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Positive psychology workshops built on the PERMA model

Positive psychology is the science of what helps people and teams flourish, not just get by.

Positive psychology workshops are not therapy and do not replace good work design, psychosocial risk controls, an EAP or appropriate clinical care. They can complement these measures by giving participants practical language and practices for strengths, connection and wellbeing.

Many workplace wellbeing strategies focus on prevention, support or recovery. EAPs support people when concerns arise, mental health training builds awareness, and resilience programs help people navigate pressure and change. Positive psychology addresses a different question: what helps people and teams flourish? It develops practical awareness of positive emotion, strengths use, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment.

HSG’s Positive Psychology Workshops use evidence-informed methods centred on Martin Seligman’s PERMA model and the practical use of strengths at work. Participants explore the five PERMA domains, recognise strengths in themselves and others, and choose realistic practices they can apply to their work and relationships. Holistic Services Group has delivered wellbeing programs for Australian organisations since 2003, supporting more than 1,600 corporate, government, healthcare, education and not-for-profit organisations.

Trusted by Microsoft, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, CSIRO, the Australian Federal Police, and the Department of Defence.

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Best Suited for Organisations Supporting:

Whole workforces and intact teams in any sector
Wellbeing days, campaign weeks and conference activations
Teams supplementing resilience or mental health work with strengths-based capability building
Workforces with strong baseline wellbeing looking to move from “managing” to “thriving”
Annual wellbeing calendars seeking variety beyond stress and resilience topics
Leadership cohorts modelling optimism and engagement at the top

Why flourishing and strengths matter at work

Supporting mental health and managing psychosocial hazards are essential, but reducing distress is not the same as building flourishing. Positive psychology gives organisations a complementary, non-clinical way to help people recognise what supports engagement, connection, meaning and accomplishment.

Five routes to flourishing: The University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center describes positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment as five independently valuable building blocks of wellbeing in the PERMA model.
Strengths use at work: A 2025 meta-analysis found positive associations between strengths use at work, employee wellbeing and work performance. These findings demonstrate association; they do not establish that a single workshop will cause improvements in organisational performance. Read the 2025 meta-analysis on strengths use and work performance.

Positive psychology workshops can form one complementary part of an organisation’s broader wellbeing approach. They are capability-building sessions—not psychosocial risk controls, clinical treatment or a substitute for addressing hazards in the way work is designed and managed.

How HSG Approaches Positive Psychology

HSG’s workshops are grounded in the PERMA model, the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center’s framework for human flourishing, covering positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. It identifies five domains to build sustained wellbeing:

Positive emotion

Exploring realistic optimism, gratitude, savouring and recognition without suggesting that difficult emotions should be ignored.

Engagement

Using skills, strengths and attention in absorbing work, with clear goals and feedback helping create the conditions for flow.

Relationships

Strengthening connection through kindness, appreciation, trust and recognition of what colleagues contribute.

Meaning

Connecting daily work with values, contribution, purpose and the experience of mattering.

Accomplishment

Recognising progress, developing mastery and using strengths in the pursuit of meaningful goals.

How strengths-based positive psychology works

Strengths-based practice helps people notice the capacities they use when they are at their best and apply those strengths more deliberately. In an HSG workshop, participants may be guided to:

Identify personal strengths through structured reflection.
Recognise where those strengths already contribute to engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment.
Explore how to apply strengths more deliberately to tasks, collaboration and goals.
Practise noticing and acknowledging strengths in colleagues.
Choose one realistic strengths-use commitment to apply after the workshop.

This is not about labelling people, overlooking development needs or assuming every strength suits every situation. It gives participants practical language for recognising what they contribute and using it with greater intention.

Workshops translate PERMA and strengths-based principles into practical workplace applications. Participants leave with a clearer understanding of the five PERMA domains, language for recognising strengths, and one or more realistic practices they can apply after the session.

Positive Psychology Workshops are the flourishing-focused complement to HSG’s Resilience Training & Growth Mindset, which builds the capacity to navigate challenge well. Together, the two services equip staff for both halves of workplace wellbeing: navigating challenge constructively, and thriving when things are going well. Many HSG clients run both.

Combines Well With

Resilience Training & Growth Mindset: the challenge-focused complement to positive psychology’s thriving focus.
Workplace Mental Health Training: foundational mental health literacy across the workforce.
Stress & Burnout Prevention Workshops: for cohorts under sustained pressure.
Annual Wellbeing Program: for organisations sequencing positive psychology across a planned annual rhythm.
Workplace Mental Health & Resilience: the parent pillar covering HSG’s full mental health and resilience service range.

Workshop Modules Available

HSG delivers Positive Psychology Workshops as 60–90 minute sessions, half-day formats, or structured series across a planned annual schedule. Sessions are available onsite across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and regional areas nationally, and virtually nationwide, New Zealand and across Asia-Pacific. Onsite delivery is also available in New Zealand. Sessions are welcoming, practical, and judgment-free, suitable for workplace groups regardless of previous wellbeing experience.

Building Strong Teams: Enhancing Workplace Wellbeing through Positive Psychology

Builds the practical skills behind strong team relationships: how teams communicate, support one another, and create conditions where people feel genuinely valued. Particularly useful for teams that are functional but not yet truly connected.

