group ppt manual parks & seligman acacia c. parks ... · version 2, 3/2/07 please do not...

Group PPT Manual Parks & Seligman

8-Week Group Positive Psychotherapy (PPT) Manual

Acacia C. Parks

Martin E.P. Seligman

Positive Psychology Center

University of Pennsylvania

Version 2, 3/2/07

PLEASE DO NOT DISTRIBUTE WITHOUT PERMISSION


Overview of Group Positive Psychotherapy (PPT)

Structure

Group PPT consists of eight 1.5-hour seminars offered across eight weeks to young adults with mild-moderate depressive symptoms. Seminar groups consist of approximately 10-12 students and one seminar facilitator. The intervention is primarily discussion-based; although the facilitator will provide brief lectures to introduce new material, his or her primary responsibility is to lead structured discussions. Participants receive worksheets in each session containing detailed descriptions of the week’s exercise and space for recording various aspects of their experience with the exercise. In addition to facilitating the completion of the assignment itself, the worksheets prepare participants for in-session discussions; in our experience, students in these groups are often hesitant to talk spontaneously, but they are more comfortable doing so if they have written thoughtfully about the topic of discussion in advance.

In Session 1, the facilitator introduces herself to the group and provides an overview of the intervention. Participants then introduce themselves by way of Positive Introductions (see below), and the facilitator presents the first homework assignment. Sessions 2-7 follow a consistent structure. First, the facilitator leads a discussion of the homework assignment that participants completed over the last week. Each participant gets the opportunity to comment on their experience with the exercise, and the facilitator helps the group develop a sense of the exercise’s strengths and weaknesses. Second, the facilitator introduces the next homework assignment, presenting theoretical and empirical evidence as appropriate to walk participants through the logic that led us to design the exercise. In Session 8, the facilitator leads a discussion on the week’s assignment per usual, and then turns discussion to the idea of maintenance. Participants discuss which exercises were most and least useful, and generate ideas for ways that the exercises can be integrated into their everyday lives. Guidelines for Facilitators The manual is coded as follows:

- Sections in italics represent nonverbal actions that the facilitator is supposed to execute

- Sections in bold represent notes to the facilitator - Sections in quotes can either be read verbatim by the facilitator or used by the

facilitator as guidelines in their presentation of the material. These are split into subsections to make clear the individual points that the facilitator must touch upon.


The Basic Exercises Using Your Strengths: Look at the list of 24 strengths provided in your workbook and decide what 5 strengths represent you the most (you can have them do this in class or before they take the VIA). Take the Values in Action (VIA) Strengths Survey and write down your five highest strengths. Every day for the next week, use one of these strengths in a way that you have not before. Each night, write down how you used one of your strengths that day, including what strength you used, how you felt before, during, and after the activity, and whether you plan to repeat it in the future. Three Good Things: Each evening before bed, write down three things that went well that day. These things can be ordinary and small in importance or relatively large in importance. Next to each positive event in your list, answer the question “Why did this good thing happen?”

Gratitude Visit: Think of the people – parents, friends, teachers, coaches, teammates, employers, and so on – who have been especially kind to you but whom you have never properly thanked. Choose someone with whom you could arrange to have a face to face meeting in the next week. Your task is to write a gratitude letter to this individual and deliver it in person by reading it aloud. The letter should be concrete: be specific about what he or she did for you and how it affected your life. Let the person know what you are doing now, and mention how often you remember their efforts. Directly following the gratitude visit, take some time to reflect on the experience: how did you feel as you wrote the letter? How did the other person react to your expression of gratitude? How were you affected by their reaction?

Savoring: Consider a typical weekday. Review your morning routine, your daily activities, and your evening rituals, and consider how much time you spend noticing and enjoying the pleasures of the day, both small and large. Every day for the next week, be sure to savor at least two experiences (for example, your morning coffee, or the sun on your face as you walk to your car). Spend at least 2-3 minutes savoring each experience. Active/Constructive Responding: This week, listen carefully when people you care about report good events to you. Stop and go out of your way to respond actively and constructively. Every night, make a record of the opportunities you had to respond to good news from someone else that day, your response to the news (noting whether it was an active and constructive response), and the other person’s response to you.” Life Summary – Imagine that one day, after you retire, someone writes a book about your fruitful and satisfying life. What would you want the book to say about you? Write a 1-2 page essay summarizing what you would like to be remembered for the most. What traits and accomplishments would you like to define you? What legacy would you want to leave behind?


