Purpose: This white paper introduces the reader to the fundamental concepts behind HOPE Group guiding practices and describes HOPE’s practices so that they can be contrasted to other ways of developing healthy states of mind, such as psychotherapy, counseling, and coaching. As of early 2008, it now includes a description of HOPE Clinical Services to facilitate the return of this work into clinical practices, having begun on February 12, 1987 in the practice of a board-certified General Surgeon for the purpose of serving his patients with critical illnesses find meaning, value, and purpose in their lives

HOPE Groups are gatherings of people who come together to find wellness by replacing fear with hope—the key to deepening the meaning, value and purpose of their lives…. They are catalysts of change where the attitude is hope—the attitude of meaning and possibility—and their context is love, the context of true relationships. Certified HOPE Guides provide this supportive community service for people who want to move forward, either by getting through a crisis or by progressing to the next level in their lives. People who choose to participate in HOPE Groups are commonly seeking emotional and/or physical healing and/or relief from a physical and/or psychological pain. HOPE Groups evoke strengths that increase the source of possibilities that exists within each one of us for living a creative life, and they focus on bringing that life into its creativity. In addition to HOPE Groups, HOPE responds to the needs of others with SoulCircling workshops and retreats, and one-on-one work with HOPE Guides.

HOPE Groups differ from traditional therapeutic groups in that they do not seek to diagnose or prescribe specific treatments for what is “wrong.” They do not seek to decrease symptoms of mental and physical health problems; though such results are common benefits of HOPE Group participation. HOPE Groups also differ from traditional “support” groups in that they do not “support” a problem, e.g. cancer, alcoholism, anxiety, depression, chronic pain; rather HOPE groups acknowledge the value of having good support in understanding the problem and guide a person to focus on the meaning and possibilities that life contains and which lie beyond the problem. HOPE Groups are resources of experiences in living life through all if its challenges and rewards. Participating in one is an opportunity for individuals to discover their life intentions and choose where they want to go, and what they want to accomplish on their own timetable and on their own unique path. HOPE Groups use the HOPE Golden Book , a three-page, 4.25 in. x 5.5 in. laminated  document  which sets  the context for the meeting with the prime directive: “We come together to find the wellness that comes with the discovery of peace of mind.”  In this way, group participants  create the agenda for each meeting. HOPE Group guides’ primary responsibilities to the group are to model active listening, reflect back to the speaker what they hear, affirm the presence of movement and direction aligned to an intention; and trust the sought-after answers that lie within the person with the question or concern.

HOPE groups are places where people explore who they are, not what they have, what they have done, or what others think of them, which includes their labels—their diagnoses and prognoses. They learn to see life as a call from Life, itself—a blessing. They learn to see that Life has met them with a set of circumstances that may well have contained a heartbreak, and how they see that breaking determines the quality of the gift that they have to give life in return for that life. They do so by asking questions that evoke meaning: “Who are you?” “Why are you here?” “How are you going to get what you came for?” “What are you going to do with it when you have it?” HOPE groups build a safe context in which the answers can come forward. HOPE groups have simple “Guidelines” of behavior that sustain the safety of the environment. Some people who run volunteer-facilitated groups have suggested to me that these questions are “therapy” that belongs in licensed, certified, “degreed” practices, to which I reply that these questions come out of the public, (read “non-therapeutic”) domain and not from any texts of psychology or psychotherapy, for I have not read any such texts, nor do I plan to do so. The work I have been doing for thirty years has all grown out of this public domain and is focused on success—"the progressive realization of a worthy ideal (Earl Nightingale)." Instead, HOPE would offer these evocative skills to the facilitators of any of this nation’s thousands of self-help groups.

