Most branches of psychology tend to focus on dysfunction, trauma, and abnormal behavior. Still, positive psychology focuses on strengths, talents, and virtues that will help build the community and individuals into better human beings. Positive psychology allows people to concentrate more on the brighter side of life and things.
Getting a positive psychology certificate program online is easy, and below we will recommend a few that we think are great. Pursuing positive psychology will put you on the path of being an educator, coach, or trainer who will help others embrace positive psychology in their lives and change it for the better.
The 5 Best Positive Psychology Certificate Programs Online are offered by:
- School of Positive Transformation
- Positive Psychology Center
- Harvard Medical School
- The Flourishing Center
- University of Missouri
Pursuing a positive psychology certificate program online can be very simple and helpful. You can easily take these courses as you pursue your job or other interests. This certificate will equip you with tools to help others live a better life. You will improve other people’s lives for the better. Pursuing this certificate course will also help change your perspective on life and live a more fulfilling life full of happiness. You will learn to pay attention to the positive more than the negative aspects of life.
Article Contents
What can I do with a Certificate in Positive Psychology?
As a positive psychology practitioner, you will be sharing your knowledge with others through professional skills in practice. As a positive psychology practitioner, you can work anywhere, including the government, arts, business, and education. You can work with;
- Individuals as a coach or counselor
- Groups as a trainer or teacher
- Systems and processes as a facilitator or consultant.
All these roles can be interchanged, and anyone can work with whatever group. As long as you are qualified. Some job functions you can do include;
- Helping your clients know themselves better.
- Reducing negative and unhealthy thoughts that your clients carry.
- Seeing your clients’ emotional pain and confusion.
- Teach your clients how to utilize their skills and abilities to help the wider community.
- Encourage your clients’ to have a positive influence and outlook on society.
- Helping your clients’ build positive relationships in their work and society.
Besides doing the above role, there are many others you can do with a certificate. You can have a personal practice where you work as a writer, life or career coach, motivational speaker, or the founder of a non-profit agency. You can also get employment in law offices to help leaders achieve positive workplace strategies or work as a military consultant. As positive psychology keeps expanding, there will be more need for it in different niches in the future.
What is a Positive Psychology Practitioner?
Positive psychology coaching has scientific roots to help clients increase well-being and enhance and apply strengths. It can also help clients achieve their goals and improve performance. Positive psychology offers many resources, tools, assessments, and feedback methods that enable a coach to tailor and structure the mentorship journey backed up with measurable evidence.
Positive psychology equips the practitioner with tools to help clients figure out what they need, whether more positivity or negativity, both in the right amounts. With these tools at hand, a practitioner can help clients achieve their goals and live quality lives.
Benefits of being a positive psychology practitioner
- You can help others improve their performance to meet their desired goals. As a practitioner, you will help people clarify what they want to achieve, whether short-term or long-term. Using positive psychology tools, you can help your clients build recurring thoughts and behavior that will help them move forward to achieve these goals and milestones.
- You can help your clients increase openness to personal development. Most people know what is holding them back (it could be certain behaviors or thought processes), and as a practitioner, you will help your clients uncover and explore these hurdles. By exploring these areas, you can guide them on implementing positivity to get the changes they strive for.
- Help people identify positive solutions. Many models of psychology focus on trauma and other negative emotions. Being a positive psychology practitioner will help your clients change the conversation and focus more on positive emotions and solutions.
- Help your clients have improved self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses. Through helping clients classify their strengths, they can then build awareness of their strengths and weaknesses which will help them thrive.
The 5 best positive psychology certificate programs online.
There are multiple positive psychology certificates programs online, but here we’ve put together a few of the best you could find out there.
1. School of Positive Transformation
The School of Positive Transformation is a place for people who want to make the world better. They use scientifically backed up tools to teach and train about positive psychology. Not only will the tools you learn here equip you to help others, but these tools will also transform your life and how you view things. The program promises to offer you tools to increase resilience, meaning, happiness, and mindfulness.
These tools will enable you to practice positivity in your life and help those around you live in the same way too. The learning is flexible, and you will be taught a research-based approach.
