Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

Techniques of Positive
Psychotherapy
Tamanna Saxena
 Gratitude Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Gratitude is the underlying concept for many positive psychology interventions as

it promotes the savouring of positive events and may counteract hedonic
adaptation.
• Several conceptually related studies have taken a different perspective on how
gratitude can increase wellbeing.
• For example, it appears that when people count their blessings once a week there
is an increase in wellbeing. This does not hold true for people who count their
blessings more than three times a week.
• It is postulated that the exercise could become more like a chore and lose
meaningfulness and effectiveness.
• The method of implementation for Gratitude is key to success!
 Research on Gratitude & Three Good Things
Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• In another prominent study, people who engaged in counting their

blessings (versus burdens) tended to experience more joy, energy,
attentiveness and pro-social behaviour.
• As gratitude and blessings bring up different associations (religious
connotations), this intervention has been renamed as ‘three good things’
(Emmons and McCullough, 2003).
• Seligman puts another twist on this intervention, asking people to write
down three good things that happened to them that day, and their role in
bringing about the events. This taps into positive internal explanatory
styles, highlighting how we can control our daily positive experiences
(Seligman et al., 2005).
 Gratitude Visit Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• One of the most powerful positive impacts on wellbeing is the Gratitude Visit
(Seligman et al., 2005).
• The Gratitude Visit or Gratitude Letter requires you to write a letter to someone
you never properly thanked. You can either read the letter out loud in person or
send the letter through the mail (although the first format is ideal). Exercise works
even when you don’t send the letter (Lyubomirsky et al., 2006).
• Gratitude is an imperative component for wellbeing, which forces people to step
back and reflect upon what and whom they have in their life, as well as counteract
complacency and ‘taken-for-grantedness’.
• Recent findings propose that adolescents and children that are low in positive
affect will benefit most from this type of intervention (Froh, Kashdan,
Ozimkowski, and Miller, 2009).
Gratitude Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
Gratitude Visit Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
Three Good Things Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
Savouring Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
 Savouring Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Savouring is defined as ‘The capacity to attend to, appreciate and enhance the
positive experiences in one’s life.’

• It is important to distinguish savouring as a process and not as an outcome – thus

it is something we do, and not something that happens – and it requires active
engagement on the person’s behalf.

• Savouring requires us to slow down and attend intently to our surroundings,

feelings, experiences.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

Savouring: A model for Positive Experience

• Bryant and Veroff (2007) propose that savouring can be done in terms of three
time orientations, four processes and 10 strategies.
• In terms of time orientation, people can engage in savouring through
(1) the past (reminiscing),
(2) the present (savouring the moment) or
(3) the future (anticipating).
• Bryant and Veroff propose four savouring processes including:
(1) thanksgiving (gratitude);
(2) basking (pride);
(3) marvelling (awe); and
(4) luxuriating (physical pleasure).
 Strategies for Savouring Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• 10 identified strategies that can be employed in order to enhance savouring across

time orientation and process.
1. Sharing with others. Sharing positive experiences with others is the single
strongest predictor of level of enjoyment. Sharing with others may foster bonding
and reinforce healthy relationships for several reasons. A desire to share the
pleasure makes us more attentive to all the pleasurable details of the experience.
2. Memory building. When we experience a positive event we can engage in
memory building, which is simply actively taking vivid mental photographs for
future recall. This strategy is correlated with a desire to share with others.
3. Comparing. Comparing is a difficulty strategy to employ. Research shows us that
people who engage in downward social comparison can indeed enhance their
own wellbeing; however, when people engage in upward social comparison they
may dampen their enjoyment if comparing to someone better off than them.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

4. Sensory-perceptual sharpening. This strategy asks you to intensify pleasure by

focusing on certain stimuli and blocking out others.
5. Self-congratulation. Sometimes we just don’t have someone beside us or in our
life to help us celebrate our accomplishments. This strategy can sometimes be
inappropriate but it has its place. It is not to be confused with pride or boasting –
it is simple self-congratulation that requires telling yourself how proud you are
or how impressed others may be.
6. Absorption. This can be described as allowing yourself to get totally immersed
in the moment, or akin to self-induced flow.
7. Behavioural expression. When we smile, can we actually induce positive
emotions/feelings? Can laughing, giggling, jumping up and down and dancing
around change our mood? There is a lot of evidence that outwardly expressing
positive feelings can intensify them.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

8. Temporal awareness. This strategy asks you to acknowledge the

fleeting moments of time and to engage in carpe diem.

9. Counting blessings. Take some time to count your blessings at the

end of the day or the week.

10. Killjoy thinking. it highlights the fact that if you engage in worry,
ruminative thought or killjoy thinking, there will be no room for
savouring experiences.
Active Constructive Responding
Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
 Active constructive responding
• Gable et al. (2004) decided to look not at how people
react to others when they receive bad news but at how
they react when someone comes to them with good
news.
• Active constructive responding requires a person to
respond with genuine excitement, outwardly displaying
their excitement and capitalizing on the other person’s
success (prolonging discussion of the good news, telling
people about it, suggesting celebratory activities).
• Gable found that relationships in which each member
engages in active constructive responding tend to
flourish as opposed to the other relationships where
individuals employ passive constructive, active
destructive and passive destructive methods of response.
Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
• When someone approaches you with
good news, how do you respond?
• Are you:
1 Happy for them, but you tend not to
make a big deal about it (passive
constructive)?
2 Skeptical, and point out why the good
news isn’t so good at all (active
destructive)?
3 Or more of an indifferent reactor
(passive destructive)?
The next time a friend comes to you
with good news, try and engage in active
constructive responding and note the
subsequent interactions.
 Using your Strengths Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Seligman offers several ideas for incorporating strengths into our daily lives, for
example, creating ‘a beautiful day’ or going on a ‘strengths date’.
• To create a ‘beautiful day’, use your talents and attributes to create the perfect day
(or even half day).
• If an individuals top strengths are love of learning and curiosity, their day might
include a trip to a favourite museum or a few hours with a book that they’ve been
meaning to read.
• If the capacity to love crowns the list the person might spend an evening with old
friends or summon family for a dinner.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• https://youtu.be/jyLYgR2nDkc
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOGAp9dw8Ac&t=10s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C7tTY4b0Pk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrkgJbgnFIs