Positive psychotherapy (PPT) is a therapeutic endeavor within positive psychology to broaden the scope of traditional psychotherapy. Its central premise is to assess and enhance positive resources of clients, such as positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishments, in treating symptoms. Amplifying these positive resources may serve clients best not when life is easy, but when life is difficult, because…

by Tayyab Rashid I am a clinical psychologist. In psychotherapy sessions, my clients unpack words—spoken or expressed saliently; our expressions—benign or belligerent, and actions—committed or omitted. Through these words, emotions and intentions, they share with me how they feel about the world and how the world thinks about them. I work from a strengths-based therapeutic perspective. Without minimizing the distress,…