The Happiness Toolbox: Brain-Based Skills for Lasting Well-Being and Happiness
At our core, we all wish to be happy. Most of our major life decisions – where we live, who we marry, how we work – are made with the goal of happiness in mind. Yet for many of us, happiness can feel harder and harder to come by these days. Depression, anxiety, and stress run rampant – taking an enormous toll on us as individuals, families, workplaces, and society. But exciting changes have started to take place, with tremendous implications for changing our lives. Over the past decade, 2 emerging fields – positive psychology and neuroscience – have begun to offer us hope for lasting change. This workshop synthesizes these approaches in a practical, easy-to-use manner.
Join positive psychologist and author Jonah Paquette, Psy.D. for an exciting experiential workshop focused on the science of well-being and the ingredients of a meaningful life. Weaving modern advances in neuroscience with strategies for lasting well-being, this workshop will provide you with the necessary skills to transform your clinical work. Learn how practices like gratitude, compassion, mindfulness, self-compassion, awe, and more – can create lasting changes to our level of well-being and even improve our physical health. Even more, learn how these approaches can, over time, create lasting changes in our brain thanks to the power of neuroplasticity. In doing so, we can combat stress, reduce burnout, improve our relationships and job performance, and foster greater physical and emotional health. Through hands-on practice, didactic presentation, and time for reflection, you’ll learn how to expertly apply these skills into your life and your work. By attending this program, you’ll be equipped to implement these approaches into your clinical practice, starting immediately.
Learning Objectives:
- Articulate the benefits of happiness to our physical health, emotional well-being, relationships, and job performance
- Explain and apply the concept of the negativity bias, as it pertains to clients struggling with depression or anxiety
- Administer specific practices to cultivate gratitude, compassion, self-compassion, and connection – and understand how to integrate these practices effectively into treatment
- Explore specific areas of the brain linked to positive emotional states, and learn techniques to increase neuronal firing to these regions in order to create lasting change through the process of positive neuroplasticity
- Practice specific techniques to regulate the central nervous system and stimulate the vagus nerve, to help promote feelings of calm, safety, and peace
- Explain how awe and wonder impact our brain and nervous system, and how these experiences enhance our psychological and physical health.
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Pay once for lifetime access.
Course Duration: 6 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Lifetime Access: Your access to the course does not expire, so you can revisit key concepts anytime you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Clients struggling with trauma, anxiety, and life's inevitable hardships - and organisations seeking to build genuine employee well-being rather than superficial wellness programs - can need more than traditional approaches to create lasting positive change. Jonah Paquette has dedicated his career to translating cutting-edge research from positive psychology and well-being science into practical tools that help individuals and organisations not just recover from difficulties, but actually thrive in their aftermath.
As Assistant Regional Director of Mental Health Training at Kaiser Permanente, where he helped oversee large mental health training programs spanning 20 medical centers, and co-host of "The Happy Hour" psychology podcast, Dr. Paquette represents the unique combination of clinical expertise and accessible communication that makes complex research immediately applicable. His four books - including Awestruck: How Embracing Wonder Can Make You Happier, Healthier, and More Connected and Happily Even After: Practices for Finding Well-Being After Trauma and Hardship - demonstrate his exceptional ability to distill decades of happiness research into evidence-based practices that create measurable improvements in both individual and organisational well-being.
Dr. Paquette's expertise spans positive psychology, well-being science, awe and wonder research, post-traumatic growth, anxiety disorders, PTSD treatment, CBT, resilience training, and organisational well-being. His approach recognises that true mental health goes beyond symptom reduction to encompass the cultivation of positive emotions, meaning, engagement, and connection. He specialises in helping clients and organisations move from merely surviving difficult circumstances to discovering how challenges can become catalysts for growth, meaning, and deeper well-being.
What sets his training apart is research rigor combined with practical accessibility. Paquette doesn't just teach theoretical concepts - he shows practitioners and organisations how to implement specific, evidence-based interventions that measurably increase happiness, resilience, and connection. His international keynote presentations and workshops demonstrate his exceptional ability to make complex well-being science immediately actionable for diverse audiences.
For your practice, expect to gain specific interventions from positive psychology research, tools for helping clients discover post-traumatic growth, and frameworks for integrating well-being science with traditional therapeutic approaches. His methods particularly benefit clinicians wanting to move beyond symptom-focused treatment, those working with trauma survivors, or practitioners interested in preventive and strength-based interventions.
Quick Win: Paquette's "awe walk" technique helps clients shift from rumination and anxiety to present-moment awareness and positive emotion - which can provide significant mood improvement while building long-term resilience.
Qualifications
- PsyD, Clinical Psychology, PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium, Palo Alto, CA (APA-accredited)
- BA, Psychology and History, Columbia University, New York
- Licensed Clinical Psychologist, California
- Over 10 years healthcare leadership experience at Kaiser Permanente
Authored Books
- Happily Even After: Practices for Finding Well-Being After Trauma and Hardship (2022)
- Awestruck: How Embracing Wonder Can Make You Happier, Healthier, and More Connected (2020)
- The Happiness Toolbox: 60+ Evidence-Based Activities for Greater Joy (2018)
- Real Happiness: Proven Paths for Contentment, Peace & Well-Being (2015)
Leadership & Training
- Assistant Regional Director, Mental Health Training, Kaiser Permanente, Northern California
- Training Director, APA-Accredited Postdoctoral Residency Program, Kaiser Permanente
- Clinical Psychologist, Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco Bay Area
- Co-host, "The Happy Hour" Psychology Podcast, current
Professional Experience
- Author & International Speaker, Keynote Presentations & Workshops, 2015–present
- Clinical Psychologist, Veterans Affairs hospitals
- Psychologist, Community mental health clinics and outpatient medical centers
- Counselor, College counseling centers
- Private Practice Clinician
Clinical Specialties
- Positive psychology and well-being science applications
- Post-traumatic growth and resilience building
- Awe, wonder, and positive emotion cultivation
- Anxiety disorders and PTSD treatment using strength-based approaches
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) integration with positive psychology
- Trauma therapy with focus on growth and meaning-making
- Organisational well-being and emotional fitness programs
Research & Innovation Areas
- Translation of happiness research into practical interventions
- Evidence-based activities for joy and well-being enhancement
- Integration of awe and wonder into therapeutic practice
- Resilience training for individuals and organisations
- Post-traumatic growth facilitation techniques
Ready to help clients not just recover from hardship but discover new levels of well-being and meaning? Discover how Dr. Paquette's evidence-based positive psychology methods can help transform your ability to cultivate lasting happiness, resilience, and growth in both individual and organisational settings.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 1
- Topics 4
- Duration 6 hours
- Quizzes 2
- Language English