Abstract

Hope is in short supply in our culture at the moment. We all acknowledge that we need it, but what exactly is it and how can we nurture it? This seminar will explore the question, "what is hope?", analyse some of the reasons that many our society (and especially young people) are struggling to have hope at the moment, as well the relationship between hope in Christian theology and the psychology of hope.

Speaker and Bio

Dr Leisa Aitken is a Clinical Psychologist who has been counselling and teaching for more than 25 years in workplaces, hospitals, churches and private practice. She has completed a PhD on The Psychology of Hope, inspired by the desire to help her clients be more hopeful. Her thesis observes the foundational reflections on hope through Western history in philosophy, theology and, more recently, in psychology. It also incorporates her research on the experience of hoping for Australians in the last 5 years. She has developed an integrated model of hope that provides a practical scaffold to nurture the experience of hopefulness and a corresponding measurement tool for use in research.