Dr. Tayyab Rashid

Dr. Tayyab Rashid is a Toronto-based licensed clinical and school psychologist. He is Faculty Associate with the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University and a Visiting Scientist at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard. Dr. Rashid is also affiliated with the VIA Institute on Character and is an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Wellbeing Science at the University of Melbourne.

Dr. Rashid’s clinical and academic expertise focuses on strength-based psychotherapy for complex mental health challenges, resilience, and post-traumatic growth. He completed his pre- and post-doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania under the mentorship of Dr. Martin Seligman, where he developed and empirically validated the Positive Psychotherapy protocol.

Throughout his career, Dr. Rashid has worked with individuals and communities facing severe trauma, including survivors of the 2004 Asian Tsunami, 9/11 families, journalists in conflict zones, and communities impacted by mass shootings and suicide crises.

He has delivered more than 50 invited talks and keynotes and has trained mental health professionals and educators in over 25 countries. His co-authored books, Positive Psychotherapy (2018, with Martin Seligman) and Strengths-Based Resilience (2025), are widely recognized as among the most comprehensive, evidence-based, and culturally responsive intervention manuals in the field. Both works have been translated into several languages.

Dr. Rashid is the President-Elect of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA). He has served on the Board of Directors for IPPA since 2019 and currently also serves on the Board of the VIA Institute on Character. His contributions to the field have been recognized with several honors, including the Outstanding Practitioner Award (2017) from IPPA and the Chancellor Award (2018) from the University of Toronto.