'Learning is the discovery that something is possible.'
Fritz Perls
'The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by
skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need
men who can dream of things that never were'
John Keats
Dr Martin Seligman is a Professor of Psychology at the
University of Pennsylvania. He is famous for his work in the field of Positive
Psychology. This school of psychological thought doesn't seek to replace
mainstream psychology but complement it through the study of what gives life
meaning and what makes it worth living. It asks how we can extend and amplify
the good that is already working in our lives and shining the light on our
creative assets and seeking their growth and unfolding.
One of the authors at the beginning of his academic
career attended a presentation where Dr Seligman outlined his early ideas about
the need for Positive Psychology. Dr Seligman received a series of challenging
questions around 'why bother with all this positive stuff?', Dr Seligman replied
that he had to because he was a born pessimist. He said he needed a practice
that helped him see through problems to positive options and be more optimistic
about outcomes. His natural temperament would lead him to be locked in the
problem. He needed a key to unlock this process and move to another place to
address the issue. This echoes well the comments of Einstein and Jung that we
often cannot solve problems on the same level of consciousness that generated
them. We need new spaces and thinking to break the code of the problem.
This positive, more optimistic approach echoes much of
what we see crossing our services and on forums like Twitter. People and
networks are sharing fresh, kind and affirming ways of being and doing as the
future framework for change. These new movements offer such promise, potency
and energy. Yet it is not always an easy walk although a much needed one,
especially if we are talking about the deep, sustainable change that so many of
us see as possible and work so hard to achieve. All too often we have
experienced changes in services that only touch surface structures, policies
and procedures rather than going to the heart of the issues. And sometimes
people propose a ‘be positive approach’ as part of these initiatives, failing
to really appreciate the complexity of issues, acknowledge the scale of the
challenges or engage the difficulties that the people involved deal with on a
day to day basis when they see the potential of what could be possible in the
face of a reality that seems intractable.
The kind of positivity Seligman is promoting has nothing
to do with creating false positive-ness that can only ever skim along the
surface of change. Rather, a Positive Psychology approach invites us to name
the problems and the pains and see how we can learn from them to work them
through in constructive and compassionate ways. Positive Psychology offers much
for us to learn. It is not just about being positive, its about engaging with
the complexity of a challenge and bringing positive approaches to working with
it. Authentic listening, mutual support, empathy, knowing we don't have all the
answers, a commitment to deep and open dialogue and the creation of new ways to
think and do health and care is the DNA of these new movements. At it’s heart
is the belief that all of us have tremendous goodness, gifts and potential. We
believe that is from the activation of these wellsprings that the solutions and
new forms of service will emerge.
- John Walsh. York Street Health Practice, Leeds Community Healthcare
NHS Trust
- Dr Andrew McDowell
http://www.theperformancecoach.com
(The authors of this met recently at an initiative of the
NHS Health Trusts and Public Health in Leeds. They have brought Health Coaching
into the city so we can look at and change the quality of our health
conversations with patients. The old model is where the patient is the passive
recipient and the clinician the expert. This is a move to a new terrain where
both are experts and co-create health plans and solutions together. At the
heart of this approach lies a view of people as not problems but as people with
assets, gifts and potency. This more humanistic and positive model offers great
promise to people and the city.)
