How to Perform Hope Therapy: 4 Best Techniques (original) (raw)

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Hope therapyIn everyday language, the word hope can suggest unrealistic, wishful thinking.

For positive psychologists, hope refers to a positive state of mind, one in which the client pursues achievable yet challenging goals (Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2015).

At times, hope escapes us, leaving us unable to imagine a path to a better future.

Hope Therapy helps by assisting clients in setting clear goals, identifying paths to success, and summoning the mental energy required to achieve them (Lopez, Floyd, Ulven, & Snyder, 2000).

In this article, we explore the role of Hope Therapy in treating clients, introducing research and some essential therapy techniques.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our five positive psychology tools for free. These engaging, science-based exercises will help you effectively deal with difficult circumstances and give you the tools to improve the resilience of your clients, students, or employees.

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What Is Hope Therapy in Positive Psychology?

Charles Snyder (2002) introduced the cognitive theory of hope over two decades ago to understand how people move closer to what they want to do (Rand & Cheavens, 2009).

Much has been learned in the years since, yet hope theory’s central tenet remains, asserting that “much of human behavior is goal directed” (Rand & Cheavens, 2009, p. 324).

Indeed, hope theory builds on goal thoughts – the mental targets that guide our action sequences. Such thoughts can be self-statements, such as “I want a new job,” or mental images, including imagining yourself lying on the beach in your dream vacation spot (Rand & Cheavens, 2009).

According to Snyder’s (2002) original model, there are generally two types of desired goals.

Positive goal outcomes
Positive or approach goals include what we want to achieve, such as:

Negative goal outcomes
Negative goals include preventing or putting off an unwanted outcome:

Critical aspects of the original hope theory model include (Snyder, 2002; Rand & Cheavens, 2009):

Snyder’s conceptualization of hope as both the will (confidence) and the way (pathways) has been found in various psychotherapy approaches since hope theory emerged (Snyder, Rand, & Sigmon, 2002; Kirmani & Sharma, 2015).

When treating a client, “the beneficial changes occur because patients have been learning more effective agentic and pathway goal directed thinking” (Kirmani & Sharma, 2015, p. 40).

Consequently, Hope Therapy has arisen to capitalize on intervention techniques derived from hope theory. It suggests that enhancing our hope can be achieved through “integrating solution-focused, narrative, and cognitive-behavioral interventions” (Lopez et al., 2000, p. 123).

The change in hope does occur at a behavioral or surface level, but also much deeper, involving the client’s self-belief in being capable of agentic and goal-directed thought (Lopez et al., 2000).

Hope Therapy is a semi-structured, brief form of therapy that focuses on clarifying and attaining goals. Hope Therapists typically “hold the following assumptions about hope, human nature, and the change process” (Snyder, 2002, p. 125):

Snyder argues that hopeful thoughts are ones where we believe we can find the pathways to our desired goals and motivate ourselves to use them. He suggests that hope theory forms part of positive psychology and focuses on driving the emotions and wellbeing of people (Snyder et al., 2002).

2 Real-Life Examples of Hope Therapy

Hope therapy examplesIt helps to consider real-life situations where Hope Therapy has been applied successfully.

Clinical setting

Mr. A. contacted a clinical psychologist with feelings of sadness, irritability, and hopelessness that impacted his work and sleep. Further assessment revealed mild depression and thoughts of hopelessness (Kirmani & Sharma, 2015).

Mr. A. and his therapist formed a therapeutic alliance and set a series of goals, including:

Hope Therapy interventions included scheduling activities to increase pleasure and mastery, enhancing problem-solving and planning skills, and cognitive restructuring to overcome negative cognitions (Kirmani & Sharma, 2015).

Following 17 weekly, one-hour sessions, Mr. A. reported feeling better and expressed more hopeful cognitions. In particular, he saw value in the benefits of practices, including hope instilling, hope enhancing, and focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses. He reported improvements in his working life and overall planning skills (Kirmani & Sharma, 2015).

Cancer therapy

Hope Therapy has had some success in increasing hope levels and psychological and physiological wellbeing in rehabilitating cancer patients (Chan, Wong, & Lee, 2019).

As few as four one-hour sessions proved effective in providing psychological benefits by focusing on three core features of Hope Therapy:

While the future is often uncertain, Hope Therapy is a powerful approach for creating a positive outlook and the expectation of a relatively enjoyable life (Chan et al., 2019).

10 Benefits According to Research

Research has identified many positive effects of Hope Therapy in diverse populations and across almost all areas of psychology, including (Kirmani & Sharma, 2015):

Individuals able to achieve higher degrees of hope, via therapy or otherwise, often experience the following (Kirmani & Sharma, 2015; Cheavens & Guter, 2018):

  1. More positive thoughts
  2. Fewer negative thoughts
  3. Seeing themselves in a more favorable light
  4. Higher self-esteem
  5. More energy
  6. Increased levels of confidence
  7. Higher levels of positive challenge
  8. Optimal psychological functioning
  9. Reduced symptoms of distress
  10. Higher degree of positive therapeutic outcomes

How to Perform Hope Therapy

How to perform hope therapyThe following principles help focus attention on how to perform Hope Therapy (modified from Lopez et al., 2000):

  1. Hope Therapy is based on Snyder’s conceptualization of hope.
  2. Hope Therapy is a semi-structured, brief form of therapy.
  3. Clients’ self-referential beliefs are boosted by a focus on goals and past successes.
  4. A positive therapeutic alliance facilitates client participation.
  5. The therapist recognizes the client as the expert in their situation while helping them develop a change framework.
  6. Hope Therapy aims to equip the client to handle the difficulties that arise while pursuing goals.
  7. Hope Therapy mirrors the hope development process by helping the client develop multiple pathways to therapy goals.
  8. Change is initiated at a cognitive level.
  9. Hope Therapy is a therapeutic system in its own right, using narrative, solution-focused, and cognitive-behavioral techniques.

