Psychotherapy for character strength development

Pages:119-123
Dolly Jose and Padmakumari. P. (Department of Psychology, Christ University, Bangalore, Karnataka)

Psychotherapy is a clinical tool which deals with problems while character strength development therapy is a pedagogical tool which deals with the mystery of the person. The goal of character strength development therapy is to help the person to internalise the 24 character strengths defined by Seligman and Peterson (2004). The techniques used in character strength development therapy are attentive listening, clarification, confrontation, interpretation and working through. In character strength development therapy the process includes that recreate a situation whereby the person can reread the life experiences, reinterpret it and ‘working through’ the new insights. In the initial phase, an assessment, which helps both client and therapist to prepare a frame work for character strength development therapy, has to be done. The goal of middle phase is to provide deep insight and understanding on their strength use, help them to realise the unrealised strengths and maximise it, and thus moderate the use of learned inappropriate behaviours as well as learn to handle cautiously the weaknesses. The present paper provides a conceptual frame work for character strength development therapy.