Emotionally Focused Therapy: Faith and Evidence-based Applications for Couples in Crisis (Without CE’s) Tuesday, July 19, 2022 

*Note: This Webinar is not approved for CE credit. 

Hope: Assessment and Treatment 

Friday, August 5, 2022 

1:00 – 3:00 PM ET 

Webinar Presenter 

Everett L. Worthington Jr., Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist in Virginia and Commonwealth Professor Emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University. His research interests include forgiveness and other virtues, religion and spirituality in clinical practice, and the hope-focused approach to counseling couples. 

Summary 

I conceptualize hope, differentiating it from conscientiousness, optimism, grit, and spiritual fortitude. There are two types of hope: (1) Snyder’s goal-oriented, cognitive-focused hope, consisting of agency and pathways components, and (2) persevering hope, which is motivation to continue even when goals might seem impossible or unlikely. Assessment instruments for each are discussed (Snyder 8 items; Persevering Hope Scale [PHS], 4 items). An article providing psychometrics of the PHS is summarized. Building on assessments of both types of hope, I suggest six categories of interventions to promote hope, organized by the acronym HOPING. These are Hope as virtue, Others, Perseverance, I can (e.g., agency, willpower), New ways (e.g., pathways to beat barriers and seek solutions), God (e.g., spiritual and religious practices). I use these interventions throughout a brief summary of the Hope-Focused Couple Approach in a couple therapy case in which high conflict exists and one partner is depressed and traumatized. 

Learning Objectives 

Participants will: 

1. Describe two types of hope and use a brief scale to assess persevering hope 
2. Employ the HOPING acronym to organize their use in counseling of six types of treatments of hope 
3. Apply to a case study the different types of hope (e.g., Snyder’s goal-oriented hope and persevering hope) within the Hope-Focused Couple Approach 

References 

Long, K. N. G., Chen, Y., Wilson, M. F., Worthington, E. L., Jr., Kim, E. S., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2020). The role of hope in subsequent health and well-being for older adults: An outcome-wide longitudinal approach. Global Epidemiology https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloepi.2020.100018.  

Ripley, J. S., Leon, C., Worthington, E. J., Berry, J. W., Davis, E. B., Smith, A., Atkinson, A., & Sierra, T. (2014). Efficacy of religion-accommodative strategic hope-focused theory applied to couples therapy. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 3, 83-98.  

Rueger, S. Y., Worthington, E. L., Jr., Davis, E. B., Chen, Z. J., Moloney, J., Eveleigh, E., Stone, L. B., Lemke, A. W., & Glowiak, K. J. (2021). Development and initial validation of the Persevering Hope Scale: Measuring wait-power in four independent samples. Journal of Personality Assessment, in press. 

Snyder, C. R., Harris, C., Anderson, J. R., Holleran, S. A., Irving, L. M., Sigmon, S. T., & Harney, P. (1991). The will and the ways: Development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(4), 570–585. 

Continuing Education 

Approved for 2.0 APA; 2.0 ASWB and 2 IBCC CE Credits* 

The American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) offers some psychologists, therapists, counselors, social workers, and play therapists Continuing Education (CE) credit due for good standing with certain states and a limited number of professional organizations. It remains the responsibility of each participant to be aware of state licensure and CE requirements. Participants should check their state and/or local regulations regarding required Continuing Education hours. For more information on Light University Continuing Education programs, please visit https://www.lightuniversity.com/continuing-education-statements/. 

*Note: This Webinar is not approved for CE credit.