Positive Service: Select two domains that you would like to serve (examples: politics, religion, family, science, community) by exercising your strengths. Write down your ideas for service for each domain. Be explicit and concrete about how each service would call on your strengths. Select one of your ideas and put it into action this week. The goal is to begin to carry out a new positive service, so do not choose an activity in which you already participate. Maintenance: Participants provide feedback on the pro’s and con’s of each exercise with the goal of generating ways to modify the exercise to fit their lives. In addition, a variety of new exercises will be described. The focus is on honing exercises that can be used habitually, on a daily or weekly basis. Each participant will be asked to choose one or two exercises to practice regularly for the next several months as a way of maintaining their gains.


Session 1 (Total Time: 90m) I. Opening Comments (10m)

a. Welcome participants, introduce yourself and say a bit about your

background. Provide participants with your business card and let them know that they can email you with any questions throughout the workshop.

b. State the purpose of the intervention:

i. “The goal of this workshop is to teach you some skills that will help

you get more out of life. In the next 6 weeks, you will learn exercises to help you find out what you’re best at, experience more gratitude, interact more constructively with your friends and loved ones, get more enjoyment out of your daily activities, and feel more optimistic about your future. By practicing these skills, we hope that you will be able to increase the amounts of positive emotion, deep engagement, and meaning you experience in your lives.”

c. Describe the structure of the intervention:

i. “This is the first of six weekly workshops, each of which will take place at this same time and location. Each workshop will begin with a discussion and end with a description of the homework for the week. Homework will be some kind of exercise, which should not take you more than an hour or two. Each assignment will be accompanied by a worksheet.”

ii. “We will ask you to complete these two questionnaires every week to

track how you are doing.” 1. Distribute any self-report questionnaires that would be useful

to you (e.g. measures of depressive symptoms such as the Beck Depression Inventory or CES-D and measures of well-being such as the Authentic Happiness Index)

d. Questions?

II. Positive Introductions (60m)

a. “The majority of this first session will be spent getting to know each other by way of what we call “positive introductions”. That is, each person here will tell a story – a thoughtful narrative with a beginning, middle and end – that illustrates what is best about themselves.”


b. “Because I know that this is a difficult task, I will start by telling mine as an example and then give you all a few minutes to think of your own story.” Tell your story.

c. Give students a couple of minutes to generate ideas, eat, get drinks, etc. d. Elicit stories from each student, being mindful of time.

i. After each story, ask participants to summarize what is best about the storyteller, i.e. what sort of strength it illustrates (without the constraint of the VIA classification)

III. Preview of Next Session and Homework: Using Your Strengths (20m)

a. This will need to be quick, as the introductions will probably take up most of your time. Pass out the homework handout.

b. “The goal of this week’s assignment is to help you learn what your strengths

are and how to use them in order to make your life more engaging. We have reason to believe that if you can work your strengths into your life, you will be more involved in what you are doing more of the time, making your day to day life more satisfying.”

c. RATIONALE:

i. “There is a good deal of research to suggest that people get the most enjoyment out of activities that they can really “get lost in.” Furthermore, being absorbed in an activity improves peoples’ moods. So, it makes sense to want to find activities that you can lose yourself in.”

ii. “We know that in order to really get involved in an activity, you have

to be doing something that is both:

1. Something you are very good at, i.e. that employs one of your strengths

2. Something that challenges you to use your strengths to their

full potential”

a. Example (you can use your own): One of my strengths is love of learning, so I get really engaged in reading or hearing about something new.

iii. It follows, then, that you could more easily find activities that engage

you if you know what your strengths are.”


d. ASSIGNMENT:

i. “For your homework, you will need to take an online questionnaire called the VIA as soon as possible (preferably today). The VIA will ask you a variety of questions, and it will use your answers to determine which of many strengths are your top 5. The URL and instructions for reaching the survey are on your handout. It is a rather lengthy questionnaire, and could take you as long as an hour, but trust me, the feedback it gives you will be worth it.”

ii. “Once you have taken the VIA, start thinking of ways that you use

your top 5 strengths in your life. Each day, find at least one way to use one or more of your strengths in a way that you haven’t before. You can do this by modifying something you already do on a regular basis to make better use of your strengths, or by creating a new activity altogether. What’s important is that it is something new and different from what you usually do.”

