STRENGTHS

A Strengths-Based Practice Model:

Psychology of Mind and Health Realization
Stephen G. Wartel

Abstract
The author discusses the tenets and applications of the psychology of mind/health realization theory (POM/HR),
stating that, although used for the past 27 years, it is still unfamiliar to many in the helping professions. This ther-
apeutic model has been best described by Roger Mills and George Pransky. It fits in well with the trend toward
strengths-based practice, focusing on the client’s resources and resilience, on self-empowerment and self-help,
effectiveness and efficiency. It can be taught and implemented easily, and, among other advantages, allows here-
and-now focus on feelings of well-being rather than on painful thoughts and disturbing memories.

COMMON SENSE AND WISDOM are the keys to opti-
mal mental health and are always available as a default set-
ting. Just as human bodies have the survival capacity, honed
by evolution, to maintain homeostasis and to heal, minds
also have innate, self-righting mechanisms accessed through
common sense and wisdom (Mills & Spittle, 2001). This
theory is called psychology of mind/health realization
(POM/HR)1. Practitioners report achieving positive out-
comes, mobilizing strengths and catalyzing further growth
through a brief and efficient helping process.
This article is based on the work of several POM/HR the-
orists and practitioners (Bailey, 1990, 1999; Banks, 1998,
2000, 2001; Carlson, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999;
Carlson & Bailey, 1997; Mills, 1995; Mills & Spittle, 2001;
Pransky, 1990, 1998; Suarez, Mills, & Stewart, 1987), and
in it, I discuss the rationale for using the approach, introduce
basic concepts, explore techniques and applications, and help
you to identify additional resources.
Thought as the Foundation
for Feeling and Behaving
The POM/HR conceptual framework is consonant with
cognitive psychology (Beck, Freeman, & Associates, 1990;
Ellis, 1962) and states that thought is the foundation for
feeling and behavior. Thinking is the process by which one
1 In POM/HR, POM is often used to designate its clinical applications, and HR is used for its community and prevention applications.
produces thought. Beliefs are conditioned patterns of
thought, and memories are thoughts about past events.
Thought creates feeling, as method actors know well,
thinking of an anger-provoking experience to get into the
part. Thoughts and feelings guide our actions, producing
behaviors.
Thought Creates Reality
The constructivists (Watzlawick, 1984) state that people
create their picture of reality. POM/HR would add that this
reality is constructed by thoughts. The senses take in stim-
uli, which are given meaning by one’s thinking. Unaware of
the process, one equates these perceptions with reality.
POM/HR uses three principles: mind, thought, and con-
sciousness. The metaphor of a film projector is used to
explain this same process. Mind, the irreducible source of
mental energy, is the projector. Thought is the film through
which the light—carrying sensory stimuli—shines.
Consciousness is the light, causing the images on the screen
to appear real (Mills, 1995, pp. 33–53).
Two Types of Thinking. Thinking can be either analytic or
intuitive. Analytic thinking is useful in problem solving,
where assessment is coupled with selective information
stored in memory to yield solutions. Parents and teachers
condition the child to develop, apply, and refine these skills
over time. Whether one is tying one’s shoes or calculating

Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services

Copyright 2003 Alliance for Children and Families

185
FAM I LI E S I N SOC I ETY • Volume 84, Number 2
the time needed to drive to the airport, analytic thinking,
founded on memory and on conditioned thoughts and
beliefs, serves well. It supports solutions where discreet
choices and specific calculations are quickly available.
Intutive thinking is good for situations that do not lend
themselves to specific analysis. Here, thinking that is based on
intuition, common sense, and wisdom is more useful.
Realizations that emerge from intuitively knowing something
are hard to describe in words. People simply reflect and know
what is right for them. Sometimes it just “pops into their
heads.” Intuitive thinking is optimal when trying to decide
whether a mate is the right one to marry or how to plan one’s
work life to assure comfort and provide meaning.2
The capacity to use both types of thinking is essential.
The intuitive mode is our default setting, which is accessed
by simply suspending the analytic mode through “letting
go.” Optimally, people mix the styles on the basis of need,
and they are guided in the assessment of need by the intu-
itive rather than the analytic mode. Unfortunately, as people
grow up and are increasingly schooled in analytic thinking,
they move further and further from trusting their intuition.
