Hope Shines Bright

Photo Credit: Kathryn Goetzke

As Kathryn Goetzke, the founder and Chief Hope Officer of the Shine Hope Company , speaks with me from her home in Chicago, she can see where her dad used to work from where she is sitting. Kathryn was very close to him. He was a successful commercial retail banker who taught her about business, took her camping and loved deeply. But he experienced a lot of trauma in his life, struggled to manage his stress and the challenges in life, which caused him to act out in destructive ways. Of course, this was a time when mental health and illness were never discussed and people suffered in silence. Kathryn’s dad died by suicide when she was 18 years old. As a result of his death and her own suicide attempt, Kathryn has dedicated her life to helping people tap into the power that exists within all of us to manage our despair and helplessness, and move from hopelessness to hope. 

When Kathryn attempted suicide, by all appearances she was a success with a good job and earning good money. But she was also abusing substances, which made the negative thoughts and emotions she was experiencing at the time all the more intense.  She never expected she would attempt to take her own life after the loss of her dad, yet after a night on the town she did just that.

It took ten years for Kathryn to get serious about her mental health. While she had seen therapists and taken medications in the past, at 33 she got sober and committed to her own health. She deepened her faith, learned how to meditate and committed to mindfulness. She also focused on sleep and nutrition. She took total responsibility for her life. All of these changes were helpful and beneficial to her recovery. But even with all of that, she was still at risk of dying by suicide due to her significant risk factors. At the time, suicide prevention was mainly about calling a toll-free number or removing the means for it, which seemed inadequate based on Kathryn’s experience. So she got curious.

Hope Is the Cure

Kathryn wanted to understand the cause of suicide, because if you could find the cause, you could then find a cure. She studied the research and learned hopelessness is the single consistent predictor of suicide, so hope was the cure. Kathryn immersed herself in hope research, attended mental health conferences and connected with leading hope researchers like Dr. Shane Lopez. What she learned was it was possible to measure hope, but no one seemed to know how to teach people to be hopeful. Kathryn set out to change that.

Kathryn’s dad taught her you don’t sit and watch a problem, you do something about it. She wanted to use her love of research, branding, developing new products, and writing to create a global, evidence-based program to help people go from hopelessness to hope. But Kathryn wasn’t an academic or clinician, and she didn’t have the credentials to be considered credible in the field of mental health. She came from the business world with an International MBA, so people were either suspicious or didn’t take her too seriously. But she knew she was onto something. She taught herself to move from hopelessness to hopeful, now she wanted to teach others how to do it. So she designed an evidenced-based program on how to hope and for ten years gave it away for free to all that wanted to learn. Kathryn couldn’t afford to conduct randomized control trials, which she’d been told would likely cost over $1 million. So she did the best she could to evaluate the program herself and kept doing what she could to improve it. Then she got a phone call.

It was from someone at Ulster University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, who found Kathryn by googling, “Can you teach how to hope?” Kathryn took her program to Ulster University where they helped tweak, pilot and evaluate it. They discovered symptoms of depression and anxiety in program participants were reduced as they learned how to manage their despair and move from hopelessness to hopefulness.

A Better Future

Kathryn launched her company to push out the program, created a sustainable revenue model, has grown the research and created a global consumer hope-health brand. The Shine Hope Company, based on Kathryn’s work, defines hope as a vision for something in the future, fueled by both positive feelings and actions. Shine stands for Stress Skills, Happiness Habits, Inspired Actions, Nourishing Networks, and Eliminating Challenges.

The company creates and offers programs to people around the world to learn how to hope across their lifespan. Their programs teach how to disrupt negative thought patterns, develop habits that bring joy and happiness and nurture relationships of support and encouragement, especially for when obstacles arise and things get tough. Our thought patterns, emotions and connection to others inform goal setting, pathways and the will power necessary for “inspired action” in service of a better future.

Hopelessness is increasing faster than the ability to teach people how to hope. Rates of adolescent depression are rising and suicide is a leading cause of death in the U.S. Anger and fear can tell us what we really want in this world, but left unmanaged, can cause depression and helplessness or cause us to act out in ways toward ourselves and others, that can feel good in the moment, but are harmful in the long term. Kathryn considers the loneliness epidemic, which is a public health threat, to be a hopelessness epidemic about our despair and helplessness to create nurturing and supportive relationships with one another. If we were taught how to hope, we would end the loneliness epidemic through a skills-based approach.

Something Remarkable

Photo credit: Susanne Jutzeler

If we follow the research, hope is about creating a better world and humanity. Kathryn did something remarkable by taking research that existed and connecting the dots to create understandable and accessible programming to teach people how to hope. She wants to help us all tap into the power of belief to transform our lives for the better. For critics and skeptics, she points to the nocebo effect as proof that it is possible. 

“No” is a word Kathryn has heard a lot doing this work. But she practices what she preaches, remains hopeful and doesn’t let them stop her. She says they only make the “yeses” all the more sweet. She also says there have been and continue to be amazing people who guide, support and collaborate with her because they believe in her and what she is doing. Her dad is a constant reminder of why this work matters and why she is doing it.

Kathryn believes the United Nations should declare an International Day of Hope. She says doing so will help raise awareness of the importance of hope and increase understanding of it. It’s a work in progress. At the time that we talked, she was excited for the Shine Hope Company to roll out a new program for teaching teens how to hope. With over 57% of teen girls in the U.S. alone identifying with persistent hopelessness, the time is now for hope. Kathryn is excited for all that they will learn from program participants, and she says working with young people is one of the ways she stays hopeful.

Her hope is also bolstered by serving as a representative at the United Nations for the World Federation for Mental Health, an organization celebrating 75 years in mental health this year. It sets the theme for World Mental Health Day, on October 10th with this year’s theme being “Mental Health is a Universal Human Right.” Kathryn is beyond proud of representing the almost 1 billion people around the world with mental health disorders through this role.

Hope is a leading indicator of well-being. Hopeful people are more productive and creative. It is something that exists within all of us, but it requires intention and practice every day. A hope-filled world will be a world where the planet and people thrive. Kathryn, along with many others, is working to usher in an era of hope where we move from darkness to light and where hope shines bright.

Learn More

Visit The Shine Hope Company to learn about their programs and how to engage with them. If you want to increase your sense of hope but don’t know where to start, visit their Engage page to find helpful suggestions. Also visit  iFred, to learn more about her almost 20 years of work in the field of mental health.

You can also listen to the Hope Matrix, a podcast hosted by Kathryn.

The Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison researches well-being. They also have a lot of good information about the benefits of meditation, which is an excellent  way to change negative thought patterns and habits by increasing self-awareness and understanding.