What drew you to study the Diploma of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing?
“I remember hearing that the World’s first Diploma in Positive Psychology and Wellbeing was being created and delivered in Australia and it was coming to Adelaide.”
I was a year into running my own training business, with a focus on positive culture and wellbeing development at work. I was cash strapped and Roxy from the Langley Group was super supportive in establishing a payment plan enabling me to be a part of the first Diploma group in Adelaide. The Diploma looked brilliant and I loved that it incorporated emotional intelligence, neuroscience and had a positive leadership elective. Perfect!
I wanted to fill in the gaps of my self-directed learning and applied experience I’d accumulated in over a decade of following Positive Psychology. I had stumbled upon the field in 2004 at ‘The Body Shop’ when I was the State Learning and Development Manager. I had been asked to develop a program to bring the company core value ‘Activate Self Esteem’ to life. I drew on the wisdom of Martin Seligman’s ‘Authentic Happiness’ and other early field leaders and tracked down every book I could find associated with positive psychology at the time. I wrote “Activate Happiness”. I had written programs in the past but this one began a positive obsession with sourcing research from the field and bringing it to life through training. The Body Shop culture was already good but my level of understanding in what made the culture uniquely rich - what needed to be preserved, celebrated and ‘amplified’ grew. I whole heartedly believed that any organisation could build a positive culture and staff engagement, yet in conversations with friends I knew so many organisations were far from this.
In 2012, I left the security of a great role and company, to start my own business. Whilst I had 20 years experience in L & D … I was lacking a qualification in the field I loved. I had previously contacted Penn University at least five times in the hope that an online Master’s course would be available.
The Diploma of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing was so right for applying the science in practice and I jumped at the chance to be a part of it. I really wanted to consolidate what I thought I knew, know what I didn’t know and learn more! It well and truly exceeded my expectations.
How was your experience studying this course?
“For example completing the five acts of kindness in a day, I visited my elderly neighbour who had moved to a retirement home.”
I completely loved it.
I was in my element even before the program started I had access to a treasure trove of research articles - literally hundreds. I read everything including all of the optional reading. I completed the online inventories, many I didn’t know existed. I knew before the first face to face day of delivery that it was going to be so much better than I had anticipated.
I think for me completing the assignments and trying the interventions personally was so powerful. My self-instigated learning prior to the Diploma was centred around bringing the science to others and bringing it into a work culture. I have always been buoyant and engaged in work and in life but I have grown tremendously due to applying the principles personally, the assignments really had impact and brought depth to my understanding of the content. For anyone challenged by writing essays rest assured you will be completely fine.
There were interventions that I read about and which resonated but I did not appreciate how powerful they were until doing them. This was one of those things I said I’d do, but in the business of life it may not have happened – she was so thrilled when I rolled up with a packet of her scotch finger biscuits - her favourite. It cemented for me how powerful altruism is and how often I don’t follow through on kind thoughts and actions. Hence, this has been a positive personal growth experience. Another was in recording your emotions every hour for two weeks. I identified a source of stress that I was completely unaware of and could proactively shift it. I loved the experience of being a participant again – and I believe my own workshops are richer from this experience. I met many truly wonderful people - three of my own team members, are from my Diploma group. The delivery and practical learning environment and presenters were exceptional.
It was a privilege to be trained by our facilitator and I literally cried when I finished the course - it was brilliant.
How are you spreading positive ripples in your world?
“The varied client base and travel provides continuous learning, true engagement and makes life an adventure full of purpose.”
I have helped over 7,000 people to discover their strengths and support a national client base. I work with executive teams through to volunteer groups, supporting some of Australia’s top 50 companies, government departments, corporate clients, universities and schools, medium and small businesses. I travel most weeks and have supported regional and remote teams including Karratha in the Pilbara Region, Alice Springs and the beautiful Shark Bay, a small shire with a population of 1000 people, 895 km to the closest city Perth.
The Diploma gave me the confidence and certainty I needed to be bold and courageous in my business and I feel strongly anchored to my own purpose.
‘To ensure that the ‘science of human flourishing’ has a broad reach, is not an elitist field and that high-quality research rich workplace training is accessible to every workplace and team member irrespective of their title, role, industry or location.’
I have since trained as the Australian Master trainer for VIA and am also the Australian partner with ASA Authentic Strengths Advantage and can certify others. I am excited to be one of four candidates running for IPPA President Elect, for the Work and Organization Division. This is a volunteer position and if successful I’d love to grow collaboration in the Division to have a strong two-way bridge between the research and application of the science of human flourishing at work. I believe those in the field should and can influence areas that would benefit from further research. Through collaboration research studies can have a bigger participant pool globally and best practice can be shared globally.
The whole Langley team continue to be incredibly supportive and this extends well beyond completing the Diploma. They have created an online forum for Diploma Alumni students to grow together and share experiences.
I am incredibly grateful for the impact completing the Diploma of Positive Psychology has had on me personally and in enabling me to grow a business and career I am really proud of. It has been at the heart of this.