The Gift of Hope

Jan 20

Dr. Chan Hellman is a statistical psychologist, professor of social work and the founding director of the Hope Research Center at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa. Chan wants all of us to understand the science of hope, so we can be more hopeful and experience the benefits of it individually and collectively.

Nothing in Chan’s early life gave any indication that he would be where he is today. He grew up poor in rural Oklahoma. His father sold drugs, and Chan believes he took him on drug deals as a way to minimize the risk of violence. Chan eventually ended up homeless after his parents divorced, his father moved away and things got too hard for his mother. It was during this incredibly difficult time that he concluded suicide was his best option. But a caring and kind teacher convinced him things would be OK. That teacher gave Chan the gift of hope, which put him on a path to becoming a leading hope researcher and educator.

For much of his career, Chan did research in domestic violence, child abuse, food insecurity and homelessness where he focused on what was wrong. But that changed after an encounter with a young man who was homeless and living with a life threatening chronic illness. In the short time they were together, Chan could clearly see that this young man was not focused on all that was wrong with his life. Instead, he was focused on what was going right, and the steps he was taking to create a better future for himself. Chan realized he needed to start looking at what was going right for people experiencing trauma and adversity. He needed to better understand our ability to hope!

Since that encounter, Chan has learned:

Hope is a way of thinking and not a feeling.

Hope requires imagination.
Hope is measurable. You can track how hopeful you are at Hope Score.Com
Hope ebbs and flows over the course of our lives meaning sometimes we have high levels of hope and sometimes low levels of hope.
Hope is a “social gift” that is nurtured in caring relationships with others. It doesn’t happen in isolation.
Apathy is the absence of hope.
Hope is the best predictor of a person’s well being.

I first learned about Chan from reading Hope Rising: How the Science of Hope Can Change Your Life, a book he co-authored with Casey Gwinn, co-founder and president of Alliance for Hope International and the former city attorney for San Diego. Hope Rising is based on over 2,000 published studies of hope and makes the case that applying the science of hope can not only improve our personal lives but our society. The book takes a deep dive into how nurturing hope in people who have experienced trauma and adversity is a path to healing.

Chan believes hope is a better alternative to resilience, which get’s used a lot when discussing trauma and adversity, but he just isn’t sure what it is or how to measure it. Shame, negative thinking, self criticism and fear rob us of hope. That is why Chan says it is so important for all of us to be honest and transparent about the trauma and adversity we have experienced, if we want to be more hopeful. By sharing and examining those experiences when we feel safe and not judged, we have the opportunity to see them more clearly and understand how they continue to impact us.

Hope Research Center is partnering with government and nonprofit agencies nationally to train them in the science of hope and how to apply it to their work. In Oklahoma, 35,000 state employees were trained in the science of hope and how to nurture it. As a result, they are seeing a reduction in burnout, secondary stress and turnover. They also worked with the state of Washington to train all of their parole officers in the science of hope. Chan believes training people in the science of hope, especially those working in the “hard spaces” of our society helps them not just survive in their work but thrive and spread hope to others. Chan is also working internationally. In 2021, he led a workshop at Jane Goodall’s Activating Hope Summit. More recently, he returned from Ireland working with groups on hope and climate change.

A few years ago, Chan saw the teacher who gave him the gift of hope to tell him the impact of his gift. His teacher didn’t realize the difference he’d made, which Chan had expected. It is a reminder that we can never fully know the impact of being hopeful and of nurturing the hope of others.

Chan understands better than most that hope is a gateway to the courage needed to take the sometimes hard but necessary steps to realize a better future. He says hope is deeply personal to him and wants us all to understand that being more hopeful will change our world for the better.

Learn More
Please visit Hope Research Center, Hope Score and The Science and Power of Hope