HOPE Group Structure and Function

HOPE Groups have structure, but no pre-planned agenda—it walks in through the door.

A HOPE Group can be likened to a crucible, a container for the context of the meeting. The weekly, two-hour meetings are open, ongoing, and confidential. Caring, HOPE-trained people guide each meeting. These guides are doing their own healing work, and they meet regularly with a senior guide to share their experiences and learn from each other.

Our groups open each meeting by repeating a set of centering statements called The HOPE Group Opening:  

• We are a HOPE group.

• We come together to find wellness.

• Wellness comes with the discovery of peace of mind.

• We find peace of mind through understanding and letting go of guilt and fear.

• In this way, we learn to live in each moment.

• In this moment, we can choose to focus on the whole of life rather than its fragments.

• We seek the power that makes this choice possible.

• We come to realize that this power lies within each one of us.

• This power, as we understand it, is love.

• With Love’s power, we come to realize the promise of Hope.

This brings us together with a purpose, a common intention, which is to find wellness, the power of love, and the promise of hope. It helps to focus on the present and to give us opportunity to consider working to let go of the bonds of guilt and fear.

The HOPE Group opening comprises four extremely important questions: Who are we? Why are we here? How do we get what became for? What are we to do with it? These four questions are fundamental to the discovery of meaning. They can be used effectively to critically examine any life.

The twelve Principles of Attitudinal Healing,[1] are the attitudes that determine the quality of the answer to the fourth question. We encourage participants to use these principles of attitudinal healing as affirmations that can help them get past old, ego-based “negative” attitudes that limit life. We repeat them to create the beneficial attitudinal tone of the HOPE Group meeting.

1. The essence of our being is love.

2. Health is inner peace. Healing is letting go of fear

3. Giving and receiving are the same.

4. We can let go of the past and of the future.

5. Now is the only time there is and each instant is for giving.

6. We can learn to love ourselves and others by forgiving rather than judging.

7. We can become love finders rather than fault finders.

8. We can choose and direct ourselves to be peaceful inside regardless of what is happening outside.

9. We are students and teachers to each other.

10. We can focus on the whole of life rather than the fragments.

11. Since love is eternal, death need not be viewed as fearful.

12. We can always perceive others as either extending love or giving a call for help. (HOPE prefers to replace “help” with “love”.)

The participants then repeat the HOPE Group guidelines that are verbal agreements which honor time commitments and confidentiality; focus on the one speaking in that moment; work on one’s own process in light of one’s own experience; see others in a loving way that supports others in their process, free of judgment, confrontation or preaching. The guidelines point out the choice between hope and fear; between peace and conflict; and that seeks love in its highest sense (agape). We share what works for us, and we risk and expose our own emotional states which creates a common experience that allows for joining—breaking down the fear that causes the illusion of separation between us.

We often use guided imagery to close the meeting. We train our guides to use the immediate focus of the group as metaphors for the structure of the imagery process. We teach our guides to explore the meaning of safety and a safe place for the participants before using any guided imagery. We use other forms of closure such as songs or affirmations, as the group considers appropriate. Almost all HOPE Groups share an additional closing, The Prayer for Serenity[2]. The prayer uses the word, “God,” and, as there is no emphasis on religion, at least one HOPE Group has replaced the word, “God,” with the word, “Love” and another group chose “Great Spirit”.

We have come to know that the agenda for each HOPE Group meeting consists of the life experiences that have presented themselves for each participant in the time since they were last in the group. This explains why we say, “The agenda walks in through the door.” Thus, it is safe to say that the formalities of the HOPE Group Opening set the meeting context, the crucible.

The group guide knows that time management is important for all of the participants. S/he also practices and models listening skills because they are key components of communication skills. S/he is trained to be non-judgmental and an active participant in the group process. We discourage people from developing the attitude that the guide is a therapist, even if their career is that of therapist or counselor. We coach our participants in methods of communication and the development and practice of helpful attitudes. We encourage them to practice goal setting and the use of imagination in their lives.

We keep no records of what goes on in HOPE Group meetings other than those necessary for our own internal development information, accounting functions, and membership lists.

We conduct HOPE Groups in complete confidentiality that respects the identity of their members. We believe that individual members are free to divulge their own personal information according to their own discretion, and they are to protect the right to privacy of all other group members.

HOPE-trained persons guide HOPE Groups

We train our guides to communicate by building strong rapport with the participants. We teach our guides how to listen actively and responsively in ways that draw out the participant’s own solutions. In the group format, help comes in many ways, and we discourage the participants from trying to offer advice--speaking from their own center in “I” statements.