1. Examples: Use Humor by weaving jokes into a class presentation that you have to make. (provide other examples until you get the sense that the group is comfortable with the assignment)

iii. We will generate more ideas during next week’s meeting after we hear

about what ideas you came up with on your own

e. WORKSHEET: Use the worksheet to keep track of what you did.

i. Write down your top 5 strengths

ii. Each day, find at least one way to use one or more of your strengths in a way that you haven’t before.

iii. At the end of each day, write down what you did on your worksheet.

iv. Turn in the worksheet next week

v. “It is vital that you be honest on these sheets. If you don’t do the

exercise, please leave that section of the form blank and turn it in anyways! You will not be penalized in any way if you do not finish the homework. However, it is very important when we track each participant’s outcomes that we know the degree to which they participated in the workshop.”


IV. “Ok, that’s all for this week! It was good to get to know each of you a little better. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions, and I look forward to seeing you all next time!”


Session 2 (Total Time: 90m)

I. Check-in (5m)

a. Ask if people had any technical problems b. Self-report questionnaires c. How was the workload? Reasonable, a struggle, easy to do? d. Did everyone get a chance to take the VIA? (show of hands)

II. Discussion of Using Your Strengths – Part 1 (60m)

a. “Last week, you all took the VIA and received feedback on your top 5 strengths. Here is a list of the 24 strengths from which your top 5 were chosen.” Distribute the list.

i. This first part gives people who didn’t do their homework a

chance to come up with some strengths to work with during class. “Take a look at the list, and mark the five strengths that you believe are most characteristic of you (they do not have to match with the strengths that the VIA gave you). On the whole, do you agree with the VIA’s characterization of your strengths?”

b. Now, I’d like to go around the room and ask each of you to do the

following:

i. “Choose the strength from your top 5 that was most characteristic of you, i.e. that you display most often and tell us what it is…” (write down each person’s strength as they tell you for later use)

ii. “Then, give us an example of something you do regularly that

takes advantage of that strength.”

c. “Ok, we’ve now heard about some of your strengths and how you already use them. The next thing we’re going to do is talk about ways that each of you came up with this week to use your strengths more in your lives.”

i. “We’ll start with some of the strengths that you all listed a few

minutes ago.” Refer to the list of the participants’ strengths that you made and see which strengths are most common in the group. Go through the most common strengths one at a time, asking the people who have that strength how they applied it. If time permits, ask the rest of the group to come


up with other ideas for how to apply that strength as well. Make sure that you touch upon at least one strength from each participant’s list.

ii. “Did anyone have a strength in their top 5 that they have a hard

time imagining ways to use?”

1. Take however many examples the class brings up and work through them, eliciting participation from other members of the group to troubleshoot.

d. “You don’t have to create new tasks in order to use your strengths more

often. What are some ways that you can take tasks that you already do on a regular basis and modify them to make better use of your strengths?

i. Would this be easier or harder than finding a new activity? More

or less rewarding?

ii. What are some aspects of your everyday life that you might try and modify to make better use of your strengths? What challenges might you face in doing so?

e. This next section can be more lecture or more interactive. Decide

based on the group dynamic. “There are many situations in which being aware of your strengths and creatively making use of them could be beneficial in your life.” Examples:

i. In close relationships (friends, family, significant others). Use

this example, make up your own, or elicit an example from the group.

1. Strengths Party: If person A has social intelligence and

humor as top strengths, person B has creativity and appreciation of beauty as top strengths, and person C has the strength of leadership, then they could divide the tasks of coordinating a party so that each is able to do what they are best at. Person A could be in charge of entertainment and being the host, while person B could be in charge of decorating and creating an aesthetically pleasing meal. Person C could help divvy up the preparation and be in charge of organizing RSVPs.

a. Strengths Date: The above idea could easily be

applied to romantic relationships as well.


