Whereas traditional psychological therapy interventions aim at symptom reduction, the positive psychology field has emphasized the importance of also promoting positive wellbeing. Little evidence exists on the level of improvement in positive wellbeing relative to symptom reduction in response to cognitive-behavioural therapy for anxiety and depression supplemented by a positive psychology approach.
This paper presents key findings on the amount and rate of improvement in positive wellbeing as well as alleviation of anxiety and depressive symptoms in over 1500 adult clients referred to an Australian group private practice for cognitive-behavioural treatment of clinically significant anxiety and/or depressive symptoms. All practitioners were actively encouraged to adopt a positive psychology framework through regular individual and group supervision sessions.
Outcome measures included the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). These measures were typically administered at sessions 1, 5, and a final session enabling observations about the rate as well as the amount of change on each measure.
These findings may serve as useful benchmarks for practitioners of positive psychology to demonstrate favourable therapy outcomes that go beyond mere symptom reduction.