Dr. Diana Brecher – North of Neutral

Dr. Diana Brecher is a clinical psychologist who has been working in the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Centre for Student Development and Counselling (CSDC) since 1991.  Diana’s long-standing interest and certification in Positive Psychology led to a shift in her role in 2016, whereby she started the ThriveTMU (formerly ThriveRU) initiative and co-founded the Thriving in Action program. She is adjunct faculty in the Psychology dept. and in the MBA program.

In this episode Dr. Brecher helped us to cover a range of topics that fall under the umbrella of Wellness theory, many of which are framed within the context of the recent global pandemic. Among these, we talked about the nature of Positive Psychology vs. Pathology-Oriented Psychology, the concepts of Languishing vs. Flourishing, the PERMA-V framework for wellness, Dr. Brecher’s Five-Factor model of Resilience, willpower strategies to help overcome procrastination, and how one might distill an awareness of one’s strengths using the example of previous challenges.

Other topics and figures referenced in the episode can be found below, linked to resources for further exploration:

• Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Founders of Positive Psychology)
  
• Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis
  
• Emilia Zhivotovskaya – The Flourishing Centre
  
• Tim Pychyl – Procrastination
  
• Kristin Neff’s work on Self-Compassion
  
• Angela Duckworth’s concept of Grit
  
• Christine Padesky’s “Personal Model of Resilience” from Mind over Mood
  
• Dan and Chip Heath – The Switch
  
• Anti-Procrastination device: Assignment Calculators
  

Delving into the psychology of wellness, learning and personal growth can be daunting, but we’re lucky to have experts like Dr. Brecher to help guide us through the wealth of materials that are proliferating in these fields. The BLSA podcast is committed to providing as many conversations in this area as possible, and we look forward to much useful learning to come!

If you haven’t listened to our previous Podcast click here