The need to participate in a HOPE group exists in almost every one of us at some time or another. Most of us seek the support of a group when a serious disease confronts us, such as cancer, AIDS, depression, or alcoholism. Some come with less “serious” conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, emphysema, arthritis, or lupus. Some come with depression, manic depression, or anxiety disorders. For some, life just isn’t going the way they want. For some, it is essential that their fellow group participants have conditions similar to theirs. For others, open, eclectic groups are appropriate. HOPE does not argue these points; it merely seeks to respond to the wishes of each group. HOPE’s belief and experience is that there is a way for each of us through the difficulties of disease to the discovery of health.

The meaning of life and its discovery lies at the core of HOPE's psychology; “movement towards a meaningful future is not possible without viewing the past as a series of vital lessons”. HOPE’s psychology avoids analysis that pathologizes  the past in order to create a meaningful present. Instead, it asks each of us to view the past as an integrated, molding, and shaping experience that challenges us to find meaning, value, and purpose in our present lives. This psychology functions on the wisdom of Albert Einstein  who  said, “ We can not solve the problem at the level at which the problem was created.” HOPE perceives that the problem invariably arose in childhood during the tender time of ego-development, so the solution lies in discovering one’s "higher self," the name of which is Psyche—the soul. Indeed, the word, psychology, literally means "the meaningful relationships of the soul."

As Cheri Huber put it a decade ago,

“Yes, I am me, but what animates me is what animates Uncle Bob, the cat, the tree, the rock and all that is. We are packaged differently, but we share the same essence. There are many of us and we are not the same but we are all one.”

And HOPE does its work by acknowledging and validating the one and the many.

Therefore, the function of a HOPE Guide is to look at each life as a rich, though sometimes painful, always challenging experience and to see how that rich experience can direct a life towards the discovery of its own meaning. Their purpose is not to analyze a life nor to help people find specific goals in their life, but to follow the leadings of this psychology. HOPE Guides bridge the past and the future by focusing on living in the present moment—the “now” moment of Krishnamurti.

Loving kindness—compassion—is the motor of this psychology; forgiveness leading to inner peace and, ultimately, to happiness, is the consequence. HOPE Guides know that we must remember the past in order to forgive judgments about it that paralyze both our present and future growth. They appreciate the value of  the popular perception about anger… it is like taking poison and expecting the object of the anger to die. They understand that forgiveness is possible only where love and compassion prevail. HOPE Guides provide people with a compassionate, soft-eyed approach to their lives. They encourage people to see themselves as beings called to life by Life itself, which has provided them with a set of personal resources with which to meet the unique circumstances that Life has given them. HOPE Guides encourage people to believe in themselves as spiritual beings with the power to use their resources and circumstances to transform their lives into meaningful blessing-gifts to themselves, their fellow human beings, and to Life itself.

HOPE Guides ensure confidentiality because they do not keep written notes or goals set jointly or separately by the guide or by the individual with whom they are working. Guides work with clarity of intent and purpose and follow the contexts of the Golden Book that acknowledges past experiences, validates present life, and helps their fellow human beings to recognize and describe their potential and encourages them to reach out for it. Guides focus on attitudinal shifts which transform an individual’s guilty and/or shameful response(s) to a traumatic set of circumstances. They help these individuals focus on setting and clarifying their intentions, and developing and implementing initiatives. The process moves people forward toward appreciating the ego’s disappointment with a situation that the soul knows is a blessed gift. HOPE Guides recognize that emotions and attitudes are intimately connected and have a profound subconscious effect on the life of every individual. In this way, HOPE Guides work with people to create attitudinal shifts that transform harmful responses based on the harmful, dark triad of guilt, fear, and anger into the beneficial responses of hope, love, and peace. In this way we come to identify with the order that created our Universe.  HOPE Guides also recognize the power of the dark triad to overwhelm people and are readily prepared to advise them to seek professional help in such situations to augment their recovery program.

