Strengths Based Practices (SBPs) concentrates on the inherent strengths of individuals, families groups and organisations deploying peoples' personal strengths to aid their recovery and empowerment. SBPs are empowering alternatives to traditional methods with individuals, group or organizational work. SBPs refrain from allowing crippling, labeling and stigmatized language. Descriptions and pathology owned by persons groups and organizations that suggest acceptance of their condition as hopeless or helpless to change are constructively challenged through SBPs. Strengths based strategies build and foster hope from within by focusing and working with precedent successes. SBPs strategies facilitate change by assisting to look at/what has worked? What does not work? And what might work presently making it important for facilitators and those desiring change to be integral to this process of change. This introductory paper provides a bird's eye view of the assumptions, and discuse...

Personality and Individual Differences, 2011

Positive psychology focuses on the benefits of both possessing and using personal strengths, however existing research has focused exclusively on having rather than using strengths. This study validates the Strengths Use Scale and presents the first test of whether strength use leads to improved well-being. A community sample (N = 207) completed measures at baseline and three and six month follow-up. The scale had a clear one-factor structure, high internal consistency (a = .94-.97), and impressive three-and six-month stability (r = .84). Strengths use led to less stress, and greater self-esteem, vitality and positive affect over both longitudinal assessment periods. Strengths use is an important longitudinal predictor of well-being, and the new scale is a reliable and valid measurement tool.

2012

the last 50 years, Gallup has learned that people and organizations grow more when they focus on what they do best rather than trying to fix their weaknesses.

Psychoanalytic Social Work, 2000

This article revisits the strengths perspective as conceptualized in social work practice. Although we find this perspective has value and utility for practitioners, we identify areas where the strengths perspective could be enhanced and augmented by integrating the contemporary relational approach exemplified by Paul Wachtel's cyclical psychodynamics. Specifically, we explore his concepts of therapeutic communication and use of language, including interventions that affirm client strengths such as reframing, searching for variations and exceptions, and reconceptualizing how transference impacts the therapeutic action. We illustrate our view with a case vignette, advocating that Wachtel's integrative approach provides a new context for psychodynamics in current social work practice.

International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health

The strength-based approach challenges the traditional deficit model applied in psychosocial care practice, which takes an all-encompassing perspective. Creating a comprehensive portrait of each person's life and working in a multidisciplinary team collectively analyses the full capabilities and circumstances of individuals or families. This paper employs case illustrations to demonstrate how psychosocial care providers can do assessments and interventions based on a strength-based approach to improve the quality of life of patients and their families. The study adopted cases from the case file and derived how strength-based approaches can be utilized for the patients referred for psychosocial assessment and designing psychosocial care plan in the tertiary care hospital. The case illustrations depict practice through strength-based approach. The assessments were conducted, plans were made, and interventions focused on the strengths in various domains. The result portrayed streng...

2009

A strengths-focused identity is a person's self-description in terms of personal strengths. A personal strength is defined as the positive pole of a personal construct often used by a person to describe self and others. The Dependable Strengths Articulation Process (DSAP), which has had more than 25 years of development, is a subjective approach to articulating strengths. It is a 10-hour process involving four individuals who take turns sharing stories of positive experiences. As a result of these and other activities, each participant articulates self-identified strengths. The DSAP has had considerable evaluation, showing positive outcomes. A streamlined version of the DSAP, called Articulating Strengths Together (AST), has recently been developed to provide greater accessibility. This version does not require a trained facilitator and it takes less time and expense than the DSAP. Published research identifies several benefits of having a positive, strengths-focused perspective...

Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 2016

This paper focuses on the experience of two subsets of students who took part in a pilot study which explored the effectiveness of StrengthsQuest® (Clifton and Anderson, 2004), together with StrengthsQuest coaching and Narrative of Strengths interviews within the

From Strength to Strength: A manual to inspire and guide strength-based interventions with young people, 2011

This manual operationalizes the strength-based approach for working with youth. It links research with practice to train staff to use a strengths focus in all areas of work as an overarching philosophy of care. This approach is integrated in all programs provided through Youth Now including community programs, child welfare, and corrections. It is applied with young men and women from diverse backgrounds including recent immigrants, aboriginal youth, sexual minorities, and youth experiencing mental health challenges. The manual was developed as a training tool for staff members, and as a resource for youth-serving agencies that emphasize strengths in their own philosophies of care. This manual consolidates findings and recommendations from research on strength-based intervention, and provides a practical guide for daily practices. It highlights key themes, and introduces a model of intervention, integrating multiple strength-based concepts.

Zephyrus, 2023

R: El hallazgo en el centro de Hispania de productos cerámicos procedentes del comercio mediterráneo con el norte de África, durante el periodo tardorromano, está conociendo un fuerte incremento en los últimos tiempos como consecuencia del estudio de diferentes contextos excavados en fechas recientes. Producto de ese comercio presentamos hoy un ejemplar excepcional de plato/fuente de terra sigillata africana del tipo Hayes 51 = Salomonson  de la Fase 3, recuperado en las excavaciones realizadas entre 2010 y 2012 en la Casa de la Lucerna de la Máscara Teatral de la urbs romana de Complutum, actual Alcalá de Henares, Madrid. Esta domus ha sido datada en el s. d. C., si bien experimenta una fuerte transformación cuando varias de sus estancias son modi cadas para construir pequeños ‘apartamentos’ o para producciones artesanales, perdurando hasta cerca del 400 d. C. El estudio morfotipológico de este ejemplar procedente de talleres tunecinos, primero completo hallado en excavación fuera de Túnez, y de las escasas piezas íntegras conocidas de esta rara forma nos permite analizar los diversos patrones utilizados en su confección y abordar una primera sistematización de los diferentes modelos ornamentales conocidos y de las características del festoneado de sus asas. También nos da pie para realizar una breve re exión sobre el comercio de productos cerámicos norteafricanos hacia el centro de Hispania. The discovery of ceramic products from Mediterranean trade with North Africa in the center of Hispania during the Late Roman period has seen a signi cant increase in recent times due to the study of different contexts excavated in recent years. As a result of this trade, we present today an exceptional specimen of African terra sigillata plate/dish of the Hayes type 51 = Salomonson  from Phase 3, recovered in excavations conducted between 2010 and 2012 at the House of the Lamp with Teatral Mask, in Complutum Roman city, present-day Alcalá de Henares, Madrid. is domus has been dated between the 1st century  to c. 400 , although it undergoes a signi cant transformation when several of its rooms are reused for apartments or metallurgical and handcraft production. e morphotypological study of this piece, originating from Tunisian workshops and being the rst complete one found in excavation outside of Tunisia, and of the few known intact pieces of this rare form allows us to analyze the various patterns used in its production and undertake an initial systematization of the di erent known ornamental models and the characteristics of the festooning on its handles. It also provides an opportunity for a brief re ection on the trade of North African ceramic products to the center of Hispania.