This leads to unbalanced, overused, and ultimately abused
analytic thinking in which people overthink issues that are
more appropriate to creative resolution using the other
mode. Overthinking resembles Zen’s “busy mind.”
Inappropriately applying conditioned thinking and beliefs,
people are often unable to divine the improved solutions of
the quiet mind (see Glaxton, 1997). This ruminative pro-
cess mentally wears on people and on a biochemical level
may deplete neurotransmitters like serotonin.3
Feelings: The Guide to Thought Recognition. Thought recog-
nition is the ability both to recognize the primary role of
thought and to recognize and optimally mix the thinking
modes producing moment-to-moment thought. But how
does one employ the right mix? People can be guided by
their feelings, which serve as a natural and universally avail-
able barometer to help them differentiate the two.
Comfortable, positive feelings accompany intuitive, com-
monsense thinking. Neutral, mildly effortful feelings are
associated with an easy, quick use of analytic thinking, yield-
ing viable solutions. Uncomfortable, negative feelings
accompany overuse and abuse of the analytic thinking mode,
producing mental strain. Emotional self-awareness, defined as
recognizing and using our feelings, is a component of emo-
tional intelligence (Bar-On, 2000; Goleman, 1995; Mayer,
Caruso, & Salovey, 2000) and guides adaptive thinking.
POM/HR labels the natural, spontaneous, and transitory
fluctuations in the quality of thinking as moods. Moods are
constantly changing. Lower moods, like clouds on an oth-
erwise sunny day, pass. According to POM/HR, we cannot
think our way out of a mood. Trying to do so will only
deepen it, producing uncomfortable feelings and prolong-
2 POM/HR theorists use the terms processing thinking for analytic thinking and free-flowing thinking for intuitive thinking.
3 Is the serotonin deficiency seen as an epidemic by Norden (1996) in Beyond Prozac the cause (as he hypothesizes) or the effect of stress, resulting in widespread Prozac use?
186
ing the experience. The best solution is to recognize the
fluctuation (mood recognition is a form of thought recog-
nition), avoid dwelling on it, and simply wait it out. Until it
passes, it is preferable not to try to solve problems, as this
will be mentally straining and unproductive. Knowing that
moods are temporary allows one to relax when facing them.
Remaining as much as possible in the intuitive mode and
maintaining a quiet mind will allow them to naturally pass.
In sum, the higher the level of understanding thought,
resulting in proper use of thinking as cued by feeling, the
higher the overall level of functioning and mental health or
well-being. Conversely, the lower the level of understand-
ing, the more misuse and abuse of the analytic mode. This
leads to experiencing more uncomfortable feelings, stress,
and strain, resulting in poorer and less efficient solution
building and a lower level of mental well-being.
Levels of Mental Well-Being. In The Renaissance of
Psychology (1998), George Pransky, one of POM/HR’s
founders, described six levels of mental well-being: pro-
found well-being, well-being, chronic low-level stress,
chronic high-level stress, chronic distress, and chronic deep
distress. He drew the “mental health line” at well-being.
Pransky (1998, p. 108) defines chronic deep distress as
inability to separate thought from reality, resulting in a
chronically frightening world and the need to be protected.
There are no opportunities for relationships and work.
At the level of chronic distress, limited thought recogni-
tion, accompanied by “rumination” and “distorted percep-
tions,” keeps the person in a constant state of crisis (p. 108).
In chronic high-level stress “life is stable but difficult
because of chronic, but unrecognized, worry, bother, and
frenetic thinking,” resulting in labile moods, poor job per-
formance, and chronically conflicted relationships.
In chronic low-level distress, Pransky (1998) described
good job performance and stable relationships built on
overusing the analytic mode, thereby creating tension and
joyless living.
As people cross the mental health line, they move to well-
being characterized, according to Pransky (1998), by “high
thought recognition and desirable feelings.” This person is
“creative and resourceful at work” and enjoys fulfilling rela-
tionships.
