ABOUT
ME
ABOUT THRIVE
A comprehensive guide to individual and collective well-being
THRIVE is a wellness curriculum, program, and platform that teaches practical, evidence-based well-being skills based on a scientific model developed to summarize and organize the wellness space. THRIVE has been successfully taught at several higher-education institutions and is now provided in an online platform that makes it easy to teach the course, measure success, and share well-being strategies in new and engaging ways.
What does the THRIVE program teach?
If the THRIVE program teaches people how to have "well-being", what is well-being? How do we define it? The PERMA Model of Well-Being by Dr. Martin Seligman (2011), the former President of the American Psychological Association, states that, according to extensive research conducted by the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and beyond, well-being is comprised of following five elements:
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Positive emotion: feeling joy, hope, excitement, optimism, satisfaction, etc.
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Engagement: feeling captivated or content with the present moment
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Relationships: feeling a sense of love, belonging, and support from others
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Meaning: feeling purposeful or a part of something bigger than the self
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Accomplishment: feeling a sense of achievement, creation, contribution, or value
The PERMA-Profiler questionnaire (Butler & Kern, 2015) created by the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center to measure well-being elements recognizes physical health as a crucial sixth component required for well-being.
In reviewing the PERMA model, one notices that all proposed well-being components above are end states of being or feelings - except for "Relationships", which is arguably more of a means to an end. Versagli (2018) proposed an alternative acronym to replace PERMA that (1) includes physical health and (2) substitutes the word "Relationships" with the end state feeling of "Love" to produce a more consistent, complete, and memorable acronym that summarizes the same well-researched essence of well-being: WELMAP.
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Wellness (physical health): feeling comfortable and capable in your own skin
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Engagement: feeling captivated or content with the present moment
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Love (Relationships): feeling a sense of belonging and support from others
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Meaning: feeling purposeful or a part of something bigger than the self
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Accomplishment: feeling a sense of achievement, creation, or contribution
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Positive emotion: feeling joy, hope, excitement, satisfaction, etc.
While PERMA / WELMAP deliver on clarifying what well-being is, perhaps a more important question is, "What must one do to achieve well-being?" A comprehensive theoretical and operational paradigm outlining how well-being is achieved has remained unclear.
Until now.
Christie Versagli, a Licensed Professional Counselor (LCP) with a M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling summa cum laude from Johns Hopkins University, noticed how the skills and practices counselors are trained to teach clients to successfully improve their well-being all tend to fall within the same six categories (THRIVE):
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Thoughts: you need to manage your negative and unproductive thoughts
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Health: you need to practice physically healthy behavioral habits
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Relationships: you need to engage in uplifting, reciprocal relationships
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Impact: you need to make a positive difference in the lives of others
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Vision: you need to pursue a worthwhile goal
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Emotions: you need to regulate your negative or difficult emotions
Each of the six THRIVE skills above is believed to
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develop one of the six character strengths virtues identified in the Character Strengths and Virtues handbook and classification (Peterson & Seligman, 2004),
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evoke one of the six PERMA / WELMAP states of well-being (Seligman, 2011), and
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prevent one of the six major health strains on the rise in modern society today: anxiety, disease, conflict, narcissism, depression, and neuroticism (Versagli, 2018).
The THRIVE program teaches students to practice the THRIVE skills, believing each skill develops an important character strength that evokes a well-being state that prevents a major health strain.
FEATURED IN THE U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT'S 2019 BEST COLLEGES GUIDEBOOK
PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS INCLUDE
produce
THRIVE
SKILLS
The
that evoke
CHARACTER
STRENGTHS
the
that prevent
WELMAP
STATES
the
that plague society.
TOP HEALTH
STRAINS
the
Thoughts
If you manage your negative or unproductive thoughts, you will develop
Wisdom & Transcendance *
cognitive strengths involving the acquisition and use of knowledge, which will evoke
Engagement
being captivated and content with the present moment, which prevents
Anxiety
persistent worry, fear, or unease about what might happen.
Health
If you practice physically healthy behavioral habits, you will develop
Fitness **
physical strengths of might, capability, and form, which will evoke
Wellness
physically healthy, comfortable, and capable, which prevents
Disease
harm that stops the body or mind from working normally.
Relationships
If you engage in uplifting, reciprocal relationships, you will develop
Humanity
interpersonal strengths involving “tending and befriending” others, which will evoke
Love
belonging, support, collaboration, companionship, which prevents
Loneliness & Conflict
feeling alone or abused, living witthout attention, affection, or support.
Impact
If you make a positive difference in the lives of others, you will develop
Justice
civic strengths that underlie healthy community life, which will evoke
Meaning
a part of something bigger than the self, which prevents
Narcissism
grandiosity, entitlement, exploitation, and a lack of empathy.
Vision
If you pursue a worthwhile goal, you will develop
Courage
perseverance strengths involving the exercise of will to accomplish goals, which will evoke
Accomplishment
a sense of achievement, purpose, and contribution, which prevents
Depression
sadness, emptiness, and a loss of interest.
Emotions
If you regulate your negative or difficult emotions, you will develop
Temperance
self-control strengths that protect against excesses, which will evoke
Positive emotion
joy, hope, excitement, satisfaction, and so on, which prevents
Neuroticism
chronic reactivity, instability, impulsivity, and stress.
* Please see (Versagli, 2018) for an explanation as to why two of the six character virtues (wisdom and transcendence) were combined in this model, yet also distinguished if an additional skill is added here of Spirituality, which could evoke a seventh proposed well-being state of Peace and Purpose (WELMAPP). Because spirituality is very personal, private, and diverse among people, it was not included in the initial THRIVE model as a skill to be taught in depth, however it is to be recognized as a key aspect of well-being.
