Positive Psychology in the Clinical Domains

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. Positive Constructs and Their Role in Clinical Domains

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Positive Psychology and Clinical Psychology: Common Philosophical Backgrounds, Early Contributors, and Possible Integrations

      • Chiara Ruini

      Pages 3-29

   3. Positive Human Health, Positive Mental Health, Resilience and Their Psychosomatic Underpinnings

      • Chiara Ruini

      Pages 31-62

   4. Positive Personality Traits and Positive Human Functioning

      • Chiara Ruini

      Pages 63-78

3. The Promotion of Positivity in Clinical Practice

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 79-79

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   2. Positive Interventions and Their Effectiveness with Clinical Populations

      • Chiara Ruini

      Pages 81-108

   3. Hope, Optimism, Goals and Passion: Their Clinical Implications

      • Chiara Ruini

      Pages 109-127

   4. Life Adversities, Traumatic Events and Positive Reactions

      • Chiara Ruini

      Pages 129-153

   5. Love, Empathy and Altruism, and Their Clinical Implications

      • Chiara Ruini

      Pages 155-177

   6. Gratitude, Spirituality and Meaning: Their Clinical Implications

      • Chiara Ruini

      Pages 179-203

4. Back Matter

   Pages 205-206

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This book builds the bridge between the fields of clinical and positive psychology research and practice. It presents a variety of interventions aimed at promoting positivity in clinical populations. Although clinical psychology has addressed issues such as happiness, resilience and optimal functioning, the field has stuck to the medical model and paid more attention to distress and negativity in human existence. Positive psychology, on the other hand, has been considered a “psychology for all” and has devoted attention and resources to the investigation of positivity in general populations, Only recently, the relationships between positivity, distress and psychopathology have been investigated. This book integrates research and practice from both fields. Its first part provides a theoretical framework for describing concepts such as hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing, resilience, character’s strengths, positive health and positive functioning, with a special reference to their clinicalimplications and their psychosomatic underpinnings. The second part provides a review of positive interventions in clinical practice and psychotherapeutic settings. These interventions are derived from positive psychology as well as from longstanding traditions in clinical psychology and psychiatry, and from eastern clinical and philosophical approaches.  

• Altruism Born out of Suffering
• Building a Bridge betweem Positive and Clinical Psychology
• Directions for Positive Interventions
• Flourishing and Positive Mental Health
• Forgiveness and Wisdom
• Happiness and Optimal Functioning
• Hardiness and Toughness
• Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being
• Naikan Therapy
• Positive Human Health
• Promoting Positivity in Clinical Practice
• Psychotherapists' Well-Being
• Relationships between Well-Being and Distress
• Resilience and Adaption to Stress
• Review of Positive Interventions
• Well-Being in Couples and Families

“Distilling her nearly two decades long clinical expertise and scholarship in this volume, Ruini starts by making a persuasive case for the application of positive psychology in clinical domains. … Chiara Ruini’s Positive Psychology in the Clinical Domains is an important and timely contribution to an emerging field of positive clinical psychology—a label necessary to build scholarship and practice guidelines until traditional clinical psychology attends to positives as seriously as it does to symptoms.” (Tayyab Rashid, PsycCRITIQUES,Vol. 62 (51), December, 2017)

“This book links clinical and positive psychology, combining the medical model with positivity, and describes theoretical issues along with clinical applications. … The intended audience is clinical psychologists, positive psychologists and researchers, and mental health practitioners. … This book is well written and explores both theory and practice surrounding positive psychology. It can be used in a variety of settings with different patient populations, and will be of great help to both novice and seasoned clinicians.” (Gary B. Kaniuk, Doody's Book Reviews, September, 2017)

• Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

  Chiara Ruini

Chiara Ruini, PhD. is Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Bologna, Department of Psychology. Since 2006 she has been teaching the course “Clinical Applications of Positive Psychology” for students attending the Master Program in Clinical Psychology. The course is taught in English and is attracting an increasing number of European and International students, suggesting a growing interest for the application of positive psychology issues to the clinical domains. Chiara Ruini has authored more than 60 articles published in peer-reviewed international journals, has edited a book entitled “Increasing Psychological well-being across cultures” for the Springer series Positive Psychology across Cultures and serves the Editorial Boards for international Journals such as Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, the Psychology of Well-being, Theories Research and Practice, The Journal of Happiness and wellbeing. Her research interests are concerned with Positive Psychology, Clinical Psychology , Positive Youth Development, and Psychotherapy.

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