At the highest level mental health is profound well-being
in which deep reflection based in “free-flowing thinking”
produces “ingenious ideas that society values,” and one is
able to bring out the best in other people (p. 108).
Resilience: The Default Setting. POM/HR is easily prac-
ticed if accepted open-mindedly and accompanied by a sus-
pension of other contradictory practices. Intuitive,
commonsense thinking is available to everyone as the
default setting. Young children, who are far less conditioned
to analytic thinking, can easily distract and quiet themselves,
 Wartel • A Strengths-Based Practice Model: Psychology of Mind and Health Realization
resume free-flowing thinking, and quickly regain a positive
and playful state following a discomforting event. Using the
barometer of feelings, people simply need to get out of their
own way to rediscover their intuitive mode and quiet mind
and follow it as their guide. When people trust and follow
their common sense, they will always mix the optimal
amount of intuitive and analytic thinking to yield the best
possible solution available at that point in time. And make
no mistake about productivity. Clearly focused, quiet minds
work smarter rather than harder.
Practice Implications
POM/HR is a simple, parsimonious theory that builds on
cognitive and constructivist psychologies. Thought is the
foundation for feeling and behavior and is created through
two modes of thinking: a natural, innate, intuitive mode,
characterized by common sense, creativity, and wisdom,
which is accessed effortlessly and accompanied by comfort-
able feelings; and an analytic mode, learned early on through
parental and school-based conditioning, which is best for
deciding rapidly among finite, quantifiable, fixed choices.
Analytic thinking takes effort and can escalate through
overuse and abuse, resulting in uncomfortable feelings,
mental strain, and potentially poor actions. The more peo-
ple trust the intuitive mode’s guidance and supervision of
the mix, the more effortless and productive the solution and
the higher the likelihood of effective behavior.
A practice approach that assesses clients’ understanding of
thought, strengthens their awareness of thinking modes via
the barometer of feelings, and assists them in rediscovering
an optimal thinking mix produces second-order change.
Rather than giving clients a fish to feed themselves for a day,
they are taught how to fish so that they may feed themselves
for life. True to its underlying philosophy, this approach
maintains a calm, positive atmosphere in which to teach basic
principles, trusts practitioners’ intuition to identify teachable
moments, and affirms the innate wisdom and strengths of
people seeking help. Being nonanalytic, it avoids diagnosing
pathology using categories from the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—Text Revision
(DSM–IV–TR, American Psychiatric Association, 2000;
Kutchins & Kirk, 1997) and tends to brevity.
Process of Helping
People seeking help will find similarities and differences
between practitioners of traditional therapies and
POM/HR-informed practitioners. Humanistic psycholo-
gists like Rogers (1957), and the solution-focused work of
Hubble, Duncan, and Miller (1989) identify the impor-
tance of the therapeutic relationship. In POM/HR-
informed practice, establishing rapport through the
4 You are invited to extrapolate this view to the potential negative effects of having problem-saturated conversations with friends.
5 For a discussion of the catalytic function in a first-order change model that is managed-care friendly, see Bennett (1992).
187
relationship is a critical early step. But in this practice, lis-
tening for the clients’ understanding of thought and their
beliefs about presenting requests is the preferred road to
building rapport. Empathizing avoids promoting ventila-
tion and reinforcing beliefs that fail to recognize that per-
ceived reality is constructed from inside out via thought.
Lengthy problem description accompanied by emotionally
saturated exploration is seen in this practice as another way
to use the analytic mode, reinforcing negative thoughts
and feelings.4 Respect, genuineness, warmth, and open-
ness, plus empathizing without joining unproductively,
quickly establishes rapport. The practitioner promotes a
relaxed tone and calm setting. This is based on state-
dependent learning and suggests that optimal learning will
be facilitated by a quiet mind.
Some traditional therapies hypothesize that events in the
past (e.g., childhood experiences, trauma, conditioned
behaviors, etc.) cause problems in the present and seek to
undo their effects. Exploration of earlier experiences cou-
pled with abreacted feelings or behavioral or cognitive
reconditioning becomes part of the process. These therapies
often assume that change will be resisted and will involve
substantial effort, time, and emotional pain.
