Positive psychology aims to expand what is working in a person’s life rather than “fixing” what is “broken”. Its underpinning notions are compatible with Aboriginal cultural ideals for use in therapy.
Related articles: Therapies for First Nations Australians: Post-modern; Therapies for First Nations Australians: Expressive, Somatic, and Trauma-sensitive; Therapies for First Nations Australians: Rogerian/Person-centred.
Jump to Section
Introduction
Following on from interview research to examine how mainstream clinicians could better serve Aboriginal clients in counselling, we suggested which types of therapies may be more effective with Aboriginal populations and which employ concepts or assumptions that are incompatible with Aboriginal customs, beliefs, cultural mores, or ways of being (See the Mental Health Academy course, Sitting with Aboriginal clients: Appropriate Modalities). In our previous articles in this series, we have drawn from that research to examine broad groups of therapies: post-modern therapies (narrative and solution-focused); expressive therapies, somatic experiencing, and trauma-sensitive therapy; and Rogerian/client-centred approaches. In this article, we review a modality which has seen a meteoric rise in popularity – among therapists, lay people and clients – in the several decades since it was first proposed as a therapy: that of positive psychology.
Positive psychology: Optimal human functioning
It is described as “a branch of psychology that complements the traditional focus on pathology with the study of human strengths and virtues and the factors that contribute to a full and meaningful life” (Lino, 2017). Martin Seligman describes positive psychology as “The scientific study of optimal human functioning that aims to discover and promote the factors that allow individuals and communities to thrive” (Lino, 2017). Its aim is “to catalyse a change in psychology from preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building the best qualities” (Seligman, as quoted in Langley & Francis, 2016; see also the Mental Health Academy course: Positive Psychology: The Basics).
Why positive psychology may be helpful for Aboriginal clients
The Mental Health Academy course Counselling from an Indigenous Worldview (Bond, 2010) explores the vast differences in world view between Aboriginal and western cultures, combined with being subject to a dominating (mainstream Australian) culture, which have given rise to a tendency to think of Aboriginal individuals and their cultures as somehow deficit. Individual, organisational, and government initiatives through the years have attempted to “fix” the deficit, with gaps between the two cultural groups continuing. Surely another approach is needed.
Positive psychology takes a different tack. Instead of asking, “How can we fix what’s wrong with this person?” this modality wants to know, “What makes people succeed?” and “How can we create environments that allow people to perform at their best?” Accordingly, it gives pride of place to the characteristics of abundance, a focus on virtues and strengths, embracing positive deviance, and flourishing rather than languishing (Langley & Francis, 2016). Let’s consider each of those briefly in the context of work with Aboriginal clients.
Abundance
Viewing people as competent, creative, and resourceful, positive psychology looks through an abundance lens to help people, organisations, and communities thrive and excel. Positive outcomes and performance can be facilitated, it says, as people access their inner resources and create the outcomes to which they aspire, rather than seeing themselves as victims (Langley & Francis, 2016). In itself, this aspect is helpful. Where positive psychologists may need to be careful is in having possible expectations that Aboriginal clients will aspire to outcomes that a western professional would be able to recognise as inherently valuable. Moving away from a stance of victimhood is surely empowering, but if the client does not replace that with an aspiration that the therapist can support, there may be tension in the session, with the therapeutic alliance being potentially jeopardised.
Focus on strengths and virtues
This assumption says that everyone has strengths and deserves to be respected for them. At the heart of positive psychology is the idea that effort is better directed to strengthen what is working well than to try to “fix” what is “broken”. Concentrating on talents, positive characteristics, and special abilities allows people to deal with growing edges, or weaknesses. The corollary idea is that positive psychology itself is an ethical approach in suggesting that human beings and their systems possess a latent desire and capacity to improve themselves, and that this should be activated (Langley & Francis, 2016). Again, as with other therapies, we reiterate that, yes, it’s highly probable that Aboriginal clients desire to “improve” themselves, but the therapist is warned against inadvertently defining “improvement” through a western cultural lens.
Embracing positive deviance
When positive psychologists talk about adopting a stance of positive deviance, they are acknowledging an evolutionary bias toward the negative: negative emotions, interpretations, and thoughts are often stronger and more numerous than positive ones. Human beings tend to respond more intensely – and automatically – to negative events. While that can be self-protective, it means that we are kept from devoting time, energy, and other resources to those projects and concerns which would move us toward greater wellbeing and success. Positive psychology proposes that we amplify our positive emotions, thus re-setting the bias from negative to positive. When we act from positive deviance, we go against the grain, thinking “outside the box” and suddenly gaining access to solutions that aren’t apparent with a deficit focus (Langley & Francis, 2016).