We do not intend that HOPE groups be “therapeutic” according to any tradition in which the guide is a person with answers, solutions, or “fixes”. The guide is a coach whose responsibility is to draw the answers out of the others in the group. Her working belief is that if a person is capable of asking a question, the answers already lie within. Everything spoken is simply offered as experience to be shared with the listener. In HOPE Groups are intimate, safe, confidential places that keep no records of attendance or disclosure. In this way, they make no pretense at being therapy groups. Rather, we teach our guides to recognize the need for therapy and to make suggestions for appropriate referrals.

We encourage professionals to guide HOPE Groups, showed they feel so inclined. They can bring a wealth of experience to the group meeting without putting it in the context of their training. We frankly ask them to put their techniques in their pocket when they come through the door to a HOPE Group meeting. We make this possible by insisting that no one keep any record of any HOPE Group meeting at all. We do not discourage professionals from guiding a HOPE Group for their clients. After all, the founder, Ken Hamilton, M.D., started the first HOPE Group meeting with five of his own patients. He found no conflict, because he never asked the participants to reveal the reason they were seeing him as surgical patients, leaving it entirely up to the individual to determine what she would disclose to the group. Furthermore, the commitment to keeping no records of any kind completely removed the HOPE Group experience from the clinical experience of both the patients and their doctor.

Free standing, open HOPE Groups charge no fixed fees.

HOPE groups are financially autonomous. Their guides are volunteers who may accept contributions up to the level of “usual, customary, and reasonable” fees for running therapy groups. HOPE’s 501(c)(3) non-profit status makes all contributions tax-deductible. We ask the groups to contribute 10% of their contributions to HOPE for the continued support of its outreach programs, including the ongoing training of guides, creating support material, etc.

A fairly typical HOPE Group meeting:

If new members are present, ask for simple introductions all around, and ask the new member(s) how they found their way to HOPE.

All participants join in reading the “Gold Book” with its HOPE Group Opening, the Principles of Attitudinal Healing, and the HOPE Group Guidelines. (As one HOPE Group participant described the essence of the Gold Book: "Hope is a prayer for Peace through Love in every line of the Gold Book—Love is the Power—Peace is the Force—Intention is the Creative Thoughts—Choice directs the Energy.")

If there are new members, ask the “old” ones if they would like to share with the others why they came to HOPE in the first place and why they come back. (The two may be different).

Then you are in a position to ask the newcomer(s) if they would like to make a simple introduction of themselves to the group, and possibly share an idea of what they would like to take home from today’s meeting.

Someone may then have something vitally important that kicks off the talk. Wait and listen. Virginia Satir’s question, “Is there anything bubbling up for anyone just now?” can bring things up quite nicely. If no one comes forward, one can ask another question that is more intentional: “What one thing would each one of you like to take home with you tonight (today, this afternoon, etc.). Please take a moment to let the answer come, and let’s go around the circle.” As each person states her (or his) intention, repeat it back to her (or him), word for word, if possible. Repeat a sentence. Ask permission to summarize a paragraph.

If conversation kicks off immediately, fine. If not, consider that holding the silence as a form of speech. (And offer that if anyone seems to feel uncomfortable with silence.)

A HOPE guide knows the value of listening, and how empowering it is when a person knows s-he is really listened to.

How does a HOPE Group make newcomers welcome?

Introductions:

Welcome the newcomer/new face/new person, and invite the new person in an indirect way to give/share her or his name with the group. Next, invite the older group members to give their names, the reason they came to HOPE, and the reason they keep coming back. Finally, ask the newcomer if s-he would care to tell the group how s-he found out about HOPE and tell her or him that there is no rule that says she has to tell her whole story.

Describe the nature of the group:

Explain the acronym.

Describe the attitude of hope, the attitude of meaning.

Tell how the agenda walks in through the door and that it is important to set the context, the crucible, for the agenda.

Tell the person about the Golden Book:

How we read it -- going around the circle, one phrase at a time.

The nature of the HOPE Group opening: naming ourselves, setting intention (why we are here); describing the way to realizing the intention (how we get what we came for), setting a new intention, and describing the results of attaining that intention (what we’re going to do with it).

Describe the affirming qualities of the Principles of Attitudinal Healing and how their positive nature sets the tone for a beneficial outcome of the HOPE Group Opening.

Describe the HOPE Group Opening as a verbal contract for how we will get along for the length of the meeting.

Final validation:

Tell the new person(s) that she has had the experience of one HOPE Group meeting and that next week’s experience may well be quite different. Invite her (him) back for at least a couple more meetings before deciding if the HOPE Group is for her (him).

Give the new person(s) the opportunity to give a closing comment or thought before gathering in a circle and repeating the Prayer for Serenity.

Listening requires effort…

“Do you have trouble hearing?” asked the teacher of a youngster who sat dreamily at his desk.
“No, Ma’am,” replied the boy, “I have trouble listening.”