Flourishing Framework
Who doesn’t want to feel like they’re thriving? Here’s a framework that helps individuals, families, organizations, and the professionals who support them move from simply getting by to genuinely flourishing.
From Fixing Problems to Flourishing
Much of the support offered in adoption—and in many areas of life—focuses on identifying challenges and reducing pain. That work is essential, but it’s only half of the picture. What’s often missing is a clear, research-backed path that helps people move from “I’m managing” to “I’m truly thriving.” This is where Positive Psychology comes in.
Positive Psychology, founded by Dr. Martin Seligman, began with a pivotal question: What makes life most worth living?
After decades in traditional clinical psychology, Seligman noticed something missing: psychology was exceptional at reducing suffering but rarely helped people build wellbeing. As he said: “If all we do is fix problems, we only bring people back to zero.”
This realization sparked a movement focused on strengths, meaning, resilience, and fulfillment, and eventually led to the creation of the Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program at the University of Pennsylvania, where I am completing my graduate work.
Why This Matters for Adoption Today
Adoption has evolved dramatically over the past 25 years. We now elevate more complete, triad-inclusive stories—reflecting the experiences of adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive families with greater honesty, nuance, and compassion.
Yet despite this progress, most adoption support still centers on reducing distress rather than cultivating wellbeing.
The next step is offering a visible, science-informed pathway that helps people not only heal, but grow, strengthen, clarify, and flourish.
PERMA: Dr. Martin Seligman’s Framework for Flourishing
Seligman’s PERMA model identifies five essential elements of wellbeing:
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Positive Emotion – moments of joy, gratitude, and emotional ease
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Engagement – feeling absorbed and energized in meaningful activities
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Relationships – nurturing supportive, connected, healthy bonds
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Meaning – being guided by purpose, identity, and contribution
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Accomplishment – experiencing progress that builds confidence and agency
This framework offers a universal roadmap for flourishing, one that applies beautifully within adoption and extends naturally to HR, leadership, therapists who want to expand their practice, and any environment where people want to grow.
The Heart of SoulFilling
SoulFilling exists to offer this missing piece: a strengths-based, reflective, research-informed approach that helps people lighten what they carry, strengthen what’s possible, and step into a life that feels grounded, connected, and deeply meaningful.
Reflect + Grow = Flourish
Flourishing for Leadership & HR
At SoulFilling, flourishing is for real people living real lives, at home, in families, and in the workplace. With more than two decades of HR leadership experience and three decades of lived adoption insight, I welcome conversations with organizational and HR leaders who want to cultivate resilience, reflection, and human-centered wellbeing within their teams.
If you’re exploring positive culture, flourishing practices, or reflective growth in leadership or HR, I’d be glad to connect.
My capstone as it stands now, is a collaboration with the Center for Adoption Support & Education (C.A.S.E.) to integrate positive psychology into adoption-competent care. The project pilots a flourishing-focused survey addendum, a six-module clinician micro-training, and a narrative initiative that illustrates what resilience, meaning, and growth can look like across the adoption triad.
Be the first to hear new conversations, reflections, and upcoming offerings designed to support the entire adoption triad.