The Prevalence of Positive Affirmations as Clinical Intervention among Mental Health Practitioners: A Brief Survey

Positive self-affirmations are, by both anecdote and demonstrable presence in popular and academic literature, an accepted therapeutic intervention. Yet little to no literature exists exploring the number of practicing mental health clinicians employing the technique with their patients. This paper briefly explores the psychological theory underlying the use of affirming statements in a clinical context (self-affirmation theory) as well as the place of the practice within both academic and popular writing. Finally, the paper shares the result of a limited survey among mental health practitioners to assess how prevalent the intervention actually is. Positive affirmations are shown to be very prevalent within the surveyed population indicating a high desirability for further study in this regard.