HW350 Unit 4 PERMA Positive Psychology Application Example

Thirty-One Years of Knowing Every Dog on the Route: A Unit 4 Positive Psychology Application Using PERMA With a Newly Retired Coaching Client

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

HW350: Principles of Health Coaching

Unit 4 Positive Psychology Application

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The client and coaching details are composite; the models and studies cited are real.

Why Positive Psychology in Coaching

Most health conversations start from risk: an A1C of 6.2, a blood pressure of 138/88. Positive psychology starts from what is going well and what gives a person energy, on the view that wellbeing is more than the absence of illness. Matthews (2025), reviewing the links between positive psychology, behavior change and lifestyle medicine, describes positive psychological interventions such as gratitude, savoring and meaning-making as pathways that can strengthen health behavior, while noting that research methods and individual reluctance remain challenges. For a coach, the practical point is that clients sustain changes that connect to what they value and enjoy, not only to what they fear.

The PERMA Model

Seligman (2011) proposed that wellbeing has five measurable elements: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. The model is not a treatment but a map of where a person's wellbeing is strong and where it has thinned.

Gloria Through PERMA

Positive emotion. She enjoys her grandchildren's visits, her choir and the first coffee of the morning. Since retiring she reports fewer good moments in an ordinary weekday, and her mood screen was positive at intake; she is now seeing the clinic counselor, and coaching does not treat her mood.

Engagement. On her route she was absorbed, "in the zone," knowing every street and every dog. Nothing in her retirement days yet gives her that absorption.

Relationships. Strong at home and in the choir. She lost the daily contact with customers who greeted her by name, which she did not realize she valued until it stopped.

Meaning. Delivering mail mattered to her: "People waited for me." She has not yet found what matters to her in retirement, though she mentions wanting to be active enough to keep up with her grandchildren.

Accomplishment. Thirty-one years of service, a perfect safety record and a retirement plaque. She has had few chances to feel accomplished since.

Retirement took away Gloria's steps, but it also took away the engagement, meaning and daily greetings that made walking feel like her life rather than exercise.

What the Evidence Says

Bolier et al. (2013), in a meta-analysis of 39 randomized studies, found small but significant effects of positive psychology interventions on subjective wellbeing, psychological wellbeing and depressive symptoms, with effects on wellbeing still present at three to six months, though the studies varied widely. Small effects are realistic, and these interventions are low cost and low risk. They are not a substitute for mental health care, which is why Gloria's mood is being addressed by a counselor while coaching works on her goals.

Two Strength-Based Exercises

1. A route with a purpose. Gloria's walking has failed when it was exercise for its own sake. In session three, I asked what made her route meaningful, and she said it was the people and the sense of being needed. Together we designed a weekly "route": a two-mile loop that passes her daughter's house, where she picks up her granddaughter on Tuesdays and Thursdays to walk her home from school, and a Saturday walk with two choir members. This builds engagement, relationships and meaning into the activity.

2. Three good things, with steps. Before bed, Gloria writes down three good things from the day and, for each, what made it happen, a gratitude exercise widely used in positive psychology research. She added her daily step count to the same page. The exercise also gives her evening a calm routine before sleep, which supports her sleep goal.

Why These Fit Her Goals

Her goals are energy and avoiding diabetes medication. Walking with purpose serves both by restoring the daily activity she lost. The evening exercise supports sleep and lets her notice her own accomplishments, which matters because her confidence at intake was only 4 out of 10.

How the Exercises Were Chosen

The exercises were not picked from a list. In session three I asked Gloria which PERMA element she missed most, and she chose meaning, then relationships. I asked what had given her days meaning on the route, and she said being expected somewhere. That answer produced the idea of a walk with a destination and a person waiting at the end of it. When I mentioned that some people keep a short evening log of good moments, she said she used to keep a notebook of funny things customers said, and she wanted to start one again. Both exercises therefore came from her history rather than from me, which matters for the autonomy that self-determination theory treats as central to lasting motivation.

What PERMA Does Not Capture

The model is a useful map but not a complete one. It says little about physical health, money or the practical barriers, such as her right knee and Omaha winters, that shape what Gloria can do. It can also make wellbeing sound like a personal project when some losses, like the end of a 31-year career, are simply losses that take time. In coaching, I used PERMA to find what she could rebuild, not to suggest that she should feel better faster than she does.

Scope and Caution

Positive psychology can be misused as pressure to "think positive," which can feel dismissive to someone with low mood. I introduced the exercises as experiments she could change or drop, checked how they felt in the next session and kept the counselor informed through the record that coaching was using these exercises.

Early Results

After three weeks she had walked her granddaughter home five of six school days and joined the Saturday walk twice. She described the Tuesday walks as "the best part of my week." She completed the evening log on most days, with a typical step count rising from about 3,000 to about 6,500.

Conclusion

Seen through PERMA, Gloria's problem is not only that she stopped walking but that retirement removed the engagement, relationships and meaning that walking once carried. Two small exercises, a walking route with people and purpose and an evening log of good things, rebuild those elements while serving her health goals. The evidence for positive psychology interventions is modest, so they are offered as experiments alongside, not instead of, her counseling and medical care.

References

Bolier, L., Haverman, M., Westerhof, G. J., Riper, H., Smit, F., & Bohlmeijer, E. (2013). Positive psychology interventions: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies. BMC Public Health, 13, 119. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-119

Matthews, S. M. (2025). Positive psychology and health behavior change in lifestyle medicine: A narrative review. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 20(4), 554-564. https://doi.org/10.1177/15598276251367691

Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. Free Press.