Hope-focused Therapy: A Framework Outline

Research over the past 30-plus years has demonstrated that psychotherapy is highly effective. Evidence from common factors and specific factors research highlights that there are essential change mechanisms and that these mechanisms can be facilitated in a range of ways. The integration movement has also highlighted the benefits of drawing on or combining different theoretical approaches in the service of specific client needs. One of the common factors of therapeutic change which has received much research is hope and expectancy. However, while it is agreed that hope is a key change mechanism, hope of itself is a mercurial quality, and one for which it is not always obvious how it is activated or facilitated. This paper outlines an approach to therapy that is founded on the view that hope is an essential principle within the therapeutic enterprise and that it acts as a barometer of therapeutic change. The following discussion provides an outline of an integrative approach to psychotherapy—hope-focused therapy.