A Practical, Scientifically-Grounded Approach to Values-Flow Helping Everyday People Thrive, Optimally Perform, and Vitally Engage in Life

1. Introduction 2. Theoretical Foundations 3.The Values-Flow Card 4. VIRTUE: The Core of Values-Flow 5. INVOLVE: The ARIA Skills 6. VITAL: Cultivating the Autotelic Personality Through Serious Play 7. ACCEPT: Cultivating Willingness as the Gateway to Engagement 8. REGULATE: Optimal Internal Regulation 9. RELATE: Optimal Interpersonal and Environmental Relationships 10. From Burning in Hell to Values-Flow: A Personal Story 11. Values-Flow in the Therapy Room 12. Values-Flow in the Classroom 13. Values Flow in Coaching and Managing 14. The Life Well Lived. Bibliography

Biography

Margaret Kern is a Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research is collaborative in nature and draws on a variety of methodologies to examine questions around who thrives in life and why, including understanding and measuring healthy functioning, identifying individual and social factors impacting life trajectories, and systems informed approaches to wellbeing. You can find out more about Professor Kern's work at www.peggykern.org

Cedomir Ignjatovic is a Clinical Psychologist and Director of Embrace the Moment Psychology & Wellbeing Coaching in Sydney. With a PhD from the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Wellbeing Science, he integrates clinical expertise, research on flow and values-based wellbeing, and writing, balancing innovation with family and community life. You can find out more about Dr Ignjatovic's work at https://embracepsychology.com/

"There is a great deal of wellbeing science out there, but precious little that translates it into language and practices everyday people can actually use. Ced and Peggy have done that translation work beautifully. The House of Functioning, the Values-Flow Card, the gentle Flow Nudges threaded through each chapter — these are tools that meet people wherever they happen to be standing today. A book to keep close, return to, and share."
— Professor Narelle Lemon, Vice Chancellor Professoriate Research Fellow, Edith Cowan University

"Clinical psychology and positive psychology have largely been progressing in parallel rather than in dialogue of late. Ced and Peggy have written the book that puts them in the same room — not by smoothing over their disagreements but by holding them honestly and putting them to work. The integration of ACT, DBT, and Flow Theory is rigorous, generous, and refreshingly practical. It is rare to find a book that speaks meaningfully to therapists, teachers, coaches, and the everyday adventurer all at once. This one does."
 — Professor Narelle Lemon, Vice Chancellor Professoriate Research Fellow, Edith Cowan University


"As a clinical, coaching, and positive psychologist who has long straddled all three worlds - and as a practitioner who brought clinical approaches including DBT into my coaching work early on - this book feels like a conversation I have been waiting to have. Longstanding colleagues and genuine pioneers, Dr Cedomir Ignjatovic and Professor Peggy Kern, have created something rare: a rigorous, generous, and deeply practical bridge between clinical and positive psychology. A magnum opus."

Dr Suzy Green, Clinical & Coaching Psychologist, Founder, The Positivity Institute; Honorary Fellow, Centre for Wellbeing Science, University of Melbourne