Abstracts

Rationale: The new field of positive psychology offers several interventions for increasing psychological resilience and for mental health promotion. Positive psychology focuses on the study of human strengths, positive emotions and life satisfaction (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Snyder & Lopez, 2002). A notable contribution of the field is the development of The Values in Action (VIA) Classification used to identify individual character strengths as a supplement to the DSM-IV (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Using signature strengths in a new and different way every day for a week was shown to increase happiness and decrease depressive symptoms for six months (Seligman et al. 2005). Resnick & Rosenheck (2006) described the successful use of a character strengths activity in a psychiatric rehabilitation program. Use of a character strengths intervention may help people with epilepsy improve their self-concept and well-being. Methods: In collaboration with the Epilepsy Foundation (EF) of Eastern Pennsylvania, the authors developed a workshop, Seize Your Strengths, aimed at helping people with epilepsy identify and use their character strengths to raise positive emotions and help them cope with some challenges associated with epilepsy. A total of four workshop tools were developed: 1) A PowerPoint presentation scripted for EF staff to use as an overview of Character Strengths 2) A Facilitator’s Guide identifying workshop procedures, objectives, and outcomes 3) A Participant’s Workbook with exercises for participants to: a) identify their character strengths; b) explore past effective use of character strengths and raise positive emotions; c) review examples of using character strengths in new ways; and d) to identify domains where practicing strengths might be helpful 4) An Evaluation Form. In collaboration with the EF of Eastern Pennsylvania, the authors implemented the workshop on April 23, 2009. Participants (ages 17+ years) were recruited by e-mail invitations sent by the EF staff. Results: Seven adults participated in the workshop, including four with epilepsy. Four participants were women; mean age was 45.2. With one exception, all participants believed the workshop was “very helpful”; 67% believed the material was “very helpful” in coping with epilepsy. All believed the explanation of character strengths made sense. Almost all enjoyed learning about their character strengths “very much.” All reported enjoying the workshop activities. All were “very confident” that they could practice using character strengths in the next two weeks. All “would recommend the workshop to another person with epilepsy.” Conclusions: Despite a small sample, preliminary process evaluation results indicated participants responded favorably to the workshop content, and expressed confidence in applying their character strengths to help improve their ability to cope with some aspects of epilepsy. More formal pilot testing is warranted to assess workshop effectiveness.