Meaning Centered Positive Group Intervention
This chapter describes the Meaningful Living Group as a community-based meaning-centered positive group intervention. This group work is informed by existential positive psychology (EPP; Wong, 2010) and Positive Psychology 2.0 (PP2.0; Wong, 2011). More sp
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Introduction Meaning-centered positive group work has much to recommend itself for three reasons: (1) It is an effective way to give positive psychology (PP) away (Wong, 2012a); (2) it is economic and can help many people at the same time; and (3) it is relevant to all people because of its focus on universal existential concerns (Lukas, 1986/2014; Yalom, 1995). According to Corey (2009), existential groups have the potential of helping participants be more honest with themselves, more openminded in their perspectives, and more aware of what makes life meaningful. Such objectives can be beneficial to ordinary people. Logotherapy or meaning therapy, as a distinct school of existential therapy, is most relevant to PP and psychotherapy because it is unique in its optimistic outlook and emphasis on personal growth and spirituality (Frankl, 1986; Wong, 2010a, 2014a).
Leontiev’s Life Enhancement Group Work Leontiev’s (2015) group work represents a shift from the analysis of what is wrong to existential principles of how to grow psychologically; in other words, it is a move from therapy to coaching. It takes three full days to complete the group work. The focus is on understanding general existential principles and applying them to help participants think about their own long-term problems in a more adaptive way.
P.T.P. Wong, Ph.D., C.Psych (*) Meaning-Centered Counselling Institute, Inc., 13 Ballyconnor Court, Toronto, ON, Canada M2M 4C5 e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 P. Russo-Netzer et al. (eds.), Clinical Perspectives on Meaning, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41397-6_21
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The axiom of the group work is that everyone has needs and strives toward fulfilling them. The assumptions are that they will be able to cope with their longterm problems, both solvable and unsolvable ones, once they achieve a deeper understanding of the world and their role in it.
Lukas’ Dereflection Groups In contrast to Leontiev, who begins with participants sharing their long-term problems, Lukas (2014) discourages participants from talking about their problems. She calls her group work “dereflection groups,” as her main focus is to redirect the members’ orientation away from their problems to positive and meaningful activities. The assumption is that such a reorientation is needed in order to achieve selftranscendence. Thus, her group work is positively oriented and meaning-enhancing in terms of both objective and methodology. Consistent with Frankl’s (1986) logotherapy, Lukas (2014) argues that selftranscendence is the best possible positive intervention because it offers the following to her clients: (1) It broadens their values; (2) it opens the door for them to discover something worthy of self-transcendence; (3) it protects them from egocentricity; and (4) it enables them to find meaning directly and happiness indirectly, through their pursuit of self-transcendence. At the core of Lukas’ meaning-centered group intervention is giving her clients “a picture of a human being that
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