色花堂app

As a psychotherapy researcher, for the past 25 years, Joshua Swift, Ph.D., Professor of Clinical Psychology and Department Chair at 色花堂app, has been investigating the methods that professionals can use to help people work through mental health concerns. 

“From this research and the research of many others throughout the years, we know that psychotherapy works - and it works very well for most individuals,” Swift says. “However, we also know that mental health concerns are on the rise and that most people with mental health concerns never seek out any sort of professional help. So although I am still very active in doing my research on psychotherapy, I wanted to broaden out a bit and help those people who may never seek out treatment.“

This led Swift to the field of positive psychology, which focuses on positive emotions and experiences (such as happiness and joy) and the activities that we can engage in to improve those experiences in our lives. Swift says that many books on self-care and happiness already exist, but most of those resources focus on a single strategy (such as increasing social support) and they do not incorporate all of the knowledge that we have gained through the field of clinical psychology about other scientific-proven methods for improving well-being. 

This is part of the inspiration for Swift authoring his new book, . In writing the book, Swift took a holistic approach, describing several different strategies in the areas of taking care of our physical, mental, behavioral, and social selves. “The idea isn’t that each of these strategies will work perfectly for everyone,” he says. “Rather, it is to teach people about the many different strategies that are out there and then let them figure out which ones are right for them.“

Swift says that bridging the fields of positive psychology and clinical psychology “give us the best approach for learning how to be happy.” For example, Swift says that from positive psychology we learn that thinking positively leads to happiness and clinical psychology teaches us techniques for working with our thoughts so we can ‘think positively’ more often. “In this book I cover strategies from both disciplines in order to provide a more detailed step-by-step guide for how people can live happy lives.”

Swift's book also delves into surprising insights, such as how the pursuit of material wealth and leisure often doesn't lead to happiness.

“Although we have more prosperity in our world than any time in the past, on average, as a people we are becoming less and less happy,” Swift says. “That is because prosperity and the things we spend our time on as a result of it, don’t actually lead to happiness.” 

He highlights that scientific research shows how even seemingly relaxing activities like TV watching and scrolling through social media can actually drain our happiness, whereas people often find greater joy when they’re actively engaged in activities—even those considered to be work or effortful tasks. 

“The formula for happiness is not super complicated,” he says. “The tricky part is just recognizing that the things that bring happiness are not always what we initially expect.” 

Looking ahead, Swift has plans to extend the concepts in Becoming Happy through targeted resources for specific groups, such as teachers, graduate students, and teenagers, each of whom may benefit from tailored strategies. His psychotherapy research lab is also expanding to conduct studies that identify the most effective self-care methods for improving happiness.

Swift emphasizes that readers will gain the most from the book if they approach it one chapter at a time. “If they take it one chapter at a time and identify some goals that they would like to work on, then practice those goals and make changes in their lives, they will likely see changes in their lives that will have a longer-lasting impact on their happiness,” Swift says.