PERMA focus: Relationships

Learning outcome: Connection skills.

Kindness, the Key to Happiness

Explores positive psychology research on kindness as a workplace practice, and its links to everyday connection and morale. Identifies practical ways teams can build a culture where kindness is the norm.

PERMA focus: Positive Emotion and Relationships

Learning outcome: Practical kindness habits and culture-building.

Staying Positive in Challenging Times

Practical tools for navigating tough periods constructively. Participants learn to shift perspective without forced positivity, develop habits that sustain energy through pressure, and build the personal infrastructure for a sustained outlook. Scenario-based, not theoretical.

Learning outcome: Skills to maintain a positive mindset.

Think, Grow, Thrive: The Art of Empowered Thinking

Practical cognitive habits that support sustained energy and engagement at work, and how to build them deliberately. Explores the role of thought patterns in workplace energy and engagement, and shifts from self-limiting to constructive patterns. Grounded in positive psychology and cognitive science.

Learning outcome: Mindset and tools for growth and success.

The Art of Joyfulness: Cultivating Energy and Engagement at Work

In fast-paced work environments, energy and mood are often influenced by external pressures rather than intentionally shaped. This engaging and practical workshop explores how individuals can actively cultivate positive emotional states throughout the workday. Drawing on insights from Positive Psychology, participants learn how attention, perspective, and everyday habits can influence focus, motivation, and overall experience at work. Through simple, evidence-informed strategies and interactive reflection, staff gain practical tools to create more energising and enjoyable workdays, regardless of circumstances.

PERMA focus: Positive Emotion and Engagement

Learning outcome: Practical strategies to enhance energy, focus, and positive emotional experience at work.

Sessions can be sequenced as a single pilot workshop or as a series across the year. HSG works with you to sequence modules based on your team’s starting point and current wellbeing priorities.

Outcomes

What HSG can report after delivery:

Attendance and participation rates
Session feedback and satisfaction scores
Participant-reported usefulness and immediate-application intent
Qualitative staff comments
Repeat enrolment for advancing cohorts

What the workshops are designed to support:

Stronger workplace connection and team relationships
More positive emotion and energy across the workday
Support for sustained wellbeing beyond reactive mental health frameworks
Strengths-based engagement with work
Visible employer investment in flourishing, not just risk management

Why the investment matters:

Positive psychology can help build the conditions that make work meaningful, connected and engaging, alongside HSG’s mental health and resilience programs.

Very informative and helpful presentation. Presenter had very good knowledge and gave good examples and had a mindfulness exercise for participants to try.

Cindy Tsataros, St John Ambulance (NT)

Why HSG

HSG’s positive psychology workshops are delivered by specialist facilitators: qualified psychologists, wellbeing practitioners and experienced workshop leaders with discipline-relevant credentials and workplace delivery experience. Sessions draw on evidence-informed positive psychology research, the PERMA model, strengths-based practice and HSG’s own Culture of Wellness© program. For organisations integrating positive psychology with broader mental health, leadership and culture work, see HSG’s Annual Wellbeing Program and Custom Workplace Wellbeing Strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Positive psychology workshops can be tailored for employees, teams and leaders across a range of industries and roles. They are practical, non-clinical learning sessions, and participants do not need any previous knowledge of positive psychology.

Resilience training generally focuses on how people respond and adapt when facing pressure, change or adversity. Positive psychology takes a broader view of flourishing by exploring strengths, positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. The two approaches can complement one another, but they are not interchangeable.

Positive psychology is the scientific study of the factors that help individuals and communities flourish. Martin Seligman’s PERMA model describes five elements of wellbeing: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. Strengths-based practice helps people recognise capacities they already use effectively and apply them more deliberately. HSG workshops introduce practical ways participants can explore these ideas at work.

Organisations can measure attendance, participant feedback, reported relevance and usefulness, and participants’ confidence or intention to apply the practices introduced. Where workshops form a series, follow-up evaluation can explore whether participants have practised or applied the material. HSG does not assume that a workshop will reduce injuries, psychological claims, absenteeism or other organisational outcomes.

Yes. Workshops can be tailored to the organisation, audience, available time and broader wellbeing program. Onsite delivery is available across major cities and regional Australia, with delivery also available in New Zealand and Asia-Pacific. Virtual delivery is available nationwide and across New Zealand and Asia-Pacific. A series provides additional opportunities to practise and reinforce the material.

Positive psychology workshops provide proactive, non-clinical learning that can complement an EAP and other workplace wellbeing initiatives. They do not replace an EAP, appropriate clinical care, good work design or an employer’s responsibility to identify and manage psychosocial hazards.

Talk to Us About Positive Psychology Workshops for Your Workforce

The workplaces that move beyond coping are the ones that invest in flourishing. Help your people build the strengths, connections and habits that make work somewhere they want to be.

Call us: 1300 889 073

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HSG has supported more than 1,600 organisations across corporate, government, healthcare, education and not-for-profit sectors, including Microsoft, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, BHP, the Department of Defence, St Vincent’s, the University of Sydney, Deakin University, The Smith Family and headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation.

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