Goal-Focused Positive Psychotherapy (GFPP)
Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy (GFPP)
Michael J. Scheel, PhD, ABPP
Professor of Counseling Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
In 2015, Professor Collie Conoley and I decided to create a psychotherapy model which incorporated the science, techniques, and theories of positive psychology into a comprehensive strength-oriented approach. The popularity of positive psychology had grown tremendously since Seligman’s proclamation in 1998 that psychology is misguided in its emphasis on pathology and instead should be concerned with helping people grow and flourish through the enhancement of wellbeing. Collie and I had joined forces during my doctoral program when he was my mentor, because of our strength-based orientation to psychotherapy. During that period, Gelso and Woodhouse also called for counseling psychology to make good on its unfulfilled promise as a specialization anchored by a strengths-oriented professional identity (Gelso & Woodhouse, 2003).
Consequently, Collie and I devised Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy (GFPP) and wrote a book about it (Conoley & Scheel, 2018). We saw several advantages to GFPP : (a) establishing interventions to prevent problems; (b) motivating clients; (c) providing the fastest route to a goal through client strengths; (d) orienting to client abilities rather than disabilities; (e) offering a positive self-definition not based on pathology; (f) providing a balance with deficits; (g) fostering collaboration and acceptance; and (h) promoting flourishing.
We established the overall meta-goal of happiness and a better life. We felt we were providing an approach based on optimizing human functioning while lessening psychological distress. We also based our conceptualization of human change on the psychological metaphor as opposed to psychology’s historic attachment to the physical science metaphor involving treatment tied to the problem. GFPP holds that people flourish through (a) engagement in meaningful activity; (b) supportive caring relationships; (c) belief in their own competence; (d) focus on approach goals; and (e) experiencing positive emotions often. GFPP prioritizes helping clients increase their wellbeing over problem alleviation. We adopted Frederickson’s (2001) Broaden and Build theory (B&B) as GFPP’s central theory of change. B&B posits that experiencing positive emotions causes broadening toward greater individual creativity and effectiveness. With time, clients who repeatedly experience positive emotions build resources (i.e., wellbeing) such as knowledge and resilience to maintain therapeutic gains.
Seeking scientific support of GFPP, we conducted a three-year outcome study through the University of California, Santa Barbara Carol Ackerman Positive Psychology Clinic (CAPPC) and the University of Nebraska Counseling and School Psychology Clinic (CSPC) to compare GFPP with more problem-focused approaches (i.e., CBT and psychodynamic). Our efforts resulted in an evaluation comparing GFPP to Treatment as Usual (TAU). Findings indicated that TAU and GFPP were both successful and not significantly different in increasing client wellbeing and reducing client symptoms. Happily, we additionally found that GFPP was superior to TAU in developing the therapeutic alliance. We attributed this finding to the nature of GFPP as described through its four hallmarks of: (a) producing positive emotions, (b) promoting hope, (c) forming approach goals, and (d) using client strengths as intrinsically motivating to clients.
We also conducted numerous case studies which served to demonstrate how GFPP is effectively applied. The case studies were conducted by students trained in GFPP at the CAPPC and my home clinic at the University of Nebraska. These clinicians applied a myriad of positive psychology techniques (i.e., capitalization, positive empathy, approach goals, self-compassion, mindfulness meditation, success-finding, Count Your Blessings, Best Possible Self, exception finding, the miracle question and scaling techniques). In GFPP training, our students were asked to develop positive, strength-oriented mindsets in which the clinician is continuously looking for and capitalizing on client strengths.
We are excited to tell our story of the development of GFPP. Back in the early nineties, Frank and Frank in Persuasion and Healing introduced the contextual model of therapy. They remind us that psychotherapy should be about the remoralization (i.e., establishing hope) of clients. Collie and I believe we developed an approach that firmly keeps remoralization primary in psychotherapy.
Michael J. Scheel, PhD, ABPP, is professor of Counseling Psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is board certified in Counseling Psychology; an APA Fellow of the Society of Counseling Psychology (SCP); the past VP for Education and Training of SCP, and a past president of CCPTP. He was the 2014 recipient of the Shane Lopez Distinguished Contributions to Positive Psychology Award and the 2016 Outstanding Training Director Award through the Supervision section of SCP. His primary research interest is strength-oriented psychotherapy. He teaches courses covering the science of positive psychology and well-being. He mentors his graduate students to conduct therapy using a strengths perspective. He is the co-author with Collie W. Conoley of the 2018 book, Goal Focused Positive Psychotherapy: A Comprehensive Strength Oriented Therapy.