** Physical “fitness” is not included as a virtue in the Character Strengths and Virtues handbook and classification (Peterson & Seligman, 2004), yet Versagli argues that physical assets of health, might, and form have been valued as a strength by humanity across cultures and throughout time.
References
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Butler, J. & Kern, M. L. (2015). The PERMA-Profiler: A brief multidimensional measure of flourishing.
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Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification (Vol. 1).
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association and Oxford University Press. -
Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. New York, NY: Atria.
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Versagli, C. (2018). THRIVE: A Guide to Individual and Collective Well-Being. Romansville, PA: THRIVE Institute.
Thoughts Health Relationships Impact Vision Emotions
How does the THRIVE program work?
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Step 1: Organization account. An institution or organization registers for the THRIVE platform based on the number of students it wishes to teach. It assigns an admin from within the organization to manage its THRIVE account and send invitations to one or more instructors within its organization selected to teach its THRIVE course(s). THRIVE recommends that at least one instructor teach no more than 300 students in a class and that the space allows students to break into smaller groups during class meetings.
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Step 2: Instructor Account. Instructors are given access to a THRIVE Instructor Dashboard that provides all materials to train and equip them to teach the course well. The program is designed to be taught in a classroom setting in-person, once a week for 1.5 - 2 hours each week over a 15 week semester with one break week, however it can be taught online or in any timeframe or structure the institution prefers. The instructor may tailor the program to fit any need or characteristics of its organization.
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Step 3: Student Account. Instructors invite students to join their class for free or for a $125 fee based on the institution's plan. Students are asked to complete an optional, private survey of 24 widely-recognized scientific wellness assessments. Upon completion, students are given results summarizing their well-being including strengths and growth areas this program can support. Students are also asked to complete the survey after the course ends to reveal changes in their health metrics during the course.
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Step 4: Health Assessment. To protect student privacy while also giving institutions helpful analytics, institutions are given a survey report including the deidentified, grouped scores for each health metric collected (e.g., the class's overall resilience score). Students consent that their names are only revealed to instructors if their survey responses indicate they may be in crisis or a danger to themselves or others. Instructors accept all responsibility to intervene to provide crisis support and program removal.
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Step 5: THRIVE Course. During each class meeting, one THRIVE section is taught at a time (e.g., one class focuses on Thoughts, the next on Emotions, etc.). Some THRIVE sections are taught over multiple meetings. Each THRIVE section contains a lecture video teachers can play or instruct themselves (recommended) filled with interesting media and class activities as well as optional homework, experiential events, and guest speakers. The instructor can determine if the course is offered for credit or for fun.
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Step 6: THRIVE profile. Students create a THRIVE profile inside their THRIVE account where they complete course exercises designed to help them review, improve, and plan their own personal wellness plan. Students can also create tiles on their profile to track and share the specific ways they can THRIVE in each area. Profiles can be set to public or private, and users can permit followers to share their tiles as they wish. Course exercises will always remain completely private.
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Step 7: Explore and share how to THRIVE. Any user on this platform, whether in the course or not, can create a THRIVE profile for free and search, browse, and follow the THRIVE profiles of other users such as friends, celebrities, athletes, healthcare professionals, and more. It's fun and uplifting to see how others THRIVE! And without the extra noise and depressing content the other social network sites contain. Institutions and businesses can also create a THRIVE profile to share what they offer help others THRIVE. Users can add tiles created by any other public or followed profile to their own, to save and share ideas, motivation, and inspiration to THRIVE. Get started today.
by practicing THRIVE
well-being can be evoked and illness can be prevented
What sets the THRIVE curriculum apart from other wellness programs?
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Clear & Comprehensive: The wellness landscape can feel like a tangled, confusing mess of conflicting and ineffective suggestions. When a person or campus does not have a clear understanding of what wellness is, they cannot enforce a strategic solution to improve it. THRIVE provides a clear, manageable, and memorable system for understanding the wellness space that organizes and unites a campus to effectively enhance it. Unlike other wellness programs that offer varying and incomplete sets of suggestions that fall flat with students, THRIVE explains why its elements are complete and work together to evoke individual and collective well-being. THRIVE teaches research-verified, evidence-based, practical skills for improving one's clarity and control over personal well-being. This comprehensive guiding framework is easily customizable to fit your organization's diverse needs, resources, and audiences while reaching and impacting large groups with little institutional expenses. And students enjoy it! Student participants have praised the THRIVE experience as highly rewarding.
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Collective & Community-Based: Most wellness programs provide isolated self-help resources, but well-being cannot be achieved alone. We cannot give to ourselves what we need to receive from others to flourish. The THRIVE program goes beyond self-help to create real community and genuine connection that fosters meaningful and uplifting support. To create a place of established trust, empathy, cooperation, and companionship, THRIVE utilizes group counseling strategies and positions giving and receiving support as a strength. It provides a safe space for true self-expression and the normalizing of experiences and emotions. THRIVE evokes compassion among diverse participants by exposing people to the different ways we experience what we all have in common.
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Proactive & Preventative THRIVE is designed to work in tandem with counseling services. Counseling services specializes in reducing the negatives while THRIVE strives to increase the positives. Professional health services are well-equipped to be reactive to existing student struggles, mitigating of present issues, and specialized to support the small sub-group of individuals most afflicted on campus. On the other hand, THRIVE is proactive to intentionally equip all students with skills for success, preventative to inhibit future issues or crises, and generalized to reach the entire student body. Instead of waiting to teach skills to students once a crisis hits, THRIVE aims to teach all students in advance how to cope and find lasting fulfillment, not only career success. (And without holistic health skills, students cannot reach career success!) Participating students and faculty have endorsed THRIVE as a highly enjoyable experience and a necessity on campus.