2. Using Strengths to Help Others Cope: There are many ways to help others cope. When someone comes to you with a problem, you can choose how to respond based on your strengths. For example, one might use kindness to take care of the person and help the person take care of themselves. One could use humor or perspective to help the person reframe the situation, or creativity to help the person think of a solution to the problem. One might use their social intelligence to decide what sort of approach is most likely to help the person feel better.

ii. At work or school. Use this example, make up your own, or

elicit an example from the group.

1. In a group project, if team member A is good with humor and social intelligence and team member B has love of learning as a strength, then member A could be in charge of putting together a great presentation while member B takes charge of the research for the presentation.

iii. “Can you think of other areas where using your strengths might

be beneficial?”

f. “Does anyone have questions about the VIA, or about strengths in general?”

g. Collect worksheets.

III. Preview of Next Sessions and Homework: Three Good Things (30m)

a. “The next exercise is called ‘Three Good Things.’ b. The Three Good Things exercise is one way of being more aware of the

good things that happen to you. It is designed to help you notice and remember positive events that occur throughout your day, and to end your day on a positive note by thinking and writing about those positive events.

c. It’s pretty simple, and requires only that you write a few sentences each

day. Each evening before bed, write down three things that went well that day. These things can be ordinary and small in importance or relatively large in importance. Next to each positive event in your list, answer the question “Why did this good thing happen?”

d. It is important that you focus on things that happened that day instead of

things for which you are generally grateful in your life. We will come back to more explicitly discuss gratitude later on! For the purposes of this


exercise, if you find yourself writing the same things each day (for example, “I have great friends”), try and be more specific, detailing what happened that day to remind you of the things for which you are generally grateful (for example, “I went out to dinner with my friends and had a great time. It reminded me how lucky I am to have such good friends.”).”

e. Thinking of three good things to write about each night is not always easy.

In fact, many people have trouble with this exercise at first; it’s like a skill that you can develop through practice. One thing that might help is if you try and modify your attention throughout the day so that you are constantly on the lookout for good things to write. This will increase the chances that you will both notice and remember positive events, and will make the exercise easier than it would have been had you just waited until the end of the day to start thinking about the good things that have happened to you.”



I. Check-In: How was everyone’s week? (5 min)

a. Self-report questionnaires II. Discussion of Three Good Things (55m) SUMMARY: Participants discuss the effects that the exercise had on them throughout the day both in terms of their overall mood, and their level of attention to and appreciation of good events as they happen. The facilitator asks participants to examine their daily entries and look for patterns in the kinds of explanations they tend to offer for why good events happen.

a. This section should be largely discussion-oriented. b. Ask each person to share, in detail, their experience with the exercise.

Discussion questions:

i. Were you able to come up with 3 good things every day? If it was difficult, what made it difficult for you? Did it become easier to do so as the week progressed?

ii. Did knowing you would have to write down three good things later

on help you be more aware of good things as they happened throughout the day?

iii. Did you notice any patterns in the good things that you noticed?

What kinds of things made your list more than once?

iv. What kinds of reasons did you give for “why” your positive events happened? Were there any patterns in terms of what kinds of events you attributed to what kinds of causes?

1. Listen for cases in which participants underemphasize

their own role in making good things happen. 2. In cases where the valence of a participant’s attribution

is not obvious, explore what the attribution means to them. For example, consider a case where someone has a nice time with their friends and either attributes it to being blessed with great friends OR to being a great friend and a person who surrounds herself with great people. One could imagine that feeling like one is lucky to have great friends would be very satisfying in some


cases, but in other cases, it could be self-effacing to attribute the quality of one’s friendships to dumb luck.

v. Are there any particular situations in which good things events

tend to occur more frequently for you?

1. Suggest pursuing these situations to maximize the probability of good things happening.

vi. Was this a useful exercise? Did it have noticeable effects on your

mood, and if so, when (after writing down the three good things? when you woke up the next day? during the day?).

vii. Could you see yourself using it in your everyday life? Why or why

not?

