherapy andPsychosomatics, the Psychology of Well-being, Theories Research and Practice, The Journal of Happiness and wellbeing. Her research interests are concerned with Positive Psychology, Clinical Psychology , Positive Youth Development, and Psychotherapy.