This is an admirable stance of positive psychology! We can comprehend, however, that a client coming from an oppressed, “one down” stance such as many do when they have been colonised would need to have positive deviance in their sights more as a long-term than immediate goal. Being self-protective (i.e., “negative”) has been a sensible survival option for many Aboriginal individuals and communities. The healing of old wounds must be tended to (perhaps as much on political and socioeconomic levels as psychological ones) so that it becomes increasingly easy for the client to genuinely amplify the positive. As that process unfolds, positive psychology may be a more workable therapy for many Aboriginal clients if they are able to work with a respected Indigenous therapist: a person who would not be seen as guilty of trivialising or “happy-ising” the past that has caused so much angst for this client base.
Flourishing and languishing
While hot and cold, night and day, and dark and light are all opposites, in the paradigm of positive psychology mental illness and mental health are not. Rather, mental health and mental illness lie on different continua. Thus, the absence of mental illness does not mean the presence of mental health, and treating the former does not ensure the latter (Keyes, 2005, in Langley & Francis, 2016). A person can be lacking any identifiable mental illness, yet be languishing if she has poor social networks, is chronically distressed, and/or is leading a very unfulfilling life. We remind the reader of Aboriginal peoples’ close relationship to their lands and nature; we especially point out here the remarks by both Bond (2010) in her course and also an informant in our interview research, who noted that, while an Aboriginal person might not be particularly “sick”, they nevertheless could not flourish if they were too long “off country”: that is away from their traditional homelands. We see again the imperative for cross-cultural work to avoid judging anything – in this case, what ought to engender either “flourishing” or “languishing” – from our own cultural perspective rather than that of the client.
P.E.R.M.A.-nent happiness
Positive psychologists now cite Martin Seligman’s five aspects for a happy life: Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Achievement/accomplishment (Pursuit of Happiness, 2024). With many and wide-ranging kinship relationships, Aboriginal cultures instinctively understand the importance of strong, positive relationships. In many traditional cultures, relationship is consummately important, because to be kicked out of the tribe was to face certain death on one’s own. To work with an Aboriginal person on relationships is to be working in a way that speaks to core cultural values. When Aboriginal clients can positively engage in therapy, they are likely to reap the benefits of a more solid therapeutic alliance. This, then, may help open doors for clients to find a sense of meaning and to be able to define what “achievement” would look like should they go for it.
Summary, with a caveat
In short, it is difficult to see any aspects of positive psychology which are inherently incongruent with Aboriginal cultures in general. This modality is potentially a satisfying – even healing – way for majority-culture counsellors to work with Aboriginal clients, if allowance is made in a judgment-free manner for the effects of trauma and other wounding from colonisation and oppression. Similarly, those things that engender engagement and give meaning and a sense of purpose to westerners may not be aspirational for Aboriginal peoples; their movement toward different achievements than what westerners would seek to accomplish must be respected for the cultural difference that it is.
Key takeaways
- The scientific study of optimal human functioning, or positive psychology, has much to offer Aboriginal clients, with few caveats.
- Aspects such as the focus on abundance and positive strengths and virtues, positive deviance, and flourishing and languishing, can all contribute to Aboriginal client wellbeing and growth.
- The P.E.R.M.A. framework of Martin Seligman can also frame Aboriginal client work, but this and all conceptual/theoretical aspects of positive psychology must be complemented by a genuine therapist capacity to consider aspects such as relationship, meaning, and achievement through an Aboriginal cultural lens rather than a western (mainstream) one.
Note to readers: The Mental Health Academy course, Sitting with Aboriginal Clients: Appropriate Modalities, from which we have sourced much of the material for this series of articles, also delves into the broad therapy groups of psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural therapies. We have chosen not to highlight these latter two groups in this series of articles. The reason for that is that, although they do offer positive aspects to potential Aboriginal clients, there are also many aspects of the therapies that are incongruent with Aboriginal cultural values and ideals, or which impose too heavy a burden of “translation” to mainstream ways of thinking and being to ensure their validity in clinical work with Aboriginal clients. We refer the interested reader to that course for a fuller discussion of the issues.
References
From Mental Health Academy courses
- Counselling from an Indigenous Worldview
- Positive Psychology: The Basics
- Sitting with Aboriginal Clients: Context and Strategies
- Sitting with Aboriginal Clients: Appropriate Modalities
Other references
- Bond, H. (2010). Counselling from an Indigenous Worldview. Mental Health Academy.
- Langley, S., & Francis, S. (2016). White paper: The science and practice of positive psychology: Promoting human happiness, performance, and wellbeing. Australia: Langley Group. Retrieved on 28 October, 2017, from: http://info.langleygroup.com.au/white-paper-the-science-and-practice-of-positive-psychology
- Lino, C. (2017). Positive psychology theory in a nutshell. Positive Psychology Program. Retrieved on 28 October, 2017, from: https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/positive-psychology-theory
- Pursuit of Happiness. (2024). Martin Seligman. Author. Retrieved on 24 October, 2017, from: http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happingess/martin-seligman-psychology/