III. Preview of Next Session and Homework: Gratitude Visit (25m)

a. “The next exercise, which you will be doing over the next week, is called the Gratitude Visit. The Gratitude Visit is designed to help you take the time to acknowledge something that another person has done for you. According to the many people who have tried our exercises, the gratitude visit is one of the very best. In fact, the majority of people who do a gratitude visit report that it is a moving, sometimes life-changing experience!

b. Here is how you do it: Think of the people – parents, friends, teachers,

coaches, teammates, employers, and so on – who have been especially kind to you but whom you have never properly thanked. Choose someone with whom you could arrange to have a face to face meeting in the next week. Your task is to write a gratitude letter to this individual and deliver it in person by reading it aloud. The letter should be concrete: be specific about what he or she did for you and how it affected your life. Let the person know what you are doing now, and mention how often you remember their efforts. Directly following the gratitude visit, use the questions on your worksheet to reflect on the experience: how did you feel as you wrote the letter? How did the other person react to your expression of gratitude? How were you affected by their reaction? Make some notes so that we can discuss your thoughts on the experience next time.

c. “To summarize, the exercise consists of three steps:

i. First, you think of something wonderful that another person has done for you.


ii. Second, you compose a letter to that person describing what they did, what it meant to you, and how grateful you are.

iii. Third, you schedule a time to meet with that person and read the

letter aloud to them.

iv. Fourth, write down some reflections on your worksheet for discussion next week.

d. Questions? At this time, the facilitator can ask if anyone in the group

foresees there being any difficulties in delivering their letter. If it is absolutely impossible for them to write a letter for someone nearby, you can work with them to develop some kind of compromise.

IV. See you next time!



I. Check-in (5m)

a. Ask how people are, cover logistical issues if there are any b. Self-report questionnaires

II. Discussion of Gratitude – Part 1 (55m)

SUMMARY: Each participant describes their experience to the group and reflects on the effects that it might have had on them and their relationship with the other person. Participants also consider possible ways of integrating gratitude in their everyday lives, either by finding ways to express gratitude to others more frequently, or by regularly reflecting on the things for which they are grateful (for example, reviewing old gratitude letters, or keeping a gratitude journal).

i. “Ok, how many of you got a chance to do a gratitude visit over the

last week?” (since you will be going around the room having each person talk about it, you want to avoid embarrassing anyone who hasn’t done it by putting them on the spot when it’s their turn; also, sometimes people have written a letter that they didn’t get a chance to deliver, and you can have them discuss the process of writing the letter and even have them read it aloud to the group in lieu of discussing their experience delivering the letter)

b. “I’d like to spend most of today talking about each of your experiences

doing this exercise. You don’t have to read your letter to the group if you don’t want to, but I would like you to consider and answer the following questions:

i. Who did you write your letter to and what did you thank them for?

What was it like for you as you wrote the letter?

ii. What was it like for you as you read the letter aloud? How did the other person react?

iii. What did you get out of this exercise? Was it a good experience?

Were there any aspects of the exercise that you felt were more or less important to its potency?

c. The gratitude visit is an example of a powerful but time-consuming way to

get yourself to think about gratitude. But you can’t do a gratitude visit every day, or even every month! You’d run out of people!


d. For the rest of the discussion, I would like you guys to generate some ways to incorporate mindfulness about gratitude into one’s everyday life.”

i. Spend 15-20 minutes coming up with ideas.

ii. One possibility: counting your blessings once a week. Other ideas:

thank-you notes, throwing a party for someone, telling other people about a nice thing a person did for you.

I. Preview of Next Session and Homework: Savoring (30m)

a. Start by giving each student a piece of fruit (see below) and asking them to eat it as they would normally.

b. “The goal of this exercise is to teach you some techniques for more

effectively savoring your experiences. Savoring involves being “in the moment” and “taking in” all that an experience has to offer. Savoring can be used in a wide variety of circumstances – one can savor a sensory experience, a social experience, a feeling, or even a memory.

c. To give you an idea of what I mean, I’m going to walk you through a short

savoring exercise now.” Ask students to close their eyes and place another small piece of fruit (ex: grapes, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries) in each student’s hand. As you lead them through each step of the exercise, first ask the students to notice everything they can on their own, and then draw their attention to specific aspects of the fruit – its texture, taste, and so on –depending on what kind of fruit you use. Help them notice as many aspects of the experience as possible. For example, blackberries have ridges and have seeds. Grapes crunch when bitten. Draw their attention to these features. “Keeping your eyes closed, feel the berry with your fingers and notice as much as you can. Take in the smell of the berry, and then put the berry into your mouth but do not bite it. Explore the berry with your tongue and teeth, noticing as much as you can. Now, bite into the berry and focus in on the taste. When you have finished, swallow the berry and open your eyes.”

