Hope
Hope is the ability to envision a life in which we wish to participate (Edey & Jevne, 2003). Hope may be a valuable resource for many chronic health issues. Some studies provide evidence that hope acts as a buffer to stress and may enhance coping abilities for those with and without health issues (Hill & Fuedner, 2018; Rasmussen, O’Byrne, Vandament & Cole, 2018). Additionally, theory and research on hope suggests that it is a learnable skill, an ability and a resource that can be promoted in therapy contexts (Edey & Jevne, 2003; Larsen et al., 2007). For PWP, the journey of living with PD can be arduous and rife with uncertainty (Peek, 2017; Phillips, 2006). Hope-focused psychotherapy may be a promising new avenue of psychotherapeutic intervention. Hope focused psychotherapy utilizes an intentional hope and strength focus with an aim to people build new self-understanding beyond their diagnosis (Edey et al., 2016). Recently, there has been increased effort dedicated to examining the outcomes associated with group-based, hope-focused therapy (Howell et al., 2015; Murdoch et al., 2020) while other studies have highlighted the client experience with these individual interventions and programs (Larsen et al., 2018; Larsen et al., 2015).
SHARP-PWP is a hope focused therapy group designed for people recently diagnosed with PD. SHARP-PWP grew out of a previous group program for people with chronic pain (Edey et al., 2016). The intention of the original program, entitled “Being Hopeful in the Face of Chronic Pain”, was to enhance emotional well-being and hope in those with chronic pain. Delivered in six, two-hour sessions over two weeks, the program was aimed at helping participants to increase well-being and hope, build strength-based narratives, and empower participants to cope with pain-related difficulties (Edey et al., 2016). In a naturalistic study, Howell and colleagues (2015) found that participants enrolled in this program experienced increases in well-being, pain acceptance, and hope along with decreases in negative pain-related cognitions.
With promising initial evidence in a sample of individuals with chronic pain, the program was then adapted for use in people with PD. This program, entitled SHARP-PWP, is similar to the chronic pain group in several ways. The program itself was composed of six, two-hour weekly sessions designed for use with individuals diagnosed with PD within the last 5 years. Initial research on SHARP-PWP used a mixed method, randomized controlled trial. The quantitative results showed that clients in both the treatment (N = 15) and the waitlist groups (N = 16) experienced increases in well-being and health-related quality of life and increased hope at follow up (Murdoch et al., 2020). The findings for this study were discussed with an emphasis on the possible role that feelings of anticipation and expectation may play in the improvements reported by waitlist participants in this study (Murdoch et al., 2020; Shin et al., 2016).
In the context of efficacy research, especially randomized controlled trials, there is evidence to suggest that collecting in-depth qualitative data can offer several benefits in health research (Flemming et al., 2008). Offering more insight into our data, 15 participants from the trial above were interviewed to discuss the group. Qualitative findings suggested several potentially important outcomes (Murdoch et al., 2020) and processes identified by participants. The current study focuses further on group processes, specifically experiences participants describe as important and helpful when taking part in the SHARP-PWP . Throughout the paper, the term research participantsor participants will be used to refer to group members,(i.e., patients/clients ).