2. Positive Psychology Center
Positive Psychology Center aims to support the three pillars of positive psychology (positive experiences, positive individual traits, and positive institutions). Their goal is to help:
- Families and schools that allow children to thrive.
- Communities that encourage civic education
- The teachings of positive psychology
- Workplaces that foster not only satisfaction but also high productivity
- Therapists who nurture their patients’ strengths.
Once you join this program, you will become part of the solution in a society that needs more good than bad. You will help lots of people transform their lives for the better. The school encourages the dissemination of positive psychology, resilience, and grit.
3. Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School now has a positive psychology course for anyone interested in transforming the world into a better place. The school will equip you with tools to help you enjoy enduring happiness. Fleeting emotional highs aren’t as good, and the institution knows that. That’s why the tools they provide you will offer you the best experiences to turn your life for the better.
According to the institution, not only will these tools transform your mental health, but they will also help with your physical health. Backed up with science, the institution promises that by implementing these tools, you will lower stress levels over the years, leading to a decrease in the probability of suffering a heart attack, stroke, or any other similar condition.
4. The Flourishing Center
The Flourishing Center is offering a certificate in applied positive psychology. The program will equip you with the theory, the science, and the application of positive psychology. By completing this program, you will have the tools to help out the communities, organizations, and people. You will help build the six pathways of flourishing that help uplift the human condition. These include;
- Enhanced positive emotions
- Experiences of engagement
- Meaning
- Authentic positive relationships
- Achievement
- Vitality
The program promises to improve the quality of your life, decrease stress, increase resilience, increase mindfulness, among other better experiences.
You will not only become an expert in science, but you will also learn how to turn your passion for helping communities, individuals, and organizations into a profession. You will learn all this through a carefully constructed learning methodology. You will learn through pre-recorded videos, lives with your instructor, and discussions.
5. University of Missouri
The University of Missouri has offered an online positive psychology program that anyone can join. The program will help you build thriving individuals, communities, and institutions. This program is for anyone who wants to help advance others’ well-being. Completing the program will allow you to work as a;
- Life or career coach
- Organizational consultant
- Teacher
- Manager
The program is 100% online, and you can do it at your own pace. You can take one or two classes each semester then finish in less than two years. The course work covers;
- Life or career coaching
- Meaning in work
- Positive psychology
- Positive organizational psychology
- Community and stewardship
How is positive psychology different from the rest of psychology?
Even though positive psychology has many similarities to other types of psychology, it focuses on one’s strengths and behavior, allowing individuals to build a life of meaning and purpose. This allows individuals to stop surviving and start flourishing.
The researchers have sought to understand the elements of a good life. They have also tested practices to improve life satisfaction and well-being. Even though positive psychology focuses on happiness, it’s not fleeting happiness; it’s deep and lasting happiness.
Most of the other forms of psychology tend to dig up the past traumas and a lot of negativity for one to heal. Even though that’s not bad, positive psychology uses the bad and most good to bring about happiness and deep life satisfaction. It helps you focus on the now, the good feelings you are having, which make the feelings triple in quantity.
Positive psychology doesn’t dwell on dysfunction and abnormal behavior. Because the concept of the practice is to find more meaning in life and embrace it, when one is practicing positive psychology, they will focus on optimistic emotions, character strengths, and constructive institutions. This branch of psychology believes that happiness is derived from mental and emotional factors.
For example, when one is depressed, having a coach or therapist who practices positive psychology is different. The therapist will ask the individual to carry a notebook and a pen with them all day and record all the positive emotions they feel that day. In the beginning, it might not be easy to do that, but with time, it gets easier. When you are depressed, most of your emotions are emptiness and hollowness. Having a record of these positive emotions will make you concentrate more on those emotions.
After writing down these emotions, your therapist will help you identify the most frequent emotion and ask you to do things that make you feel that way more often. After a while, concentrating on these emotions and actions that result in those emotions will encourage you to be better and happier, improving the quality of your life.
Conclusion
Pursuing a positive psychology certificate program online is the best thing you can do if you want to help other people and institutions promote happiness and well-being. The above institutions are the best places online where you can get your positive psychology certification so you can turn it into a career and help others.