POM/HR practice hypothesizes that rediscovering an
optimal mix of thinking, guided by common sense and wis-
dom, will restore mental balance and remain available to
solve future challenges. Because common sense and wisdom
are already available, though underutilized, they can be
accessed quickly so that help need not take a long time. In
fact, change can be so rapid that practitioners speak of “ver-
tical jumps” in levels of understanding, bypassing interme-
diate levels. Feeling-saturated recall of memories is avoided,
as is the accompanying mental distress. Substituting one
conditioned behavior or belief for another is seen as time
consuming and insufficient to produce lasting change.
Traditional therapies often require booster sessions over
time. POM/HR-informed practice assumes that once a per-
son is on track again and consistently functioning above the
mental health line, this natural healing process will be self-
reinforcing and self-sustaining. Ending in traditional therapies
can be a time-consuming process. In this practice, people
who identify that they have been sufficiently helped simply
choose to stop visiting, confident that they will continue to
grow on their own. “Flights into health” that are based on
achieving higher levels of understanding are welcome.
Although rediscovery and use of commonsense thinking
is initially facilitated by outside help and may be supported
by some self-talk and letting go, this process usually falls
away over time. Catalyzed,5 it once again becomes as
autonomous as it was prior to overconditioning. If I may
take a bit of poetic license—this resilient healing born of
detours through challenging times produces a repaired pro-
FAM I LI E S I N SOC I ETY • Volume 84, Number 2
cess with scar tissue even stronger than the original. Over
time, with growth and development back on track, the pro-
cess continually improves upon itself.
POM/HR-informed practice requires that the helper be
conversant with and able to teach the theory. This is sup-
ported by practitioners regularly using the tenets and
achieving their own level of mental health, defined as con-
sistently functioning above the mental health line (Pransky,
1998). Relaxed, calm, intuitive practice in which both par-
ties trust each other achieves value-added outcomes. This
invigorates helpers and prevents fatigue and burnout.
Reports in the POM/HR literature reveal that therapists
who are experiencing stress and fatigue but who then dis-
cover this practice renew their interest in helping (Carlson
& Bailey, 1997). Selective, facilitative, and therapeutic dis-
closure of the usefulness of POM/HR to the helper
strengthens the helping relationship and engenders hope.
Self-Help Orientation
This practice trusts in a person’s ability to self-heal. It
empowers people to help themselves by providing tools that
they can then use for a lifetime. Helping is framed more as
educating and teaching than as counseling and therapy.
Suggesting useful readings is a significant aid to this process.
A caveat, however, is in order for people already in therapy,
for example, for stress management. Because POM/HR may
be a very different way of providing help, clients are informed
at the outset that exposure to this new material may affect
their therapy. They may want to explore this further, talking
it over with their current therapist and then making a deci-
sion about further consultation. Fortunately, POM/HR is
compatible with many strengths-based models of help.
Teaching and the Thinking Modes
Teaching, the heart of POM/HR-informed practice,
requires some use of the analytic mode. Although the lan-
guage of teaching can, at times, be metaphoric, evoking
abstract concepts, practitioners accept the incongruity of
relying, at times, on cognitive concepts and a mode whose
dominance it ultimately aims to diminish. Knowing when
and what to teach, however, depends on the practitioner’s
understanding and insight (Mills, 1995, p. 118). Early and
ongoing conditioning that reverses humans’ inborn disposi-
tion makes the analytic mode primary and the intuitive
mode secondary. Successful POM/HR practice tips the bal-
ance back the other way.
An Illustration of POM/HR-Informed Practice
A person in his 50s had heard the practitioner at a pre-
sentation and subsequently came for help to deal with his
stress. In his first visit, the client spoke of chronic distress,
rumination, and mental strain, adding that on the basis of
prior counseling, this was caused by a parent’s long-term
criticism going back to childhood. While speaking about
188
this parent, the client’s mood quickly deteriorated. It was
clear that the client was prepared to ventilate at length,
believing from past experience that this is how helping
worked.