d. Briefly discuss. How did the savoring experience compare to their

experience eating a piece of fruit normally? Ask the group members to describe their experiences at each step. Was it easy to stay focused? What was it like to pay attention to each individual detail of the experience?

e. Describe the Savoring exercise: “Consider a typical weekday. Review your

morning routine, your daily activities, and your evening rituals, and consider how much time you spend noticing and enjoying the pleasures of the day, both small and large. Every day for the next week, be sure to savor at least two


experiences (for example, your morning coffee, or the sun on your face as you walk to your car). Spend at least 2-3 minutes savoring each experience.”

i. Give pointers on how to savor…

1. Sharing With Others: You can seek out others to share the

experience and tell others how much you value the moment. This is probably the single best way to savor pleasure.

2. Memory-Building: Take mental photographs or even a physical

souvenir of the event and reminisce about it later with others. 3. Self-Congratulation: Do not be afraid of pride. Tell yourself

how impressed others are and remember how long you’ve waited for this to happen.

4. Sharpening Perceptions: Focus on certain elements and block

out others. 5. Absorption: Let yourself get totally immersed and try not to

think, just sense.

ii. “How might you use your strengths to facilitate savoring? Are there strengths that could get in the way of your ability to savor things?”

1. Examples of strengths facilitating savoring: Someone with

high appreciation of beauty might choose to pursue opportunities to savor things that are aesthetically pleasing. Someone with high gratitude might savor the things for which they are grateful as they are experiencing them. Someone high in curiosity might savor a novel experience.

2. Examples of strengths hindering savoring: Vitality/Zest

could make it difficult to slow down and savor. Curiosity or love of learning might make it difficult to stop thinking and just experience the moment.

iii. Ask students to generate things that they might target for this

exercise over the next week. Give examples of things you savor in your own life.


Session 5 (Total Time: 90m) I. Check-In: How was everyone’s week? (5 min)

a. Self-report questionnaires II. Discussion of Savoring (20m)

a. Ask each participant to describe their experience with Savoring:

i. Were you able to do it? Was it inconvenient or easy? Do you already savor things, or was this a new experience for you?

1. If you struggled, what factors made savoring difficult? How

might you address those problems?

ii. What kinds of activities did you savor?

iii. Which of the different methods for savoring did you use most? Were some more useful than others?

iv. What did it feel like at the moment that you were savoring? How did

you feel afterwards?

III. Preview of Next Session and Homework: Active/Constructive (30m)

a. This next section is more lecture than discussion. Try to move through it quickly so that you can allow for questions at the end. “Your next exercise involves a way of interacting with other people called Active-Constructive Communication.

b. Shelly Gable at UCLA has done research which indicates that relationship

satisfaction most heavily depends on how one person reacts when something good happens to the other.

c. When someone approaches you with good news, you can react in a variety

of ways.

i. You could be happy for them, but not make a big deal about it (“Cool!”).

ii. You could be skeptical, and point out why the good news isn’t so

good at all (“Are you sure that this is what you really want?”).

iii. You could be indifferent (“Oh.”).


iv. But according to the research, the only way of reacting to good news that predicts higher relationship satisfaction is to be genuinely excited about it, and to make sure that the other person knows that you are happy for them.

d. Use this example, give an example of your own, or elicit an example from

the group. Your friend gets a prestigious award. You smile hugely, and exclaim “Wait a go! You really worked hard for that. An award like that will really look great on your resume! I am so proud of you.” Then, you insist on going to a restaurant with friends to celebrate the victory, telling everyone you see about your friend’s accomplishment.

e. The key components of an active-constructive response are:

i. Genuine excitement

ii. Outwardly displaying your excitement

iii. Capitalizing (prolonging discussion of the good news, seeking elaboration, telling people about it, encouraging your friend to tell other people, suggesting celebratory activities)

1. You can use some of the savoring skills we practiced last

week to help your loved ones savor.

f. Have you ever had anyone react to news from you active-constructively?