The process of Hope Therapy involves two significant stages, each containing two steps (Lopez et al., 2000).

Stage one: Instilling hope

The first stage, instilling hope, comprises hope finding and hope bonding.

“Asking people to tell their stories can expedite understandings of how hopes have developed, diminished, or stagnated across their life spans” (Lopez et al., 2000, p. 128).

The narrative shared by their client provides the therapist with the opportunity to identify and highlight hopeful attitudes, themes, and perspectives and replay them back.

Stage two: Increasing hope

The second stage, increasing hope, includes hope enhancing and hope reminding.

Tools supporting the process include pathway checklists and visualizations.

Mini-interventions are introduced to the client, to be used between sessions and after therapy has ended, to kick off hope finding and enhancing, and include:

Hope reminding requires awareness of goal and barrier thoughts, hope assessing, and hope enhancing techniques (Lopez et al., 2000).

Hope Therapy is not restricted to reducing negative symptoms, but like the broader approach of positive psychology, focuses on the importance of positive thinking (Lopez et al., 2000).

How hope can change your life - Amy Downs

4 Best Hope Therapy Techniques

While there are many techniques available to foster hope in therapy, we have chosen a few of our favorites.

Narrative in Hope Therapy

Even if your clients’ problems and issues span multiple areas of their lives, it can be helpful and less overwhelming to focus on just one (Lopez et al., 2000).

Narrative sessions often begin with a brief relaxation exercise to help the client find calm and become more attuned to their feelings and mental images. Next, the client is asked to discuss their earliest memories in the chosen domain and begin exploring their hopes at that time. Then the therapist questions the client regarding how they pursued their interests and dreams.

The following questions can help the client interpret their stories using the perspective of hope (Lopez et al., 2000):

Ultimately, these therapeutic questions can help the client reframe the experience in practical terms before reorienting them to the present and relating past stories to current issues.

Develop a sense of agency

While workable goals and pathways are essential, they require the perceived ability to start and continue moving along the pathway; this is known as agency (Lopez et al., 2000).

The following agency checklist can be shared with the client to understand the journey they must take (modified from Lopez et al., 2000):

Do

Don’t

Creating an internal movie

Internal movies, where the client plays through the steps to a goal in their mind, are valuable for increasing hope. The clearer, more defined the goal, the more visualization is likely to help (Lopez et al., 2000).

Ask the client to mentally rehearse, making the imagery as strong as possible, what they will need to do to pursue and achieve their goals. Encourage them to work through how they will overcome problems and identify what skills and resources they will need.

Once the movie is complete, the client should pause and capture on paper the steps required to achieve the goals and any additional resources they need on the way.

Pathway checklist

Effective pathways take us from where we are now to the goals we set for ourselves. They should be planned carefully.

Use the following checklist with clients to help them arrive at helpful, realistic pathways (modified from Lopez et al., 2000):

Hope Therapy is a powerful technique for clients; it relies on defining and combining approaches to focus attention on goals, pathways, and agency (Rand & Cheavens, 2009).

Resources From PositivePsychology.com

We have many valuable resources to help you or your client increase hope through planning, pursuing, and meeting goals.

Why not try out the following free exercises and templates?

If you want to cultivate a mindset to envision a better future and take purposeful steps toward it, consider this collection of 17 science-backed cultivating hope exercises. Use them to make a measurable impact in coaching sessions, therapy work, workshops, and group interventions.

A Take-Home Message

Feelings of hope are strongly linked to mental wellbeing. Psychologists see hope as a positive state for setting and achieving goals and helping people get what they want out of life.

Hope Therapy uses interventions to improve hopeful thinking and boost psychological functioning by building goal thoughts and the mindset and skills to achieve them (Cheavens & Guter, 2018).

Therapists work with clients to identify realistic yet challenging targets and explore options for getting from where they are to where they want to be. Hopeful thoughts are fostered to help the client believe in themselves and motivate them to follow the path chosen.

Hope Therapy has many benefits, including increased levels of confidence, energy, and self-esteem and reduced negative thoughts and distress.

Why not try out some of the tools available to Hope Therapists? Use storytelling with your clients to identify and highlight hopeful themes and create an internal movie to play through the actions required to reach their goals.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our five positive psychology tools for free.

Frequently Asked Questions

Engaging in hope therapy can boost your mental wellbeing, increase resilience, and improve life satisfaction by fostering a positive outlook and goal-directed behavior.

Techniques include setting clear, achievable goals, identifying multiple pathways to reach them, and developing strategies to overcome obstacles.

Yes, hope therapy has been shown to decrease depression and increase hope in individuals facing various challenges, including those with a history of depression.

Jeremy Sutton, Ph.D., is an experienced psychologist, coach, consultant, and psychology lecturer. He works with individuals and groups to promote resilience, mental toughness, strength-based coaching, emotional intelligence, wellbeing, and flourishing. Alongside teaching psychology at the University of Liverpool, he is an amateur endurance athlete who has completed numerous ultra-marathons and is an Ironman.

Jeremy Sutton