The three main principles or pillars of Positive Psychotherapy are:
The Principle of Hope
1. The Principle of Hope
implies that the therapist wants to help their patients to understand and see the meaning and purpose of their disorder or conflict. Therefore, the disorder will be reinterpreted in a "positive" way (positive interpretations):
Some examples:
Sleep disturbance is the ability to be alert and get by on little sleep
Depression is the ability to react with the deepest emotionality to conflicts
Schizophrenia is the ability to live in two worlds at the same time or to live in a fantasy world
Anorexia nervosa is the ability to cope with few meals and to identify with world hunger
Through this positive perspective, it becomes possible to change the perspective, not only for the patient, but also for his environment. Therefore, illnesses have a symbolic function, which must be recognized by both the therapist and the patient. The patient learns that the symptoms and complaints of illness are signals to bring his four qualities of life into a new balance.
2. Principle of Balance
Despite social and cultural differences and the uniqueness of each human being, it can be observed that when managing their problems all people refer to typical forms of coping. Thomas Kornbichler explains: "Nossrat Peseschkian formulated with the Balance Model of Positive Psychotherapy (an innovative contemporary approach to dynamic psychotherapy) a living model of coping with conflicts in different cultures."
According to the balance model, the four areas of life are:
body/health – psychosomatic
achievement/work – stress factors
contact/relationships – depression
future/purpose/meaning of life – fear and phobia
Although these four strands are natural to all people, in the Western hemisphere the emphasis is more often on the areas of body/senses and occupation/achievement in contrast to the Eastern hemisphere where the areas are contact, fantasy and the future (the cross-cultural aspect of positive psychotherapy) . Lack of contact and imagination are some of the causes of many psychosomatic diseases. Everyone develops his/her own preferences on how to deal with the conflicts that occur.
3. Principle of Consultation:
Five stages of therapy and self-help. The five stages of positive psychotherapy represent a concept in which therapy and self-help are closely related. The patient and the family are being informed together about the disease and its individual solution.
First step: Observation; distancing (perception: ability to express desire and problems)
Second step: Taking inventory (cognitive capacities: events in the last 5 to 10 years)
Step three: Encouraging the situation (self-help and activating the patient's resources: the ability to use past successes in conflict resolution)
Fourth step: Verbalization (communicative capacities: the ability to express conflicts and unresolved problems in the four qualities of life)
Step 5: Expanding goals (to evoke a forward-looking orientation in life after the problems are solved, the patient is asked: "What would you like to do when there are no more problems left to solve? What goals do you have?" have for the next five years?")
