3 Ways to Use Positive Cognitive

Behavioral Therapy (CBT) With Teens

Positive cognitive behavioral therapy, or positive CBT, is a strengths-based

approach with positive psychology roots. The focus is not on what’s wrong with
the client, but on what is right with them.

A positive CBT practitioner focuses on building a client’s strengths and uses

strategies that clients can use to help cope with their problems. Strategies
include setting goals and building optimism, hope, and resilience.

As positive education continues to show promising results among children and

adolescents, positive CBT can benefit as well. Positive education works to prevent
dysfunctional behaviors, but many young people enter therapy on an involuntary
basis.

Often, young children or teenagers only seek therapy because adults in their lives
notice them displaying problem behaviors (Bannink, 2012). Although parents and
teachers will seek therapy for developmental conflicts, it is often difficult to
differentiate dysfunction and the bumpy road of maturation.

It can also often be difficult to trust the therapist and the aim of therapy. Here is a
look at what a child or adolescent learns in a positive CBT setting.

This article contains:

 Inner Strengths to Nurture
 The Role of Well-Being Is Less Clear
 Positive CBT Emphasizes the Client’s Strengths
 Continuing Therapy at Home
 Goals for Positive CBT
 References

Before you start reading this article, I recommend you to download these 3
Positive CBT exercises for free. With these exercises, you will not just be able to
understand positive CBT on a theoretical level, but you’ll also have the tools to
apply it in your work with clients or students.
Inner Strengths to Nurture
In an ideal world, every child learns the tools to understand the beliefs they hold
about themselves and the world they have inherited.

By the time children move towards teenagehood, the whole world can seem like a
confusing and unfair place where they do not belong. That’s why CBT-
intervention is so important, for anyone, but especially for young adults in the
formative stages of their life.

Optimism, hope, and resilience are core parts of living a fulfilling life, and studies
prove that these strengths are not fluffy or idealized concepts, but rather, strengths
with powerful worth.

Optimism

Optimistic children are more successful at school, homework, and sports than
pessimistic children (Seligman, Reivich, Jaycox, & Gilham, 1995). More so,
optimistic adolescents are not only less angry but are less likely to use drugs and
alcohol.

Research has also shown that children are more depressed and pessimistic when
their parents grant them less autonomy. This seems to be due to control issues, as a
child who feels responsible and trusted experiences increased optimism (Seligman,
Reivich, Jaycox, & Gilham, 1995).

Criticism from parents, teachers, coaches, and other adults also play a role in a
child’s optimism levels.

As a child matures into a teenager, the influence of friends and peers will be of
increased importance to them (Seligman, Reivich, Jaycox, & Gilham, 1995). But
criticism they received at a younger age will continue to shape their self-talk and
perspective.

Hope

Hopeful children have higher self-esteem and are less prone to depression
(Bannink, 2012).

Research has shown that children and adolescents who have more hope have fewer
behavioral problems. Hope, combined with a positive support system, contribute
greatly to their feelings of self-worth.
Resilience

Edith Grotberg, Ph.D., carried out research in several countries with

the International Resilience Project and found that resilience has a huge impact on
children. According to Grotberg, resilient children can overcome trauma (1995).

As children become older their capability to build their resilience is based on how
well they were taught resilience a younger age. The type of support system they
had determines whether they acquired skills and enhanced their inner
strengths (Bannink, 2012).

Positive CBT with children and families explores which of these inner strengths a
child or teenager already has, and how they can be further enhanced.

The Role of Well-Being Is Less Clear

Well-being affects every part of life: physical, mental, social, and spiritual.
However, few researchers have studied the impact of well-being in children
(Bannink, 2012).

It is unclear to whom questions should be asked when evaluating a child’s well-

being: the child, the parents, or a teacher? For this reason, the impact of well-being
in children needs more research.

Positive CBT Emphasizes the Client’s Strengths

Positive CBT uses the same principles with children and adolescents as it does
with adults. The main emphasis is on what is right with them: their strengths and
what they’re capable of (Bannink, 2012).

The VIA Strengths Survey for Children contains a list of 198 questions that
children ages 8 to 17 can take. It explores the same 24 strengths found in the
version of the test used for adults.

A positive CBT therapist limits “problem talk” as much as he or she can, even with
the client’s parents. Many times parents come to see a therapist for their child as a
last resort and feel very frustrated. It is important to acknowledge their frustration
and then move on to a “strengths and solution talk” (Bannink, 2012).

Positive CBT in Group Therapy

The Penn Resilience Project, or PRP, is a group intervention for late-elementary
and middle school students who are at risk of depression (Bannink, 2012). PRP
teaches cognitive-behavioral skills, problem-solving skills, and positive
psychology skills to help prevent depression.

One method used by PRP is Albert Ellis’s ABC Model, which is centered on the
idea that our beliefs affect our emotions, which then affect our behavior. This
model helps children find inaccurate thoughts, evaluate them, and eliminate them if
they find alternative interpretations that are more realistic.

PRP also employs a variety of techniques solving problems, such as increasing

assertiveness, becoming better at decision-making, and coping with difficult
emotions and situations (Bannink, 2012).

Positive psychology comes in as a solution-building paradigm, focusing on

creativity, brainstorming, and resilience (Seligman, 2015).
Continuing Therapy at Home
Like CBT, there is homework involved for the child or teenager and his or her
parents.

Family therapists Insoo Kim Berg and Therese Steiner (2003) list a number of
homework and suggestions that can be used in two categories: do-more-of-what-
works tasks and do-something-different tasks. Do-something-different tasks are
advised to be used only under extreme circumstances, as the child should mostly
focus on doing more of what works.

Homework helps transfer the lessons taught in therapy to the child’s real life.
Homework is usually provided with guidelines for completing it, ensuring that
each assignment is doable and involves a step toward the client’s goal (Bannink,
2012).

An example homework assignment is the wonder bag. The child and parent each
write down five wishes on a separate piece of paper. They put the wishes
in separate bags and the bags are then exchanged. Each week an individual pulls a
wish from the bag he or she received and is given one week to make the wish come
true.

These wishes can be for the parents to come to a sports activity, for the child to
clean his or her room, and so on.

A positive CBT therapist can also ask the child or adolescent to “pay attention to
the expression on your mom’s face each time you start your homework without
having to be told to” (Bannink, 2012). This helps positively reinforce the desired
behavior and helps the client focus on what is going right for them.

Goals for Positive CBT

The goal for the clients is for them to enhance their strengths and prevent future
problem behaviors.

Imagine what it looks like, for children or teenagers to conjure positive

emotions by themselves, develop resilience in the face of adversity, and be
optimistic about their life.

By understanding their own strengths and working on them, CBT provides the
opportunity for children and teenagers to thrive, and for parents to feel closer to
their children.
References