CCC Events

Snow Date:  Friday, February 19, 2010

What activities, attitudes, and behaviors make for a happy and fulfilling life? This is the research question that the uplifting and burgeoning field of positive psychology sets out to answer through evidence-based study of positive emotions, happiness, and character strengths and virtues. This workshop will introduce you to major research findings in the field and familiarize you with straightforward self-assessment tools you can use to gauge your own and clients’ level of happiness and strengths.

After an overview of the first three “pillars” of positive psychology (Positive Emotions; Positive Relationships; the Meaningful Life) participants will focus primarily on the fourth pillar, and the one with the most usefulness for career counseling and coaching: the Engaged Life.

Participants will learn to:

• Identify their own and clients’ “optimal experiences” or Flow states
• Use assessment of Character Strengths as a foundation for career decision-making or to “recraft” work
• Distinguish “wanting” vs. “liking” (and the neurobiological reasons why we often want what we don’t actually like)
• Use affective forecasting (i.e., the study of how accurate we are at predicting what will make us happy) to help clients avoid the dangers of “miswanting” (whether in the jobs we seek or the rewards we expect to make us happy but often don’t)
• Understand the impact of “growth” vs. “fixed” mindsets on how we learn and change and how we view success and failure
• Target the “positivity ratio” that underlies effective teamwork

Research will also be presented on the types of personal goals that enhance or detract from happiness, and the incentives of money and status vs. the “hedonic treadmill.” Positive psychology provides frameworks and tools that will enable you to help your clients not just to succeed in a career, but to flourish in a thoroughly and happily Engaged life.

Trainer: Mary H. Jacobsen has been a teacher, workshop leader, psychotherapist, and career coach for more than 20 years. She is the author of Hand-me-down Dreams: How Families Influence Our Career Paths, and has lectured nationally on the topic of how families influence career decision-making and values about work, success, and money. She has been studying positive psychology and integrating it into her work with clients for the last four years, including Well-being Therapy, a variation of cognitive/behavioral therapy that focuses on identifying and amplifying experiences of feeling good. She is a member of the International Positive Psychology Association, and has taught courses on Positive Psychology as an Adjunct Faculty member of the Division of Continuing Education at Lesley University, and for the Professional Education Programs of the Graduate School of Social Work at Boston University.

Registration:  Registration deadline is 3 weeks prior to the seminar date.

Registration fee through January 22nd:  $155 Members; $185 Non-Members

Registration fee after January 22nd:   $180 Members; $210 Non-Members

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Register Now For This Event!