After briefly listening, building rapport, and discussing
options, including medication evaluation by a consulting
psychiatrist for symptom relief, the practitioner asked per-
mission to share another other way of viewing stress. This
was allowed, and an introductory discussion ensued about
thought, belief, and how reality is constructed from inside
out. The client was interested in the idea that once a belief is
created, like the client’s belief about a parent, a person tends
only to see confirmatory evidence. Able to listen with an
open mind, the client decided to try to learn more about this
method first to see whether it would sufficiently help and
avoid the need to be evaluated for medication.
POM/HR goals became understanding the two modes
of thinking, recognizing thoughts, and beginning to use
this recognition to reduce rumination and stress, to access
more free-flowing thinking, and to experience more positive
feeling. Over a few sessions, supplementing insights from
reading Slowing Down to the Speed of Life (Carlson & Bailey,
1997) with other understanding and applications to every-
day life, the client made strong gains. Expressing conviction
of being well on the way, and confident of being able to
continue growing without further sessions, the client chose
to stop.
Standard across practices, whether they are POM/HR-
informed or use other methods, is an initial focus on reliev-
ing suffering and exploring options, including safety and
referral for medication evaluation. The symptom picture was
abbreviated in the above vignette, but many clinicians seeing
this person would have identified anxiety, depressed mood,
rumination, and impaired social and occupational function-
ing and would have assigned one or more DSM–IV–TR
diagnoses (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). A
POM/HR practitioner focuses on assessing thought recog-
nition, level of understanding, strengths, and resources.
Teaching the concepts initially resembled work done in
cognitive therapies. However, whereas cognitive therapies
try to change specific thoughts and beliefs, POM/HR prac-
tice goes beyond this, focusing on the thinking process itself
to promote second-order change. This person decided to try
to try to improve presenting symptoms to see if it could be
done without using medication. The client evidenced strong
readiness for change (Prochaska, Norcross, & DiClemente,
1994). Through a brief POM/HR-informed helping pro-
cess, this person quickly overcame presenting symptoms,
rekindled hope, and was well on the way to further gains.
Applications
POM/HR has been applied to a wide range of present-
ing problems. In assisting trauma survivors, practicing from
 Wartel • A Strengths-Based Practice Model: Psychology of Mind and Health Realization
this vantage point improves upon solution-focused and cog-
nitive–behavioral strategies. POM/HR-informed practice
dovetails well with other resilience and strengths-based
models that recognize challenges rather than deficits
(Benard, 1991, 1997; Saleebey, 1997b; Werner & Smith,
1992; Wolin & Wolin, 1994). It supports helping people
who have faced traumatic events to reduce their suffering,
resume their lives, and grow.
POM/HR-informed practice with its here-and-now
focus sees the memory of any event occurring in the past as
a thought, whether the event happened a day, a month, a
year, or decades ago. Traumatized persons, often unable to
maintain high thought recognition in the face of initially
overwhelming events, are at the mercy of these memories
and associated painful feelings. Without understanding that
these are thoughts of prior events now arising internally,
these memories, perceived as current reality, continue to
intrude painfully and often precipitate an emotional shut-
down. Even though an event took place a long time before,
without understanding about thought and memory as a
type of thought, people may experience something renewed
reliving of the event with numbing symptoms.
Crisis intervention with trauma victims focuses on creat-
ing safety and reducing suffering. As stabilization succeeds
and a calmer state begins to return, opportunities to begin
the educational process toward thought recognition slowly
avail. Permission to proceed is respectfully sought and
explained in terms of potential value to strengthening stabi-
lization and aiding in recovery from the trauma. This prac-
tice, given its didactic nature, here-and-now focus,
avoidance of emotionally charged material, empowering
stance, frequent checking, and respectful and regular seek-
ing of permission, has numerous safeguards when guided by
an experienced practitioner functioning at a high level of
mental health. Over time, even the most egregiously vic-
timized people, following this POM/HR-informed process,
can be helped to recover and grow.
Traditional practice using psychoanalytic or expressive
models with a focus on past events and abreaction creates a
risk of promoting the reliving symptoms of posttraumatic
stress disorder, worsening the person’s emotional state and
delaying recovery.6 However, some first-order change
strategies based in cognitive–behavioral and solution-
focused theory are compatible and can be integrated into
POM/HR-informed practice.
