Positive Psychology in the Clinical Domains

Chiara Ruini, PhD. is Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Bologna, Department of Psychology. Since 2006 she has been teaching the course “Clinical Applications of Positive Psychology” for students attending the Master Program in Clinical Psychology. The course is taught in English and is attracting an increasing number of European and International students, suggesting a growing interest for the application of positive psychology issues to the clinical domains. Chiara Ruini has authored more than 60 articles published in peer-reviewed international journals, has edited a book entitled “Increasing Psychological well-being across cultures” for the Springer series Positive Psychology across Cultures and serves the Editorial Boards for international Journals such as Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, the Psychology of Well-being, Theories Research and Practice, The Journal of Happiness and wellbeing. Her research interests are concerned with Positive Psychology, Clinical Psychology , Positive Youth Development, and Psychotherapy.

• Part I. Positive Constructs and Their Role in Clinical Domains.- Chapter 1. Positive Psychology and Clinical Psychology: Common Philosophical Backgrounds, Early Contributors, and Future Integrations.- Chapter 2. Positive Human Health, Resilience and Their Psychosomatic Underpinnings.- Chapter 3. Positive Personality Traits and Positive Human Functioning.- Part II. The Promotion of Positivity in Clinical Practice.- Chapter 4. Positive Interventions and Their Effectiveness with Clinical Populations.- Chapter 5. Hope, Optimism, Goals and Passion.- Chapter 6. Life Adversities, Traumatic Events and Positive Reactions.- Chapter 7. Love, Empathy and Altruism and their Clinical Implications.- Chapter 8. Gratitude, Spirituality and Meaning: Their Clinical Implications.- Concluding Remarks, Future Perspectives and Author's Comments.

“Distilling her nearly two decades long clinical expertise and scholarship in this volume, Ruini starts by making a persuasive case for the application of positive psychology in clinical domains. … Chiara Ruini’s Positive Psychology in the Clinical Domains is an important and timely contribution to an emerging field of positive clinical psychology—a label necessary to build scholarship and practice guidelines until traditional clinical psychology attends to positives as seriously as it does to symptoms.” (Tayyab Rashid, PsycCRITIQUES,Vol. 62 (51), December, 2017)“This book links clinical and positive psychology, combining the medical model with positivity, and describes theoretical issues along with clinical applications. … The intended audience is clinical psychologists, positive psychologists and researchers, and mental health practitioners. … This book is well written and explores both theory and practice surrounding positive psychology. It can be used in a variety of settings with different patient populations, and will be of great help to both novice and seasoned clinicians.” (Gary B. Kaniuk, Doody's Book Reviews, September, 2017)