Product Description
Positive psychology moves psychology from a medical model toward a strengths model to help clients shore up their strengths and thereby lead happier, more fulfilling lives. Positive Psychology Coaching: Putting the Science of Happiness to Work for Your Clients provides concrete language and interventions for integrating positive psychology techniques into any mental health practice.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 10 reviews)

Absolutely excellent!!

I read this book for an assignment for my coaching class, and was truly amazed at the material..An absolute must for everyone if you want to read a book on self-development, this would be the book. Although the last chapters are based more on coaching, the first half of the book is very empowering and provides you with techniques that everybody should learn.. I wish I had read this book many years ago... It is by far the best self-development book I have every read, and would recommend to help you with communication amongst your staff or individuals, the book will bring you to a different awareness in connecting and empowering with individuals.

An absolute must to read!!
November 11, 2008

A must read for anyone in the coaching profession

Positive Psychology as an exciting field on its own its own; and Robert & Ben have taken the field to a practical level. Anyone even without any previous knowledge of Positive Psychology will be able to understand and apply the principles described in the book.
February 18, 2008

Imperative for Coaches

I love this book! I am an experienced executive coach -- have worked with over 250 leaders in a 10+ year period as a certified coach, and this book adds an important and new dimension. There is language and perspective that will broaden and deepen your coaching with clients. I am not a psychologist, and the entire field of positive psychology is relatively new to me -- I've been learning about it for the past 18 months or so. I find this alignment between positive psychology and professional coaching to be very powerful. I recommend this book for all coaches!
January 08, 2008

Positive Psychology Coaching: Putting the Science of Happiness to Work for Your Clients

Typeface gives the `aged' look to give the impression of wisdom and for such a new science (about 10 years old) this contradicts what the author is trying to get over as a new dynamic science for wellbeing.

Spacing, I bought a hard copy which is 1½ spaced to give the impression it has more contents that it really does contain. I wish they had produced a paperback half the thickness and half the price.

Not sure where the author takes us. Nothing definite and certainly feel a protectionist attitude by not wanting to `give away' tests to the reader which contradicts the title `Putting the science of Happiness to work for your clients'?

I find the use of the word and meaning `intervention' a little hard to swallow and off-putting. Positive Psychology does not `remove' root causes' but averts to appreciation of strengths. I cannot imagine asking a client to think of happiness during a panic attack?

As a general book on coaching it does the job of providing ideas and suggestions and explains empirical validated tools, simply and effectively.

I would have liked to see such a book offer tons of tests free of charge if it was to live up to its title Putting the science of Happiness to work for your clients.

Mike Whitenburgh
Psychoanalyst.

October 04, 2007

Best resource for positive psychology and coaching

Until this book, there was not an accessible source to which the coaching psychologist with an interest in applying positive psychology in their coaching practice can readily turn. And what might coaching psychologists be looking for in a book that purports to do this? An understanding of the scientific backbone of positive psychology? Ready applications to coaching psychology practice? Top tips and recommendations for applying positive psychology in the coaching psychology engagement to leverage strengths, enhance well-being, and drive performance? Or all of the above?
The coaching psychology community is fortunate to count Robert Biswas-Diener and Ben Dean amongst its numbers. For not only have they created and delivered a book that ticks all of these boxes, they have done so in a way that makes it a joy to read and an education in itself. They are uniquely qualified to do so. Robert has literally traveled to the furthest corners of the globe in his quest to understand subjective well-being and character strengths across hugely diverse cultures, including Greenland (where he worked with traditional hunters), Calcutta (where he worked with prostitutes), Israel (where he studied empathy in the West Bank), Kenya (where he worked with Maasai tribal people), and the American heartland (where he worked with the Amish). Ben developed and delivered the hugely successful Authentic Happiness Coaching program with positive psychology founder Martin E. P. Seligman, as well as running his own coach training organisation, MentorCoach, for over a decade. Their combined experience, expertise, and insight are apparent throughout the book.
Positive Psychology Coaching begins by taking a look at the coaching paradox (coaching has not yet reached its own full potential, despite helping others to achieve theirs) and the positive psychology solution (positive psychology can provide more of the theoretical, empirical, and conceptual maps that it is argued coaching needs to achieve its potential). It then explores happiness, positioning it as the goal that we rarely talk about but the pursuit of which we all engage in. The next two sections examine the two major foundations of positive psychology coaching: happiness and character strengths. Chapters three and four examine the core factors that influence happiness, as well as what we can do to cultivate them more, before considering specific tried-and-tested happiness interventions that readily lend themselves to the coaching psychology engagement. Chapters five, six and seven examine the application and use of strengths within coaching, dividing the focus between social strengths (fairness, social intelligence) and personal strengths (curiosity, optimism, creativity). The closing two chapters dive down into focusing on how coaches can help clients craft a perfect job before taking a bird's eye view of what the future of positive psychology coaching might hold.
Throughout, the book is replete with gems and insights that any coaching psychologist could use on any day of the week in any coaching psychology assignment. One of my favourites is reframing the family / work / exercise trade-off (i.e., I find it difficult to exercise because it takes time out of being with family or being at work) to a family / work / health trade-off (i.e., exercise enhances health, and health means we are better with our families and at work), making them complementary rather than competitive. On a personal level, that one really worked for me!
Positive Psychology Coaching is also seeded with the experiences and perspectives of positive psychology authorities from around the world, with the authors selecting key quotes from interviews conducted with these people to enhance the reader's understanding of what positive psychology coaching is all about and why it works. And periodically throughout, we are offered boxed review points for easy reference, and top tips for applications in our coaching work. This makes the book a valuable quick reference resource while preparing for a coaching session, as much as a volume to be read through. The appendix sets out a variety of ideas and offerings that can be tailored to individual coaching psychologists' needs and preferences for designing and delivering positive psychology coaching sessions, including strengths-based conversations, appreciative questioning, and the use of positive psychology assessments.
While ten positive psychologists would likely provide ten different answers as to what should be included in a consideration of positive psychology and coaching psychology, it would be churlish to criticise the book on these grounds. It doesn't include a section on flow, but it does address time orientation. It doesn't examine wisdom, but it does explore savouring. What is most important though, is how Biswas-Diener and Dean weave such a smooth narrative from the first page to the last. When starting reading, one is left feeling as if you are joining Robert on one of his famous journeys, and by the conclusion we not only arrive where we set out to be, but we have seen some fantastic things - and learned some important lessons - along the way. Positive Psychology Coaching is simply the best resource for coaching psychologists who want to introduce more of the positive into their practice. This review was published in the International Coaching Psychology Review (March 2007).

September 11, 2007

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