Hope as a factor in the effectiveness of antidepressants
 

Judy Beck has an interesting article on the role of hope in the treatment of depression which appears in the September 2006 edition of Advances in Cognitive Therapy. The newsletter can be downloaded for free at http://www.academyofct.org/InfoID/11...isplayfile.htm

Re: Hope as a factor in the effectiveness of antidepressants
 

I, also, find optimism and Hope to be the most important motivators/empowering tools, if not the primary movers.
I am just not sure how practical it is to deal with it in abstract, hope-related terms as the paper suggests.

I sometimes find it practical and useful to approach it initially by breaking it down:
Instead of dealing with Hope as an abstract regarding 'the future' in general, it is often easier to instill hope for specific, smaller, practical projects and targets in the everyday setting. It's easier to draw such 'small' hopes from a client's actual resources and abilities which he himself can visualize and believe in. Then, small, recurrent achievements build up a firm basis for the more abstract, general Hope: success is tangible and can be pointed out and used as a source of strength. Success is the one thing that naturally brings more hope, and small, defineable, practical goals are an easier road to success, hence eventually to the 'larger' Hope.

My two-cents-worth :)