ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the key aspects of Positive Psychology and how hypnosis can be used to amplify their merits. It also describes hypnosis, as a vehicle of psychological intervention, offers a practical means for actualizing the aims of Positive Psychology. The happiness exercises were delivered without benefit of first focusing the clients, building up their positive expectancy, building a response set to gradually draw them into the desired frame of mind, then absorbing them in specific new images and ideas they could use to associate to an individual Positive Psychology. There is much that the field of Positive Psychology can learn from the field of hypnosis. The power of well-considered suggestions, the dynamics and malleability of attentional processes, and the importance of creating a context that supports those exercises that can shift people’s perceptions about themselves and others are all principles that are evident in applied hypnosis.
