This volume advances a new process-based theory of well-being. It guides readers through a critical review of the theoretical foundations of well-being, to a model of assessment, and finally to intervention protocols that promote well-being across diverse settings, including health and mental health clinics, and the workplace. It adopts a systems framework that views well-being as emerging from a dynamic and complex network of interactions across bio-psycho-social-existential domains of our living environment. The volume, first, draws from ancient Stoicism and modern existential philosophy to revise existing theoretical frameworks. Second, it presents findings from interview studies and psychometric research that identify prototypical activities that support our goal-directed effort to live well, even in the presence of life stressors. This descriptive feedback is applied prescriptively as a guide for self-care or counselling. The volume, finally, outlines key issues for a process-based research agenda that promotes well-being in the areas of theory, assessment, and clinical practice.
This volume is for a wide cross-section of readers who are looking for a novel, evidence-based model of well-being that is theoretically informed, and that can be readily applied in assessment and intervention programs. It is useful for social workers, program administrators, allied health professionals, and medical personnel involved in programmes/services in public health, health care clinics, community-based counselling, and workplace health. It will also be of primary interest to researchers and students interested in health, well-being, health-related quality of life, patient-reported outcomes, and patient-centred care, in the health and social sciences or in applied philosophy.
About the Author :
Rob Nolan is a Clinical Health Psychologist, Senior Scientist, and Director of the Behavioural Cardiology Research Unit at the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada. He is an Associate Professor in Psychiatry and the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. He is on the Editorial Board for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. He also serves as co-editor for peer-reviewed journal issues that address public health. Dr. Nolan co-led the first pan-Canadian workshop series for the Canadian Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology. He was also appointed by the Ontario Minister of Health to the Council on Women and Health. He has published extensively on well-being and health-related quality of life for diverse groups of medical patients, and on the therapeutic benefit of person-centred digital counselling to improve the health and well-being of persons with elevated risk, or established chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, heart failure, and kidney disease. Dr. Nolan has led an international collaborative effort to establish the process-based model of living well as a novel approach to assessing and promoting well-being for clients/patients across diverse clinical settings.
Associate Professor Matt Sharpe is National Head of Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University. He has published widely on Stoic philosophy and the idea of philosophy as a way of life, as well as its practical applications, including in palliative care; as well as, in the past, on psychoanalytic theory. He is the coauthor of Philosophy as a Way of Life: History, Dimenions, and Directions (Bloomsbury, 2021), and cotranslator of Pierre Hadot, Selected Writings: Philosophy as Praxis (Bloomsbury, 2020).
