Welcome to Researching Happy with Dr Matthew Iasiello. This is the weekly podcast all about the stories behind the studies of the happiness and wellbeing research world.
Welcome to Episode 24. This week we have someone who came highly recommended to the show, Paul Tupou-Vea. Paul is the Director of Clifftop Wellbeing and the former President of the New Zealand Association of Positive Psychology.
Paul has years of experience in the promotion of wellbeing in schools, and works to meet the diverse wellbeing needs and challenges of learners, teachers, leaders and the community around the school. And that is the best part of the conversation - Paul really brings something that is often missing in wellbeing practice - Connection - or seeing the bigger picture.
Science has a pesky habit of atomising the human experience, meaning breaking down our experiences into their most basic parts, which is useful for research but stops working when we try and apply that knowledge into a complex setting like a school.
Paul walks us through Māori and Tongan models of wellbeing, and we get into this issue that comes up again and again: Times when science ‘discovers’ some wellbeing practice that traditional or indigenous communities have known for centuries.
Find out more:
Paul’s work at Clifftop Wellbeing: https://clifftopwellbeing.co.nz/
Te Whare Tapa Whā model of wellbeing: https://mentalhealth.org.nz/te-whare-tapa-wha
Fonua Model of wellbeing: https://www.actionpoint.org.nz/pacific_health_models
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