Clinical Psychology has traditionally focused on psychological de ficits and disability. It has rarely privileged clients’ resilience, resourcefulness and capacity for renewal. In the USA Professor Martin Seligman and his colleagues have begun laying the foundations for a positive psychology to complement deficit - based a pproaches (Seligman & Peterson 2004; Snyder & Lopez, 2002). This new branch of psychology is primarily concerned with the scientific study of human strengths and happiness.
