Symposium 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Building Authentic Selves by Integrating Symptoms and Strengths (#427)

Tayyab Rashid 1
  1. Health & Wellness Centre, Associate Faculty, Graduate Program in Psychological Science
, University of Toronto , Toronto, ON, Canada

Based on framework of Positive Psychotherapy (PPT; Rashid & Seligman, 2018), this presentation will describe ways clinicians can actively looks for events, experiences and expressions of strengths in the lives of their clients.  With the help of brief clinical illustrations, the presentation will describe strategies to spot strengths through abilities, skills, talents, capacities and aptitude, and ways strengths can be nurtured to build resilience of clients in overcoming symptoms. The clinical illustrations will underscore an important caveat—exploration of strengths does not come at the cost of ignoring symptoms. Rather, the goal is to find innovative ways of weaving strengths and symptoms so that clients can construct or reconstruct a holistic self-concept that helps them to move from ill-being to well-being. These ways also include raising clients awareness about their problems, accepting what can be changed and what cannot, and acknowledging, owning their strengths in an authentic manner.