Brief Positive Psychotherapy : Implication for Reducing Negative Thoughts in College Student’s Interpersonal Relationship

Didon Permadi^a* and Lifina Dewi Pohan^b

^aClinical Adult Magister-Profession, Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia; ^bClinical Psychology Department, Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia

*Corresponding Author:

Lifina Dewi Pohan

Clinical Psychology Department

Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia

Jl. Lkr. Kampus Raya, Depok, Jawa Barat

Indonesia, 16424

Tel.: +62 217270004

Email address:lifina.dewi@ui.ac.id

Brief Positive Psychotherapy : Implication for Reducing Negative Thoughts in College Student’s Interpersonal Relationship

Background. Academic performance often considers as a benchmark of student success in adjusting to college life. Nevertheless, students also face various problems in their life that will indirectly affect their academic performance. One of the problem that could be an obstacle in achieve optimum academic performance is interpersonal relationship. The inability of students to overcome the various demands and problems in their interaction with the environment will have an impact on their relationship with friends and people around them that will ultimately also impact on declining academic performance. Positive psychotherapy intervention used to help clients with problems that affected their life functioning, including interpersonal relationship. Nowadays positive psychotherapy is growing and widely used, because it focusing more on the positive things in human’s life and explore the individual’s strength, rather than focusing on existing problems. Also to encounter negative thoughts and replace it with positive ones. It will build positive emotions that will help participant through the problems encountered. Positive psychotherapy has been widely used to help people with negative emotional symptoms (depression, mental disorders) and problems in interpersonal relationships. This study conducted positive psychotherapy to treat 20 years old female college student with interpersonal problems and negative thoughts in her relationships with others. A brief positive psychotherapy conducted to interfere the negative thoughts in  interpersonal relationship. Client focused in negative perception to her problems in her past and present, also she feel overwhelmed with her negative emotions. She couldn’t find positive aspect related with her situation. With brief positive psychotherapy, evidence is presented through positive and negative aspects of experience rather than being opposite ends of a single dimension of negativity. Client presented with the importance of positive cognition in mental health.. This therapy allows client to directly apply in her daily life and the effects of the therapy can be monitored directly by the therapist.

Methods. Total of 6 sessions were conducted by applying several techniques in positive psychotherapy, including first session as a pre-session to gather information from participant and  build a good rapport; the second to fifth session is an intervention session which consist of : conducted to recall client’s positive experience, explore client’s signature strength, forgiveness technique and managing action plan based on client’s signature strength; the sixth session is termination session. Each session lasted around 90 to 120 minutes. The effectiveness of therapy was measured by compared the pre-post result of subjective well-being questionnaires, observed behavioral changes and information gathered from participant through interview technique.

Result. At the end of the intervention, the subjective well-being score of participants increases to 8 points, where the dimensions of self-acceptance and autonomy are the two dimensions that have the highest increase scores. After completing the intervention, Participant reported the change in regulate her negative emotions, she had better communication and relationship with her mother and her boyfriend. Participant also feels she can be more focused in her study and the relationship with her class mates is getting better. At the beginning of the session, participant looked so stressed and hardly to tell her experience and her problems, after each session, participant seemed more relieved and she had better communication in telling her experience and her problems.

Conclusion. This study suggested that brief positive psychotherapy could reduce participant’s negative thoughts, increase participant’s well-being and help participant gain optimal functioning in life.

Added-Values. This brief positive psychotherapy can enhance the positive aspects in people’s daily activity without therapy session in long periode of time. Process of this therapy could all become part of participant’s way of relating with significant others and facing academic problems.

Contribution to the society. As positive psychology techniques have more effect for unhappy person. It can be a usefull tool to reduce the gap between perspective and real situation. This therapy can be applied to help students who have difficulty in interpersonal relationships that affect academic performance.

Keywords: positive psychotherapy, well-being

Word count : 642 words