Treatment based on POM/HR holds out promise for
people diagnosed as severely mentally ill. At the lower levels
of understanding and thought recognition, a person is
unable to separate thought from reality. When these
thoughts spiral downward and are accompanied by fearful
or depressed feelings and agitation, the symptoms of major
mental illness are experienced.
6 Lauren Slater (2003) in a recent article wrote, “New research shows that some traumatized people may be better off repressing the experience than illuminating it in
therapy.” The research on trauma treatment presented in her article has interesting implications for HR/POM.
189
Biological psychiatry posits organic causes for these symp-
toms, adducing evidence from neurotransmitter chemistry,
the ameliorative effects of psychoactive medications, and
genetics. Another explanation, which fits the same observa-
tions but reverses cause and effect, is that prolonged overuse
and abuse of the analytic mode depletes and overwhelms
neurotransmitters, producing the downward spiral and
symptoms seen. Medications can helpfully interrupt the
cycle. Parents having low levels of understanding and
thought recognition can induce these thinking styles in their
children through conditioning. Genetic predisposition in
the form of biological differences promotes vulnerability
but not destiny. This view could also help explain the results
of resilience studies. These show children who are living in
challenging home situations succeeding when exposed to
the adaptive style of a positive adult in their environment
(Werner & Smith, 1992).
The POM/HR model is compatible with mixing cogni-
tive and biological explanations for major mental illness
(Mills, 1995, chapter 9). Psychiatrists who use the
POM/HR model prescribe psychoactive medications as
needed. When initially encountering a person who is expe-
riencing painful emotional upheaval, any compassionate
practitioner would consider using psychiatric consultation
to evaluate the need for medication to reduce suffering and
psychiatric hospitalization to support safety. After stabiliza-
tion occurs and levels of understanding and thought recog-
nition begin to increase, psychiatrists can monitor and
reevaluate the need for medication, tapering doses as appro-
priate. Practice, following leading-edge rehabilitation prin-
ciples, would support adaptive functioning, including help
obtaining entitlements, housing, and other community sup-
port. Initially, POM/HR teaching would retain a cognitive
focus, increasing thought recognition.
Joseph Bailey (1990) has written a self-help book based
on earlier POM/HR concepts to help those abusing alco-
hol: The Serenity Principle. Although concepts presented in
that book have since evolved, they remain relevant. In
POM/HR, lower levels of understanding and thought
recognition are characterized by believing that success and
happiness come from outside of ourselves. Given the
vagaries of life, supplies wax and wane, inevitably producing
insecurity. This can lead to addictive seeking and anaes-
thetizing. Changing the insecure mind to an increasingly
tranquil one through POM/HR yields serenity, obviating
the need for alcohol or substances.
The POM/HR model has been successfully used to
strengthen relationships and marriage. Because no two peo-
ple can think alike, each marriage represents a wonderful
microcosm of diversity. This challenges the mates to find
richness in their differences, thereby vitalizing their rela-
tionship. POM/HR practitioners teach this tenet to cou-
FAM I LI E S I N SOC I ETY • Volume 84, Number 2
ples. This reframes their differences as being enriching
rather than conflicting. Traditional couple counseling posits
a need for compatibility, based on each mate sharing similar
thinking and beliefs. The POM/HR model sees this as
neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for rich and last-
ing relationships. George Pransky’s (1990) Divorce Is Not
the Answer is a self-help book using the POM/HR model.
The popular stress reduction consultant and author,
Richard Carlson, has explored his learning and use of this
model in Slowing Down to the Speed of Life (Carlson &
Bailey, 1997). Although POM/HR can be synergistically
combined with compatible, cognitive–behavioral, stress-
management strategies to produce strong results, some
purists eschew any additional, active technique as too effort-
ful. Mindful meditation and other meditative practices
(Kabot-Zinn, 1994) that have also been used to reach a
quiet mind are seen by POM/HR purists as unnecessary,
especially at the higher levels of thought recognition and
mental well-being. In my practice of stress-reduction con-
sulting using a POM/HR approach, I have found these
other adjuncts to be initially helpful in raising people above
the mental health line, after which the process becomes self-
sustaining. Then adjuncts can drop away.7
The POM/HR model, with its focus on well-being,
serves as the guiding philosophy for the new Sydney Banks
Institute for Innate Health at the Robert C. Byrd Health
Sciences Center at West Virginia University. The institute is
named after the Scottish-born philosopher and theosophist
Sydney Banks (1998, 2000, 2001), whose seminal ideas led
to the discovery of POM/HR, and was dedicated in 2000
to promote health and wellness. It is promoting use of the
model at this large medical campus dedicated to teaching,
research, and treatment. You can learn more by accessing
their Web site (see Appendix).
