• It's where you find out who you really are.
• It's a "small group" of people dealing with a serious personal issue who come together to tell their stories and work out meaningful solutions to their problems in a safe, nurturing context.
  We have found that these issues manifest in a myriad of ways: cancer, depression, chronic pain, grief and loss, trauma and PTSD, heart disease, addiction (complementing 12-step groups) AIDS, . A group may consist of one condition or several... the work is remarkably similar.
• HOPE Groups are open, on-going, and confidential. They meet under the guidance of a HOPE-trained individual who knows how to maintain the safety and integrity of the group.

For individuals who would want to convene their own private, invitational Empowerment HOPE groups for 4-6 participants and who may not have a local HOPE group, we offer experience and support and a packet of materials (under development) that make this possible. HOPE's unique method of context-building makes this self-help group possible. If you are interested in convening such a HOPE group. Contact us.

For medical practices and hospital services that wish to incorporate HOPE practices into clinical visit meetings with their patients, we offer training and support at levels appropriate to the needs of the practice or service, ranging from introducing the principles of HOPE listening, questioning, reflecting and affirming, to certified, supported HOPE Guide trainings of professionals (RN, NP, PA, DO, MD) to guide these meetings in the life- and health- context that are the essence of HOPE's twenty years' experience with over 5000 HOPE Group meetings. Contact us.

We have published a "White Paper" that points out the difference between HOPE work and licensed, regulated therapeutic practices on the one hand and certified coaching practices on the other. It also points out important differences between HOPE groups and support groups. We invite your comments about this work, so please feel free to contact us.

Click here to read the White Paper

We help people with their therapies, their plans, their hopes…their lives. People in HOPE groups simply feel better. They find friends and support in their groups and help each other from day to day.

We encourage and teach people to focus on what they would like to have happen in their lives, rather than what is wrong with them. If a person wants to be rid of their cancer, we ask them what they would be doing in that event, and encourage them to start doing that--now.

We know the denial is more fragile than acceptance and confrontation--and we honor both ways of looking at our suffering. We are not so much interested in what caused any problem as in the attitudes and behaviors that help get past it. We introduce people to those attitudes that have helped other humans throughout the ages. In this way the problems themselves become the keys to their solutions. When HOPE'rs do this work, they get clear on the meaning in their lives. They feel better and become healthier.

Whether someone is facing the hellfire of cancer or AIDS, or the black hole of depression or chronic pain, they benefit from the salutary effect of a HOPE group. In its fourteen-year existence, HOPE has grown from one group of people challenged by cancer to a network of groups of people experiencing a wide range of challenges:

• Cancer and other tumors
• Grief and loss
• Trauma and PTSD
• Chronic Fatigue syndrome (CFIDS)
• Autoimmune diseases
• HIV/AIDS
• Depression, with or without bipolar
• Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
• Loss of self-esteem
• "Worried and well"
• Diabetes
• Recovery from alcoholism and other drug abuse
• Chronic hepatitis, especially Hepatitis C
• Anxiety/panic attacks
• Abuse issues
• Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSDS)

HOPE groups nurture hope--the key to the discovery of meaning, value and purpose in life. Hope promises possibility thereby displacing fear and opening the door to love--agape, caritas, loving kindness. This attitudinal shift comes out of Earl Nightingale's historical study of human success and Dr. Gerald Jampolsky's study of the contemporary spiritual work called A Course in Miracles. It includes the powerful work of many others including Bernie Siegel, MD, Dennis Waitley, Ph.D., Wayne Dyer, Ph.D., Larry LeShan, Ph.D., and Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.

HOPE Guides are trained, caring people who are conscious of their own healing work. These fine persons as a group with a senior guide to share their experiences. HOPE "guides" are not expected to "fix" or "treat" others. If a person in their group needs "therapy", the guide encourages that person to seek professional help. HOPE guides are not coaches, either, for they help people find the resources from their past to build a meaningful present, upon which they can see into a meaningful future. The focus is on the present, how people got to it, what gives it meaning, and what can create a more meaningful future.

We do not have any established fees for participating in an open, volunteer HOPE group. With this freedom, HOPE guides are free to set an appropriate fee schedule that fits the means and circumstances of the people they are working with. HOPE is a volunteer, 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, and it accepts tax-deductible contributions to help with its outreach and growth as individual circumstances allow. We believe that people like to make contributions that acknowledge the value of what they have received. Each group is responsible for all meeting space costs and any compensation to its guide for time and mileage. In this way each group acknowledges its right to support its guide and the meeting place with its contributions.

The HOPE Center and its founder, Dr. Ken Hamilton, are open to the comments and suggestions of our group participants, their families, and to all members of the Circle of Friends of HOPE