Goali Saedi Bocci - The Positivity Workbook for Teens: Skills to Help You Increase Optimism, Resilience, and a Growth Mindset

The Positivity Workbook for Teens provides a treasure trove of activities for teens to learn about who they are at their best! This book shows teens how to use their strengths to thrive in the good times, navigate the bad times, and work on areas they want to improve. It is practical, relatable, doable, and, most importantly, its uplifting. The teen years are fraught with self-doubt and stressthis book offers an antidote. I highly recommend it for all teachers, parents, and teens.

Lea Waters, PhD , leading global figure in strengths and parenting, psychology researcher at the University of Melbourne, and author of The Strength Switch

The Positivity Workbook for Teens is a timely guide through the best of positive psychology. This book teaches essential skills in building resilience, and increasing happiness and well-being. By learning to know and use their character strengths, teens embark on a journey of self-development and personal growth. This workbook is an excellent resource for anyone working with teens to teach them positive skills to protect and build their well-being.

Carmel Proctor, PhD , psychologist and psychotherapist, director of the Positive Psychology Research Centre (PPRC), and coauthor of Strengths Gym

This book is packed with an abundance of powerful, research-backed tools to help teens take immediate action to improve their resilience, relationships, and their joy in life. Ill be recommending this to the parents and teens that I work with!

Rachelle Plummer, PsyD , child psychologist at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center

With its focus on the particular challenges of teens, this workbook addresses a glaring gap in the positive psychology literature. The examples are highly compelling and timely, the writing style is engaging and accessible, and the many hands-on activities will foster insight and empower teens to create their own happiness.

Jaime Kurtz, PhD , professor of psychology at James Madison University, and author of The Happy Traveler

Chapter by chapterwith inspiring quotations, pithy explanations, and practical exercisesGoali Saedi Bocci and Ryan Niemiec outline what young people can do to live life to the fullest. As a researcher, an educator, and a father of teenage boys, the far-reaching benefits of this book were immediately evident to me. It brims with the artfulness and experience required to make positive psychology exciting and accessible for young people.

Roger Bretherton, PsyD , associate professor of psychology at the University of Lincoln, UK

We all know that happiness can be learned. However, it is not learned in one go; some work is certainly required. The Positivity Workbook for Teens invites teens to invest in their greatest treasurethemselvesby working through many user-friendly and engaging activities. A real gem!

Ilona Boniwell, PhD , CEO of Positran; professor; MAPP strategic program leader at Anglia Ruskin University; and author of seven books and many tangible tools, including Strengths Cards

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright 2020 by Goali Saedi Bocci and Ryan M. Niemiec

New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

5674 Shattuck Avenue

Oakland, CA 94609

www.newharbinger.com

Cover design by Amy Shoup

Acquired by Wendy Millstine

Edited by Brady Kahn

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file

For

All the teens and their families who have opened up their hearts and allowed me the great privilege of bearing witness to this incredible phase in their lives. You have taught me far more than I could have ever imagined.

Goali

For

The Rooster

With gratitude for helping me stay strong through my teenage years and beyond,

Your best bud,

Ryan

Contents

acknowledgments

We are grateful for the researchers in the fields of positive psychology and character strengths as well as those researchers and practitioners who have bravely pioneered new territory to help teens discover well-being, use their character strengths, and build greater resilience. Special appreciation goes to the following practitioners who offered us sound advice and suggestions surrounding the most effective research-backed strategies they use with teens: Carmel Proctor, Rebecca Park, Roger Bretherton, Mark Liston, Masaya Okamoto, Lynn Ochs, Marissa Rowley, and Tijuana Evans. Thank you!

We are also grateful for the editors and staff at New Harbinger who believe in and have supported this book from the outset and helped champion it to what you have in your hands now.

Goali would also like to thank her mentors and advisors along the way, too many to list, but most notably Drs. Jennifer Wisdom, Don Pope-Davis, and Claytie Davis III for their infinite collective wisdom and unending support. She would also like to thank her tirelessly supportive husband, Bret, for so enthusiastically encouraging this incredible journey into an entirely new field. Much gratitude also goes to Dr. Ryan Niemiec for sharing in this collaboration and for his unparalleled insight, zest, and kindness in helping her dip her toes into such unchartered territory. Finally, she would like to thank her parents for raising her with endless stacks of books.

Ryan would also like to thank his VIA colleagues, Breta Cooper, Neal Mayerson, Kelly Aluise, Chris Jenkins, Ruth Pearce, Donna Mayerson, Clare Blankemeyer, and Jeff Seibert, and his loving wife, Rachelle, mother Sue, father Joe, brother Joey, and sisters Lisa and Monica for their ongoing support and belief in the best parts of him. And, of course, gratitude to his future teenagersa long, long time away!Rhys, Ryland, and Maya, whom he promises to lovingly support through their trials and tribulations.

Finally, we are grateful to you for taking the first step and picking up this book to improve your well-being or the well-being of someone you care for. We are honored to have the opportunity to offer these tools to you.

letter to parents and professionals

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Who doesnt want to be happier? Whether its an image of a group of smiling faces from a favorite TV show or pictures of friends plastered all over social media, we all know what sheer excitement, contentment, and bliss can look like. And yet sometimes happiness can seem so far away. Or worse, it can feel fake or inauthentic when you are just pretending that youre having a blast like everyone else.

Too many times, teens come into therapy and say they used to be bubbly and excited and that their enthusiasm has faded away due to stressors of life. Other times, they delight in being a realist and believe the pursuit of happiness is a futile one, refusing the help of anyone who tries to lift their mood and spirits. Sound familiar? Wherever teens may fall on this continuum, the field of positive psychology has over the last couple of decades provided a plethora of research findings that can help them get back to their most radiant self.