Finally, in keeping with a human service mission,
POM/HR strategies have been successfully used in youth
and community development projects (Mills, 1995;
Saleebey, 1997a). These programs are often based in low-
income housing projects in inner-city neighborhoods.
Results include helping delinquent and gang-involved
youth, abusive parents and spouses, and substance-abusing
adults to regain their equilibrium, access their innate com-
mon sense and wisdom, discontinue maladaptive behaviors
based in insecure thinking, and get back on track toward
capable parenting, loving and respectful relationships,
school success, and gainful employment. Frequently sup-
ported by government grants, the outcomes of these pro-
grams have been documented, and the programs themselves
have been profiled on national and public television.
Following these earlier successes, community- and school-
based programs have been developed to emphasize protec-
tive factors and resilience (Benard, 1991, 1997).
7 In their recent book, The Breakout Principle (Benson & Proctor, 2003), Herbert Benson and William Proctor identify a self-help process with interesting implications for
POM/HR practice. They conclude that an optimal level of “struggle” and resultant stress is necessary to trigger the benefits of this process (p. 28). The reader is also
referred to The Positive Power of Negative Thinking (Norem ,2001) which details an interesting self-help strategy for “defensive pessimists” that contrasts with the views of
POM/HR.
190
Conclusion
POM/HR has refined its tenets over the past 2 decades,
becoming a true strengths-based model. Yet, it has not
achieved widespread recognition in the human service field.
The model is easily learned, brief, and energizes practition-
ers, preventing their burnout. It offers a comprehensive the-
ory that heuristically generates hypotheses supporting both
micropractice and macropractice. Reported outcomes are
robust, although the model would benefit from additional
research.
POM/HR founders Mills (1995) and Pransky (1998)
have envisioned a time when continued development and
application of these concepts would contribute to creating a
world where peace, harmony, and fulfillment prevail. They
see living at a high level of understanding and mental well-
being as a benefit to humankind. I encourage human service
professionals sharing this vision to seek more information
through the list of Web sites (see Appendix) and references
to decide whether these innovative and promising tenets
merit their continued interest.
References
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual
of mental disorders (4th ed., text rev.). Washington, DC: Author.
Bailey, J. (1990). The serenity principle: Finding inner peace in recovery. New
York: HarperCollins.
Bailey, J. (1999). The speed trap: How to avoid the frenzy of the fast lane. San
Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.
Banks, S. (1998). The missing link: Reflections on philosophy & spirit. Renton,
WA: International Human Relations Consultants.
Banks, S. (2000). The Long Beach lectures [videocassettes, vols. 1–3]. Renton,
WA: Lone Pine Media.
Banks, S. (2001). The enlightened gardener. Renton, WA: International
Human Relations Consultants.
Bar-On, R. (2000). Emotional and social intelligence: Insights from the
Emotional Quotient Inventory. In R. Bar-On & J. D. A. Parker (Eds.),
The handbook of emotional intelligence: Theory, development, assessment,
and application at home, school, and in the workplace (pp. 363–388).
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Appendix
Please see the following Web sites for further information:
www.pomhr.com
www.healthrealization.com
www.healthreal.com
www.lonepinepublishing.com/cat/self_help
www.hsc.wvu.edu/sbi/
www.dontsweat.com
www.pranskyandassociates.com
Stephen G. Wartel, MSW, is a clinical social worker and stress reduction
consultant living in Gansevoort, NY. E-mail: swartel@nycap.com.
Submitted: February 23, 2001
Revised: March 10, 2003
Accepted: September 24, 2001