The Positive Psychology Curriculum

Harnessing Hope to Prevent Mental Illness

• Have you been searching for effective tools to help your clients overcome stress, anxiety, and depression?
• Do you want to shift away from a deficit-focused approach that tries to “fix” clients and instead leverage their strengths in therapy?
• Could a Positive Psychology approach offer a more compassionate path for treating depression and other mental health challenges?
• Are you looking for a way to guide your clients toward greater happiness, resilience, and optimism?
• Have you considered future-oriented strategies that help individuals create a sense of meaning and purpose?

Positive Psychology: The Hope Series is a reproducible five-workbook collection that offers an innovative, evidence-based approach to treating depression. It empowers mental health professionals to guide clients in cultivating hope so they can emerge from depression stronger, more resilient, and more hopeful. Developed by Drs. Michelle Scallon and John Liptak, and grounded in Positive Psychology principles, this series integrates the pioneering Hierarchy of Hope theory to provide a structured pathway out of despair.

Each workbook is filled with assessments, therapeutic plans, and guided journaling exercises designed to meet clients where they are and support a personalized healing journey. By helping clients generate hope and discover new meaning in their experiences, The Hope Series enables them to redefine their sense of purpose and look toward the future with optimism.

Research Basis: Why Focus on Hope?

Decades of research have shown that hopelessness about the future is a hallmark symptom of depression. Depression is often accompanied by feelings of sadness, helplessness, and a belief that nothing will improve. Hope, conversely, represents a belief in a positive future and the motivation to persevere toward it. Studies indicate there is a clear inverse relationship between hope and depression – as hope rises, depressive symptoms tend to decrease.

Increasing a person’s level of hope can lead to meaningful improvements in mood and daily functioning. Hope has even been found to act as a protective buffer against stress, anxiety, and depression during difficult times. By systematically building hope, therapists target the very core of depression’s grip. Research on hope therapy demonstrates that interventions that foster hope can significantly reduce depression severity and instill coping skills for the long term. In short, cultivating hope directly counteracts the hopelessness of depression, making it a crucial component of effective treatment.

• Evidence-Based and Clinically Informed: The Hope Series is grounded in established positive psychology research and the Hierarchy of Hope theory, providing clinicians with confidence that they are using a theoretically sound and empirically supported intervention. You can integrate these workbooks alongside traditional therapies, knowing that the content aligns with best practices for depression treatment.
• Structured yet Flexible: Each workbook provides a clear therapeutic plan with defined goals, actionable exercises, and progress measures. The materials are fully reproducible, allowing you to use and reuse worksheets and activities in individual or group therapy settings. Therapists can follow the curriculum step-by-step or adapt the exercises to fit each client’s needs, making the approach versatile for diverse populations.
• Time-Saving Resources: Save hours of preparation – the series comes with ready-to-use assessments, worksheets, and journaling prompts that facilitate session planning. This means less time spent developing new materials from scratch and more time engaging directly with your clients. The guided nature of the workbooks also helps ensure consistency and quality across sessions.
• Strengths-Based Approach: The Hope Series shifts the focus from symptom deficits to client strengths. It provides tools to identify and build on personal strengths, values, and successes. This positive framework can enhance the therapeutic alliance and improve client engagement, as individuals feel understood and empowered rather than “fixed.”
• Reproducible and Cost-Effective: As a reproducible series, you can photocopy or print materials for your clients without violating copyrights. Whether you run a clinic, support group, or private practice, this cost-effective resource can be used repeatedly, maximizing your investment and ensuring every client who needs hope-centered intervention can benefit.

• Future-Oriented Mindset: Clients learn to replace catastrophic or negative thought patterns with a future-focused perspective. By concentrating on goals and possibilities ahead, they gain a sense of direction and purpose, which counteracts the despair of depression. This future orientation helps to instill optimism that life can improve.
• Cultivation of Hope Skills: Individuals develop concrete hope-enhancing skills through the workbook exercises. They learn how to create meaning in life events, build and lean on healthy relationships for support, develop a sense of control over their choices, set and achieve personal goals, and actively engage in life’s activities. Mastering these skills translates to greater resilience and coping in the face of challenges.
• Enhanced Resilience and Well-Being: A strengths-based focus means clients aren’t defined by their diagnosis. Instead, they uncover personal strengths and past triumphs, which boosts self-esteem and resilience. Over time, clients often report feeling happier and more confident in managing stress. This approach fosters symptom reduction and the growth of positive traits like gratitude, hope, and creativity that support long-term well-being.
• Greater Engagement in Therapy: The workbooks incorporate self-reflection journaling and interactive activities, enabling clients to become active collaborators in their healing process. This interactive format can increase engagement and motivation. Clients often find the hope-centered activities refreshing and empowering, leading to improved therapeutic rapport and better adherence to treatment plans.
• Measurable Progress: The Hope Series offers assessments and goal-tracking tools, enabling clients to track their improvement over time. By celebrating small wins (e.g., accomplishing a goal or noticing a more hopeful outlook), clients build momentum in recovery. This tangible sense of progress reinforces their hope and commitment to getting better, which can reduce the likelihood of relapse.

The Hope Series offers a future-oriented, strengths-based pathway out of depression – helping clients not only reduce their symptoms but also rebuild a fulfilling, hopeful life. Each element of the series is designed to foster meaningful change, from instilling hope as a catalyst for recovery to empowering individuals with skills that promote enduring psychological well-being.

Discussion Starter Card Decks are available for every Coping Series workbook as a separate companion product. These decks break the ice, encourage openness, and provide an engaging way to introduce key topics. Each question corresponds directly to a workbook page, making them ideal for group sessions, classroom activities, or one-on-one conversations. Facilitators appreciate how the decks make learning interactive and help participants feel comfortable sharing their experiences. 

To purchase the reproducible workbooks or the card set, go to Whole Person Associates at:

 Positive Psychology - The Hope Series