About Positive Psychology Training
Positive Psychology Training is run by Miriam Akhtar in association with positive psychologists working in the health, education and corporate sectors.
Miriam is one of Britain’s pioneering positive psychologists and one of a handful of qualified positive psychologists working in Europe. She holds the Masters in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) with Distinction from the University of East London (UEL), the first programme of its kind in Europe and a partner to Prof Martin Seligman’s MAPP at the University of Pennsylvania. She is now an associate lecturer on the MAPP @UEL training up the next generation of positive psychologists. She continues to research and is a PhD candidate at the University of Bath investigating positive psychology interventions for mild-to-moderate depression as natural ways to boost mood. Miriam is the co-presenter of the CD the Happiness Training Plan, Practical Strategies for a Happier Life and is currently writing Positive Psychology for Depression, Self-Help Strategies for Happiness (Duncan Baird Publishers, 2011).
With a background as a BBC producer, Miriam won the Medical Journalists’ Gold Award and a Sony Gold Award for her BBC Radio 4 programmes and the Golden Gate Award for one of her Channel 4 social history programmes while working at Testimony Films, the UK’s leading producer of living history. She is the co-author of three social history books and writes for both old and new media including the specialist websites – Positive Psychology UK and Positive Psychology News Daily.
She first came across positive psychology while making a Radio 4 programme on the science of happiness in the nineties. This led to a decade of research into the field and training in NLP and coaching to put the knowledge she’d acquired into practice with clients. She is a trainer with organisations predominantly in the education and health sectors and her portfolio career also includes one-to-one coaching and giving talks and lectures. She was a keynote speaker at the 2010 Bristol Happiness Lectures and has appeared on Radio 4′s Off the Page.
Miriam is a founder member of the International Positive Psychology Association and the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology.
Our Associates
Andy Roberts MSc (Pos. Psych), BA(Hons), ACA, MSCEIT, YTTC. I trained first as an economist and worked in the field of Corporate Finance for over 14 years in the UK, US, Japan and Australia. In my second career I re-trained as a Life Coach, Yoga teacher and Massage therapist. I’ve had extensive experience teaching Wellbeing and Stress Management courses both in small groups and on a one to one basis.
I completed a Masters degree in Applied Positive Psychology, which was the first course in this area to be run in Europe. In addition I became an accredited Emotional Intelligence coach and trained with the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology in Strengths Coaching
I also work on a part time basis as a volunteer for YourStory, a youth development charity. My passion is to help foster creativity, productivity and above all wellbeing and happiness in all areas of peoples’ lives, especially the workplace. To do this I have created imaginative training courses which fuse ideas from Life Coaching, Positive Psychology and Eastern philosophies.
Bridget Grenville-Cleave (MBA, MAPP, FCCA) holds an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of East London, UK, where she specialised in the well-being of professional people. She is a founder member of the International Positive Psychology Association and the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology, co-author of The Happiness Equation: 100 Factors that can Add to or Subtract from your Happiness (2008) with Dr Ilona Boniwell, and The Facebook Manager: the Psychology and Practice of Web-based Social Networking (2009) with Dr Jonathan Passmore. She has 20 years experience in business, specialising in organisational and personal change. Her company, Workmad Ltd delivers Positive Psychology and Positive Leadership Masterclasses which provide a balance of research and practical tools for personal and professional development. Bridget is also an accredited Strengthscope assessor.
Dr Chris Johnstone is a medical doctor who has pioneered the application of positive psychology within the UK health service, in the workplace and in adult education. He worked for many years as an addictions specialist, and now focuses on teaching, training and writing. He is author of the self-help book Find Your Power – a toolkit for resilience and positive change (2nd ed, Permanent Publications, 2010). He also presents the annual Bristol Happiness Lectures.