The expressions, ‘the darkest hour is just before dawn’ and ‘there’s light at the end of the tunnel’ demonstrate the content of this emotional attitude. Circumstances in life can be such that nothing in our external reality appears to confirm that opportunities exist.
Hope is based on a belief in there being potential in all types of life situations. Hope provides a future perspective on the here-and-now situation, giving us the energy to deal with it and look ahead (Motivational Work, Part 2: Motivational Motivational Relationship, pages 23 – 30).
Case Study
30-year-old Goeta has contact with Sylvia, a social worker dealing with substance abusers. Sylvia tries to keep in regular contact with her client, visiting her at home or at a café, as Goeta refuses to come to the social services office. Goeta frequently fails to turn up for the meetings they arrange, and when this happens, Sylvia tries to reach her by writing a letter or visiting her home. When Goeta doesn’t open the door, Sylvia leaves a note.
Goeta has previously had a relationship with a man who beat her, and she abuses alcohol from time to time. She has acted destructively in other ways too, such as by starving to death her pet rabbit. Goeta stays away from other people and mostly sits around in her flat. She hasn’t had any electricity for several months now because she hasn’t paid her bills. Each time Goeta meets Sylvia, she says she has no reason to live.
Sylvia finds it hard to make Goeta look on the bright side, but tries to convey hope to her. After two years of contact with Sylvia, Goeta meets a new man, one who abuses neither her nor drugs. However, Goeta terminates the relationship after only a short time and then resumes her drinking habit. However, in her contact with her social worker, Goeta now has the courage to go to see Sylvia at her office.
Discussion
The client expresses a strong sense of hopelessness in both emotion and deed, something her social worker tries to confront with hope in both emotion and deed. The fact that she seeks out her client time after time and does not abandon her must be of great significance.
It seems that the social worker eventually manages to impart enough life force to her client through their contact so that she chooses a less destructive partner than before and comes to the social services office (positive rebound). A negative rebound ensues in the form of her alcohol abuse. At best, the social worker has started a motivational process in the client, in which the message of hope has been an important part.
Summary
Hope is a mood: it feels makes life and existence feel positive. It is something to lean on as a counterbalance to a reality in which nothing confirms the existence of opportunities.