Change your life: smile with Dr Happy’s positive psychology and lift your well-being
- Dr Timothy Sharp left clinical psychology to promote happiness and well-being
- Now Chief Happiness Officer at the Happiness Institute, he helps people overcome their fears and champions mental health charity Batyr
When Dr Timothy Sharp was a boy, he had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up. He loved sports and was curious about what made people tick, so when he got to university, he decided to study psychology to become a sports psychologist.
Fast-forward a few decades and Dr Happy, as he is now known, runs The Happiness Institute, which he set up in 2001 in Sydney, Australia.
“In the first half of my career, I was a clinical and academic psychologist and ran a successful practice,” he says. “My job was very fulfilling, but then I came across the early beginnings of the positive psychology movement and knew that it would change my life and work.
“I entered psychology wanting to help people live better lives, but as a clinical psychologist, what I’d really been doing for many years was helping people live ‘less bad’ lives. The focus was very much on reducing distress and dysfunction rather than promoting happiness and well-being. Now, the two aren’t mutually exclusive and the former is still very important, but I knew I wanted to focus more on helping people thrive and flourish.”
That’s also how he got his nickname. When he switched from clinical to positive psychology, his friend and colleague called him Dr Happy as a joke.