The Flow of Hope in Couple Therapy: Perspectives of Couples and Their Therapists

Abstract

Hope is a powerful, potent, and at times, precarious force in therapy that ultimately effects client change. This qualitative study explored couple and therapist understandings and experiences of hope in order to better understand the dynamic of hope in the context of couple therapy. Phenomenology provided the framework to investigate the primary research questions: How do couples and their therapists experience and understand hope in therapy? Further, what are the processes of hope in couple therapy? Four couples and their therapists were interviewed separately via semi-structured interviews. Therapist and couple participants indicated themes of “Knowing Hope” and “Growing Hope” to describe understandings and experiences of hope in therapy. “Knowing Hope” emerged as a theme describing the nature of hope while “Growing Hope” emerged as a theme describing the process of hope as it transpires within couple therapy. Additionally, the study design allowed for a comparison between therapist and couple responses that revealed hope as a ‘flow’ in session and one that moves and transfers hope reciprocally between therapist and couple. The results of this study contribute to the current understanding of therapeutic hope and its underlying processes in couple therapy. Lastly, this study presents a proposed model of the flow of hope in couple therapy.