A further response to Steffen, Vossler and Joseph, and van Deurzen – From shared roots to fruitful collaboration: How counselling psychology can benefit from reconnecting with positive psychology

Abstract

IT WAS WITH GREAT DELIGHT that I read the recently published dialogue between positive psychology and existential-phenomenological psychotherapy (Steffen, Vossler & Joseph, 2015; van Deurzen, 2015). The significance of the two approaches represented in these articles should not be underestimated. If recent publications are anything to go by, both positive psychology and existential psychotherapy continue to grow in scope and influence here in the UK, and beyond. Admittedly positive psychology tends to get the lion’s share of the press coverage (e.g. McQuaid, 2015), but the value of existential psychotherapy is nevertheless increasingly recognised by those who care to pay attention(Smith, 2015).