Abstract
Introduction. Positive psychology based interventions have received evidences in increasing positive emotions, decreasing emotional labor, and improving mental health (Dreer, 2020). As overloaded work stress among Taiwanese teachers has become an important issue (Ho et al., 2017), the researchers aim to develop a counseling support group based on positive psychology approach for teachers. The purpose of this study is to explore teachers’ experiences in the group.
Method. Nine Taiwanese teachers were recruited to participate in this group for five sessions of 2.5 hours each. The group includes positive psychology exercises such as three good things, gratitude visit, and using your strengths. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted to learn participants’ expectations of attending this group, overall group experiences, gains or changes, and what contributed to these changes. Content analysis was used to analyze the data.
Results. It is found that the group benefited participants at their personal, interpersonal, and professional levels. Participants have increased levels of self-awareness and emotional stability, generated insights into their interaction pattern, and broadened philosophical views and knowledge in their work. Factors that contributed to these benefits are self-effort, members’ contribution, designed activities, group leader’s leading techniques, and group therapeutic factors. It is worth to note that therapeutic factors such as universality, interpersonal learning, imparting of information and group cohesiveness were reported by participants.
Conclusion. Based on findings, it is recommended that providing the positive psychology based counseling support group to teachers to improve their wellbeing. Implications for teacher support practices and future research will be discussed.
Author Information
Ying-Fen Wang, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Hung Chiao, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Li-fei Wang, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Anxin Tan, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
Pei-yun Li, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
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