This story appeared on PositivePsychology.com
When you consider the word “strength,” what comes to mind? Hold on to that for a moment.
For me, “strength” makes me think of words like “sturdy,” “solid,” and, conversely, “weak.”
I also think of my personal strengths. For example, a person can believe their strengths are patience, optimism, and persistence.
In this article, we will be reviewing strength-based approaches in positive psychology. The strength-based approach focuses on the positive attributes of a person or a group, rather than the negative. There are multiple ways the strength-based approach can be applied, including in leadership, counseling, community and social work, and pediatrics.
What Is the Strength-Based Approach?
With its foundation in social work, the strength-based approach is a “work practice theory” that focuses on an individual’s self-determination and strength (McCashen, 2005).
This type of approach builds on clients’ strengths, seeing them as resourceful and resilient when they are in adverse conditions (McCashen, 2005). It is also client led and centered on outcomes, getting people to affect change in themselves.
Change happens depending on how each person handles their own:
- Attitudes about their dignity
- Capacities
- Rights
- Quirks
- Similarities
The strength-based approach is centered around the idea that the client is the actor or agent of change. The approach is highly dependent on how the individual processes their thoughts and emotions. It allows for open communication, encouraging individuals to identify value and assemble their strengths and capacities.
The strength-based approach allows a person to see themselves at their best – the value they bring by just being themselves. They are encouraged to capitalize on their strengths rather than focus on negative characteristics.
The strength-based approach examines not only the individual, but also their environment; for example, how systems are set up or power imbalances between a system or service and the people it is supposed to serve.
In addition, the strength-based approach identifies constraints that might be holding back an individual’s growth. These constraints might be social, personal, and/or cultural issues (McCashen, 2016).
Rapp et al. (2008) suggested six standards for identifying a strengths-based approach (below). You can use this list when considering if the strength-based approach might be a good fit for your practice.
- Goal orientation: It is crucial and vital for the client to set goals.
- Strengths assessment: The client finds and assesses their strengths and inherent resources.
- Resources from the environment: Connect resources in the client’s environment that can be useful or enable them to create links to these resources. The resources could be individuals, associations, institutions, or groups.
- Different methods are used first for different situations: In solution-focused therapy, clients will determine goals first and then strengths. In strengths-based case management, individuals first determine their strengths using an assessment.
- The relationship is hope inducing: Hope is encouraged through finding strengths and linking to connections (with other people, communities, or culture).
- Meaningful choice: Each person is an expert on their own strengths, resources, and hopes. It is the practitioner’s duty to improve upon the choices the client makes and encourage informed decisions.
Principles of the Strength-Based Approach
The strength-based approach is grounded in nine guiding principles that emphasize the unique strengths and capabilities individuals possess. These principles emphasize focusing on strengths, the power of language, embracing change, supporting others authentically, and being collaborative and adaptive.
Examples of applying a strength-based approach include performance reviews in the corporate world, identifying strengths during crises, empowering clients to utilize their resources, and acknowledging and validating client strengths. In counseling, positive psychotherapy may incorporate a strength-based approach to help clients focus on their strengths, resilience, and capacity building.
Benefits of this approach include empowerment, improved resilience, client-driven interventions, and fostering healthier coping mechanisms. Hammond (2010) outlines various benefits of the strength-based approach, including improved resilience, enhanced function within family and community, and the promotion of a shared language and philosophy.
The strength-based approach can enhance mental health by focusing on recovery and positive psychology. In summary, the strength-based approach encourages individuals to focus on their strengths, build resilience, and foster growth through collaboration and empowerment.
A Look at Strength-Based Interventions
The practice of using the strengths-based approach is ever-evolving and has many configurations (Foot & Hopkins, 2010). For instance, practitioners may use a single method or a combination, depending on the individual client’s needs (Pattoni, 2012).
Some examples of the strength-based approach in practice are below.
Solution-focused therapy (SFT)
As its name suggests, SFT focuses on solutions rather than problems. SFT and solution-focused brief therapy have been used in a variety of settings, including family service, mental health, public social services, child welfare, prison, residential treatment centers, schools, and hospitals (Miller et al., 1996).
Strengths-based case management
Like all applications of the strength-based approach, strength-based case management focuses on the individual’s strengths. Importantly, it involves the following three principles:
- Utilization of informal support networks
- Solid community involvement by case managers
- A solid relationship between the client and case manager
Strengths-based case management has been utilized in a diversity of fields and populations, including substance abuse, mental health, school counseling, elderly care, children, and young families (Rapp et al., 2008).
The Clifton StrengthsFinder
Many of us have taken or administered personality tests to help gain insight into who we are. One such widely regarded test is the Clifton StrengthsFinder, which focuses specifically on strengths.
American psychotherapist Donald Clifton developed the Clifton StrengthsFinder after many years in social work, counseling psychology, positive psychology, solution-focused therapy, and narrative therapy (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001).
The StrengthsFinder assessment helps you or your client to:
- Discover what you naturally do best
- Learn how to develop your greatest talents
- Use your customized results to live your best life
Strengths are pre-existing ways in which we behave, think, and feel. They energize us, enhance our functioning, and help us show the world our free, authentic selves.
Importantly, strengths are already present within us. They may become hidden by the responsibility and pressures of our daily lives, but they are always there and it is our job as practitioners to help illuminate, expose and nurture our strengths as well as those of our clients, students, and employees.
Strengths are also key to positive psychology. Rather than focusing on what is wrong with individuals and fixing their problems, positive psychology aims to identify human strengths, helping individuals create a buffer against illness, psychopathology, and also cultivate positive wellbeing.
Learning to identify and maximize our strengths is truly powerful. Tasks that tap into our strengths help us cultivate energy and flow instead of exhaustion and struggle. They inspire intrinsic motivation, which enhances our functioning and performance, and they lead us on a journey towards uncovering what’s important and meaningful to us.