HOPE Guides help people to construct and reconstruct their lives by focusing on that which makes them feel whole, integrated and healthy—an attitudinal belief that things can make sense (Vaclav Havel) and gives life meaning (Victor Frankl). This process helps people recognize old labels with which they identified themselves and create new, honest, and realistic descriptions, which help them shift their state of mind from illness toward wellness. It encourages them to live in the present moment, free of projections and attachments and to focus on the whole of life rather than its fragments. It also encourages them to see that they are the sum total of all the choices they have made in their lives and that they can choose again and rewrite their story in any way that they wish. It encourages them to use the two attitudes that Victor Frankl found common to all concentration camp survivors—hope and love—and use them to focus on developing a life story that contains a worthy ideal—the very essence of success.

HOPE Groups in general are powerful forms of cognitive restructuring that follow centuries-old principles of creating and living successful lives.

HOPE groups as volunteer, non-therapeutic services are not expected to practice any form of therapy. The group is not there to treat members’ diseases. They encourage anyone needing conventional therapy to find it outside the group.

HOPE Groups as professional, therapeutic clinical services provide a safe environment in which the participants can explore the qualities of their relationships with their healthcare professionals. They provide a healthy, safe forum for discussing the effects of the individual participant’s therapies. Guided by HOPE-trained professionals (nurses, physician assistants, and physicians), they provide valuable information about individual therapies that help their healthcare professionals make beneficial therapeutic decisions. HOPE Groups provide a safe venue for the (re-) implementation of the placebo effect on all therapies.

The process of HOPE Guiding comprises five simple elements that define the operating system: Listening with open heart and mind; asking open, honest questions for clarification and deeper understanding; avoiding criticizing  or advice-giving; affirming people for their experience of the way in which they have met life’s circumstances; and encouraging them to create benefit for self and others from that experience. HOPE Guiding avoids the use of the pathological assumption and questions: “Something’s broke--what?” “What caused it?” and “What can we do to fix it?” Instead, it prefers questions that ask for the story of the individuals’ experiences of life, how they have met it in the past, how they would like to meet it in both the present and the future, and how they will feel when they know they have succeeded. Thus, HOPE's evocative psychology and related HOPE Guide work complement virtually all forms of counseling, psychotherapy, coaching, and self-help groups.

HOPE Guiding requires mature-for-age, caring, healthy people who have no active, debilitating disease and who have the ability and desire to listen to others with discernment and compassion, reflect on what they have just heard and convey it, encourage others to use their personal resources to meet the circumstances of their lives, and affirm them for every step in the process. HOPE guides do not seek to change people, but delight in seeing them evolve. HOPE guides follow the precept: “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is tied up with mine, then let us work together.” (Lilla Watson, Aboriginal activist). HOPE guides come from all occupations—including psychotherapists, counselors, and coaches who leave their licenses and certificates at the door when they come to do HOPE work—working to ease the human travail by sharing their liberation in a safe place.

The Guide of a HOPE Clinical Service Meeting must be a licensed professional who is employed by and familiar with the exact nature of the therapies offered by that service. This person is qualified by the service to be familiar with the patients’ clinical records and be able to make additions to those records with the full knowledge and consent of the participating patients. Such a professional would be a nurse, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or physician, selected by the practice for their compassion and charisma, and subject to all of the ethics and standards of practice of the practice and their license(s).

She or he will have participated in an abbreviated form of SoulCircling™ that helps them learn the value of the four questions behind every successful life and the power of telling one's story to find the meaning inherent in it.  S-he will have read the HOPE Clinical Service Manual, and will have participated in the training that HOPE offers based on the material in the Manual.

HOPE will create and fulfill a contractual relationship with the practice consisting of introductory presentations that help the practice select at least two well qualified professionals and the training and support of those individuals for the first year of meetings. HOPE will certify these individuals for two years as HOPE Clinical Service Guides with renewal dependant on active participation in the growth and development of this aspect of healthcare practice. HOPE encourages all trained Clinical Service Guides to actively participate in what time has shown to be a vital service, continuously growing to meet the needs of both the healthcare practitioners and the patients they serve. Thus they help medicine rediscover and restore the care in health care, and in this way the profession participates in fundamental and meaningful health care reform.