1. What was that like for you? 2. Did it change how you felt about telling that person when

something happens to you?

g. Your assignment for this week is to listen carefully when people you care about report good events to you. Stop and go out of your way to respond actively and constructively. Every night, make a record of the opportunities you had to respond to good news from someone else that day, your response to the news (noting whether it was an active and constructive response), and the other person’s response to you.”

i. Ask the group members if they have any hesitations about

applying this exercise. A common concern among participants who have never done anything like this is that it will feel and appear artificial. Emphasize that although it is normal to feel uncomfortable trying something new, the person need not be “bubbly” or like a “cheerleader” if doing so feels ingenuine. However, it may be that being “bubbly” is not as unnatural as


the participant might think – many people who are initially uncomfortable with the exercise are able to find a way to feel more natural by using one of their strengths. For example, someone high in curiosity can display interest and excitement by asking a lot of questions. Someone high in leadership can organize a party to celebrate, enlisting the attendees of the party to play the role of “cheerleader.” You can elicit examples of how strengths can aid active-constructive responding from the group as well.


Session 6 (Total Time: 90m) I. Check-In: How was everyone’s week? (5 min)

II. Discussion of Active-Constructive – Part 1 (55m)

a. “Did everyone get a chance to do the exercise?”

b. Ask each person to share 2 of their interactions from the week and answer the following four questions:

i. Who was the recipient and what was their news?

ii. Did you respond actively and constructively? If so, was it easy or

hard for you to do so? Did it come naturally to you?

1. If it felt unnatural, how might you use your strengths to make it feel more authentic?

iii. How did the recipient react?

iv. How did it feel for you when you were doing it?

c. Ask for a show of hands: “Were there times that you had an opportunity to

respond actively and constructively and either didn’t, or tried to and didn’t do it successfully?” Pick a couple of cases where people had difficulty and help them troubleshoot. In case nobody presents such a situation, have a few hypothetical examples of situations where one might have difficulty on hand.

d. Do you think that you will use this technique in your lives? Why or why

not?

III. Preview of Next Session and Homework: Life Summary (30m)

a. “The goal of this exercise is to help you gain perspective on what is most important to you. Here is the assignment:

b. Describe the Life Summary exercise: “Imagine that one day, long after

you have passed away, one of your grandchildren asks about you and your life. How would you want to be remembered and described? Write a one page summary of your life as you would like to have it related to your grandchild. Be sure to include a description of your values and your personal characteristics, and to discuss how you would contribute to a positive human future.”


c. Don’t spend much time talking about this one; you don’t want to influence the content. However, take a few minutes to address any concerns participants might have about the exercise; people sometimes get depressed thinking about meaning without much guidance. Having participants describe their lives as they want them to turn out can be very productive and inspiring for participants, but one always runs the risk of someone becoming hopeless, thinking that their life can never be that way. Tread carefully.



I. Check-in (5m) II. Discussion of Life Summary (25m)

a. Ask a few volunteers to read their life summaries and answer questions about it:

i. “What would you say, in brief, is most important to you in life?

From what do you derive the greatest sense of meaning? Did you learn anything new about yourself as you were writing your summary?

ii. What was it like for you as you wrote the summary? What were

you thinking about? Feeling?

iii. Were there activities that you spend a lot of time on in your life that you did not include in your life summary? If so, why?”

1. Students often emphasize the importance of close

relationships in their life summaries, but do not make a conscious effort to cultivate and maintain those relationships in their everyday lives. You need not state this directly, but probe for this discrepancy and highlight it.

iv. “What did you learn about yourself from doing this? How will you

use what you have learned to help you as you move forward? What changes might you make in your life so that this life summary might one day be an accurate reflection of your life and personal priorities?”

b. Suggest that participants hold on to their letters and refer back to them

every once in a while. “These letters can be a helpful tool for gaining and maintaining perspective on your life.”

