Well-being, Positivity and Mental Health: An Introduction to the Special Issue

Enhancing well‐being, as opposed to reducing distress, has traditionally not been a focus for clinical practice. There are differences in views about the nature of well‐being, but enhancing well‐being in clinical settings is a straightforward goal whatever concept of well‐being is adopted. Reasons for adopting a well‐being enhancing, as well as a distress‐reducing, focus include the fact that many psychological problems do not fit the simple acute treatment model of disorder, that positive experience inhibits negative experience, and that people can benefit from therapists seeing them as more than the sum of their problems. In recent years, well‐being has been of increasing interest to researchers and clinicians, and enhancing well‐being is emerging as a potentially valuable element of effective clinical practice. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Message Enhancing well-being has been relatively neglected as a therapeutic goal. There are good reasons for seeing well‐being enhancement as a valuable goal for clinical practice, alongside the more traditional goal of distress‐reduction. Useful work is emerging in this area from clinicians and clinical researchers.