Quote from Rebecca Solint

In Rebecca Solint’s book, Hope In the Dark, she writes, “It’s important to say what hope is not: it is not the belief that everything was, is, or will be fine….Critical thinking without hope is cynicism, but hope without critical thinking is naivete.”

I like this quote because I think sometimes there is a misunderstanding of what I mean when I talk about hope.

As a therapist, I am someone who holds hope for my clients. I hold the hope for a better future, for less suffering, for more health, all of the many things that so many of my folks are afraid they will never have.

But in this culture, I think hope tends to be dismissed as something for those who are naïve, who are unrealistic, for the “hopeless optimist.”

I disagree. I know how hard it is to hold onto hope in the face of the suffering and pain in the world. I know how hard it is to look at the way systems are set up to harm people and hold hope for our future.

I don’t blindly believe that everything will be fine. I know that hope needs to be backed by work, by our efforts everyday to make this a better world. It would be easier in some ways to give up hope, to sit back and assume that the pain and suffering in this world is inevitable.

My hope for my clients is grounded in the healing that I have witnessed in those I have worked with. It comes from a rooted, grounded, knowing of what is possible.

I believe that people can change, and heal and grow. And I believe that every individual has the power to make a difference, for themselves and for the greater good.