Positive psychology : a new momentum for psychotherapy

Abstract EN

Can psychotherapy enable people to energize the positive forces within them and to achieve optimal functioning? Positive psychology considers it essential not to focus solely on the resolution of negative symptoms and schemas, but also to work on the values and meaning of patients' lives Values are stable beliefs about goals like "What to do with my life? ".

The feeling of well-being can only be achieved if the person has the authentic feeling of having achieved his or her values.

Therapy aims at learning values and constructive cognitive abilities such as courage, relational skills, logical thinking, optimistic vision, the ability to play down a situation, to give meaning to one's life, the ability to know to take pleasure, to focus on the future and not on the failures of the past, to develop a realistic vision.

Positive psychology brings therapy into an optimistic preventive and curative clinic.

We will examine these therapeutic approaches that can be related to the current of positive psychology: - Logotherapy (to discover the meaning of its existence); - person-centered therapy (demonstrating the essential role of empathy); - cognitive and behavioral therapy (to learn how to control its existence); - therapy of psychological well-being (to learn to taste the beautiful moments of existence); - the management of emotions (as a major source of well-being).

We will conclude with some remarks on the aptitude of the human beings for happiness, more or less affirmed according to the individuals