The Personal Hero Technique: A Therapeutic Strategy That Promotes Self

This article introduces and provides initial qualitative support for the effectiveness of the personal hero technique (PHT), a second-order change strategy rooted in humanistic-existential psychology that builds on and practically applies the emerging heroism science literature. Specifically, I ask clients to identify a hero/heroine. Then I ask them to identify five characteristics that they admire in that person, five ways in which they see themselves as similar to that person, and five things they can do to become more like that person. During debriefing, I engage in dialogue with the clients regarding how they may apply insights gleaned from the exercise in the interest of promoting self-reflection and developmental maturation/transformation as well as other-awareness and relational connectedness. In this article, I survey the theoretical/philosophical basis of the PHT and its connections to humanistic-existential principles and other extant heroism literature. Then I describe how to implement the PHT as well as discuss its effectiveness using two case illustrations. Finally, I provide suggestions for future research on the PHT in a variety of contexts