III. Preview of Next Session and Homework: Positive Service (60m)

a. “The goal of this exercise is to help you seek out meaning by applying your strengths in the service of something larger than yourself.”

b. Work with participants to compile a list of domains in which one might

participate in positive service. Examples might include politics, religion, family, science, and community.


c. As a group, generate ideas of how different strengths can be applied in each domain, focusing on the strengths possessed by members of the group. Although it’s better if you can get ideas from the group on how to apply each strength, be prepared with a few examples of your own – you should have a list of the group’s strengths to help you prepare in advance.

d. It is not necessary for everyone to know what activity they are going to do

by the end of the session. Just make sure that they are comfortable enough generating ideas that they will be able to complete the exercise on their own.

e. “Here are the specifics of your assignment for the week: choose two domains

that you would like to serve by exercising your strengths (examples: politics, religion, family, science, community). Write down your ideas for service for each domain. Be explicit and concrete about how each service would call on your strengths. Select one of your ideas and put it into action this week. The goal is to begin to carry out a new positive service, so do not choose an activity in which you already participate.”


Session 8 (Total Time: 90m) DISCUSS POSITIVE SERVICE

I. Check-in (5m) II. Discuss Positive Service (40m)

a. What activity did you choose? Was it for a cause with which you are already affiliated, or a new cause altogether? Make sure that a couple of people who worked with old causes and a couple of people who worked with new causes talk about the differences in their experiences.

b. What strength(s) did the activity make use of? c. What was your experience before, during, and after completing the

activity? d. Was the activity something you would like to continue? If not, what kind

of activity might you try that would work better for you? e. How can you make positive service a regular part of your life?

III. Maintenance (45m)

Each participant is asked to pick at least one exercise that they will continue to use in the future; if necessary, the group helps the participant modify the exercise to suit their needs and maximize the likelihood that they will make it a part of their everyday life.

a. To refresh participants’ memories, go through each of the exercises that

were assigned throughout the workshop and give a brief description. b. Ask each person in the group to say which of these exercises were most

useful for them. c. Which exercises do they feel like they could continue using in their

everyday lives? In what way could they make their chosen exercises into a habit?

d. Which exercises would be the hardest to use regularly? Elicit ideas for

ways to modify these exercises to make them more feasible.

i. Example: Gratitude letter could turn into a daily routine of making a conscious effort to thank people when they do something nice.


Alternatively, one could make it a habit to write mini gratitude letters to their loved ones once a year (birthdays or a particular holiday, for example) in which they summarize the good things that the person has done recently.

e. Ask each person to choose at least one exercise and decide how they will

continue to use it in their everyday lives. Ask if they have any hesitations about being able to use that exercise on a regular basis, and if so, work with them to customize the exercise in a way that ameliorates those hesitations. Below are some ideas for variations on the exercises that people might want to try. Throw them out there as opportunities arise and if you have any left that you have not yet mentioned at the end, describe them as well.

i. Strengths date (Engagement): Arrange a date in which both people

are able to use their highest strengths.

1. Example: A man with high appreciation of beauty and a woman with high social intelligence might throw a party together; the man can take care of decorations and preparing a lovely meal, the woman can take care of entertaining the guests.

ii. Savoring a Beautiful Day (Pleasure): Schedule a full or half-day

full of your favorite pleasures and make an effort to savor and enjoy them.

1. Examples: Spend a day at the spa, go hiking, have a quiet

day at home reading your favorite book.

iii. The Year’s Accomplishments (Meaning): Once a year (perhaps on New Years Eve), take the time to summarize what you have accomplished during that year. Are you satisfied with your accomplishments? What do you hope to accomplish in the next year?

iv. Gift of Time (Engagement): Regardless of their financial

circumstances, anyone has the power to give one of the greatest gifts of all: the gift of time. The aim is to give someone you care about the gift of time by doing something for them that requires a fair amount of time and whose creation calls on one of your signature strengths. This exercise is the opposite of giving a Hallmark card.

v. Positive Human Future (Meaning): Imagine an ideal human future

and describe it in a short (1pg) essay. How do you fit into this


positive future? In what way can you contribute to helping society become better?

II. “Pearls”

a. In closing, go around the room and ask each person to say, in brief, what they liked best about the intervention. What did they learn about themselves? How can they use what they have learned as they move forward?

group ppt manual parks & seligman acacia c. parks ... · version 2, 3/2/07 please do not...

Documents