Is it appropriate to set happiness as a therapeutic goal?

Let's see if it is feasible to turn the goal of therapy into making patients happy.

Happiness is very popular as a life goal, but.... Is it feasible as a therapeutic goal?

This is the topic we will explore throughout the article, as well as various ways to understand what happiness is.

What do we mean by happiness?

There are two general ways to define happiness. The first would be to refer to it as that experience that evokes an intense pleasure, that comes in an unpredictable way and is fleeting..

This type of happiness is lived intermittently and can be addictive, since it represents states of happiness to which some people dedicate their entire lives and energies to the pursuit of these moments and cling to it in such a way that it ends up being their only goal of satisfaction. They achieve momentary levels of happiness that they try to substitute for a happiness that can be found in another way, dedicating their talents to the service of more long-term goals.

The second way of defining happiness is that which has to do with a more general satisfaction with life, a more general satisfaction with life, a more general satisfaction with life, a more general satisfaction with life. a more general satisfaction with life, understood as a subjective wellbeingdefined by the items on the Satisfaction with Life Scale developed by Diener, Emmons, Larser and Griffin.

• In most respects, my life is close to my ideal.
• My life conditions are excellent.
• I am satisfied with my life.
• So far I have gotten the important things I wanted out of life.
• If I could live my life over again I would change almost nothing.

This concept of life satisfaction proposes that it might be more productive and worthwhile to achieve happiness through the pursuit of emotional stability and serenity rather than seeking peaks of excitement that in turn lead to troughs and lows. Scientific studies indicate that overall happiness is more related to the continuity of small pleasurable experiences than to the achievement of a few large intense pleasures.

How does the state of happiness arise?

Another of the unknowns about happiness has to do with its origin.. It seems to be a mistake to think that happiness is caused by external events, that is, to think that we could be happy "only if" something external happened.

We know from empirical studies that happiness is partly the result of our expectations and perceptions, as well as the demands we have made on life. In other words, happiness is born more from within and from gratifications that come from small but more predictable pleasures. As we have seen above, happiness has more to do with an emotional stability and serenity achieved from withinand this goes beyond the external circumstances we live in.

Undoubtedly, we can increase our subjective well-being or life satisfaction by increasing our positive experiences and decreasing our negative experiences, decreasing a negative feeling does not necessarily imply an increase in positive feelings.Rather, negative affects decrease if we overcome coping styles that have to do with, for example, having an anxious view of life or a hostile view of life or having a more impulsive behavior.

In the same way, we increase positive affect if we develop our own competences and resources, and engage in activities in the direction of creating satisfying social bondsWe also increase positive affect if we engage in rewarding activities, and develop appropriate assertiveness competencies.

The Fordyce program

There is a program, developed by Michael Fordyce, to help people increase their happiness.. It consists of putting into practice a series of principles that we will see below; the research that has been done on this has concluded that individuals trained in the ones that best suited them, have shown to be happier than those in the control group (who had not been trained in these strategies):

• Being active and staying busy
• Spending more time in social relationships
• Being productive in doing meaningful work
• Being organized and planning things
• Not worrying so much or not at all
• Lowering expectations and aspirations
• Develop optimistic and positive thinking
• Focusing on the present
• Accepting oneself, liking oneself, knowing oneself and helping oneself
• Develop an enterprising social personality
• Be yourself, be authentic, do not imposture
• Eliminate negative feelings and problems
• Prioritize close relationships
• Value happiness

What do we know about happiness?

In summary, studies on happiness indicate that one-off life events that produce joy and enjoyment are appreciated and can be valued as long as they do not undermine the value of small, everyday pleasures, It is more effective to devote one's energies to achieving a satisfying life than to seek only one-time, transitory and fleeting gratifications..

Moreover, we know that in order to enjoy a satisfying life, it is as necessary to know how to manage dissatisfactions as it is to increase one's own satisfactions.

On the other hand, a good support system and close relationships are fundamental for people's well-being.

And finally, we also know that it is healthy to to set reasonable and achievable goals that serve to achieve satisfaction throughout the life course, appreciating the process and effort involved in life's challenges, rather than emphasizing the achievements of concrete results.

Is happiness a good therapeutic goal?

So, can we psychotherapists offer happiness as a therapeutic goal?

We cannot and should not ignore the fact that happiness is, for most people, a major goal in life and one to which we devote considerable energy.

However, happiness should not be considered as a therapeutic goal for two main reasons.for two main reasons. Firstly, because happiness is subjective and it is very difficult to create a possible strategy for all patients, since each one understands happiness in his or her own way; and secondly because, as we have said, happiness can be ephemeral, momentary and also fleeting.

However, psychotherapists and psychologists can help our patients to train fundamental principles, strategies, skills and competencies to be happy, as well as help them to discern between states of happiness and subjective well-being, the former being exciting and fleeting, and the latter predictable and more stable, dedicating personal energies to benefits that lead to a full life and to the phenomenon of life satisfaction. to the phenomenon of life satisfaction.