From despair to action: cultivating hope through coaching
Coaching Today, July 2026

Living in these uncertain times, with so much conflict in the world, hope feels like an essential component of life, and yet often a fragile one. This is the underlying context for the work we do as coaches, and our clients come to us sensing this fragility. Coaching provides space to pause, reflect and reimagine how to navigate both the external wider context, and the particular challenges and demands that each client brings to the coaching relationship.

Hope in coaching emerges as a dynamic and relational process, grounded in psychological theory and enriched by metaphors from nature. Drawing on Snyder’s 1994 cognitive model of hope¹, I propose that hope can be cultivated as a practice, one that transforms despair into action. Exploring parallels with the natural cycles of growth, decay and regeneration, coaches can act as stewards of hope, creating conditions in which clients can renew and invigorate themselves.

Since publishing an earlier version of this article,² with more time for reflection, I have taken a more robust approach to understanding the process of engendering and maintaining hope in the coaching relationship. I also include additional ideas that expand on our own needs as coaches in addressing the demands of cultivating and holding hope for clients.

Creating hope in uncertain times

Climate change, political polarisation, the risks associated with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), and social fragmentation are a few examples of the backdrop that is currently shaping a sense of collective despair. Psychologist Martin Seligman acknowledges that anyone can become stuck in a bad situation.³ As a result, they may become tired of maintaining hope, and believe that only a miracle can help them transform their lives and create a flourishing future. When people despair about the future, they risk apathy and inaction. As coaching professionals, our work is framed in nurturing possibilities. Thinking through the complexity of problems in a psychologically safe environment supports the ability to understand the impact of external events, and how these affect the client’s inner world and everyday existence.

Hope enables human beings to act with purpose, despite uncertainty. It offers what existential philosopher Gabriel Marcel called a ‘mystery of participation’⁴: a stance of trust that meaning and renewal remain possible, even when outcomes are unclear. Within coaching, hope serves as both a mindset and a process, a bridge between the present and a desired future.

Coaching as an act of hope

Psychological research offers a clear framework for understanding hope as an active, goal-oriented process. Snyder’s hope theory¹ conceptualises hope as the interaction between two core elements:

1. Goals – helping a client to determine what they want to achieve and to be specific and measurable, with a clear deadline. Writing goals down creates a sense of commitment and focus. Exploring how the client feels about the goals is a key step in aligning meaning with the client’s values.
2. Pathways – identifies the routes and strategies to achieve the goal(s). Having a variety of pathways and options creates more possibilities for successful outcomes. This might involve determining the sequence of steps or pathways that need to be explored. Asking questions like ‘Is there a different way of looking at this?’ creates possibilities that promote flexibility and resilience when also developing contingency plans.

For coaches, this model provides practical insight. When a client feels stuck or demotivated, coaching requires attentive listening to increase the client’s self-awareness, re-establish a sense of agency and build the energy to move forward. Sensitive rapport-building and skilful questioning create the conditions for exploration of the client’s issues and identification of alternative pathways. Paying attention to the client and engendering trust facilitates a more resourceful way of moving forward, and the belief that they can continue to flourish. Following the principles of solution-focused and positive psychology coaching, emphasis is placed on strengths, resources and self-efficacy.⁵ The presence of the coach and the act of listening with care by sensitively tuning into the intricate details of what is said, and holding space for reflection, amplifies hope. The coaching process sifts through thoughts and feelings to arrive at what really matters: the essential values of the client.

However, hope is not purely cognitive. Psychologist Herth describes hope as ‘multidimensional, encompassing emotional, relational and spiritual dimensions’.⁶ Hope connects individuals not only to their own goals, but also to others and to a larger sense of meaning.

Lessons from the natural world

When we look at the natural world, we can see that hope is embedded in life’s very design. Ecosystems continually demonstrate the principles of resilience, adaptation and regeneration. In nature, decay and growth are intertwined. For example, forest fires, while destructive, also release seeds that can only germinate through heat. Dead leaves decompose into nutrients that feed new growth. The forest’s apparent endings are, in fact, beginnings. This cyclical process reflects the essence of hope: a capacity to hold loss and possibility together.

Rewilding is the large-scale restoration of ecosystems to the point where nature can take care of itself, allowing natural processes and species to shape landscapes.⁷ Key concepts behind this approach include, at their core, the idea of self-regulating systems. The goal is to move from intense nature protection to autonomous, functioning ecosystems. This concept of ‘natural restoration’ can also be applied to human beings. Our clients can lose themselves in the world, and become anxious and fearful about the future. This agitation is often triggered and inflamed through the scrutiny and algorithms of social media, and judgments that fuel a sense of unease or discontent. Coaches can help people to recover their own sense of self so that they feel at greater ease in their natural state of being.

For coaches, ecological metaphors are informative. Transformation and rewilding often require a breakdown of old narratives, habits or identities to create fertile ground for new meaning.

Coaches as ‘gardeners of hope’

Only when translated into action does hope become meaningful. Just as ecosystems thrive through feedback and adaptation, human systems require practices that sustain renewal. For coaches, this might mean embedding reflective cycles into our own coaching practice that mirror the rhythms of nature.

Cultivating hope requires attention, acceptance, action and alignment. Through these activities, coaches act as ‘gardeners of hope’, advocates for psychological environments in which others can renew and thrive. Looking after a garden is an ongoing process of getting to know what works and what does not. Coaching encourages clients to slow down and consider the unhelpful patterns in their thinking that function as obstacles to their goals and aspirations. If clients do not reflect on the thoughts and feelings that limit them, then there is an increased risk of them being repeated. Nature shows us the importance of continually adapting to the world we are in, rather than demanding the world to be a certain way.

Encouraging our clients to spend time in nature, or coaching in nature, offers opportunities to slow down and notice more. Staying connected to cyclical changing seasons reminds us that change happens beyond our control and that growth takes time. Psychologists Kaplan and Kaplan suggest that natural environments provide ‘soft fascination’, a gentle form of attention that helps the mind recover from fatigue.⁸ It is hard to feel hopeful when we are exhausted. ‘Attention restoration’ eases feelings of overwhelm, provides perspective and builds hope for the future.

When cultivating hope becomes challenging for coaches

Working with clients with high emotional needs can take its toll on our own emotional wellbeing. It is hard to cultivate hope if we feel overwhelmed or fatigued by coaching work. This is not always evident to us as we are immersed in our daily routine, and can often be suppressed or overridden in order to earn an income or to meet the needs of our clients. However, there are vulnerabilities here and two of the biggest risks are:

• Compassion fatigue – arising from repeated exposure to clients suffering trauma or emotional pain. Over time the ‘emotional residue’ of caring can accumulate, causing emotional exhaustion, numbness, irritability, intrusive thoughts and reduced empathy.
• Burnout – a much broader phenomenon of chronic workplace stress, frustration and exhaustion. It includes dimensions such as emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation (or cynicism) and reduced personal accomplishment.

These two components often co-exist, and a coach might begin with compassion fatigue which, if unaddressed, may slide into full burnout.

Neuroscientist, Joseph Jebelli, describes the psychological impact of overwork as ‘a heavy, suffocating feeling of dread. Eventually your mind stores feelings of guilt, hopelessness and incompetence. You wear them as a skin, as if they were there all along’.⁹ It is often a gradual process for coaches to carry too heavy an emotional load, that is hidden even from their view.

Supervision is a crucial part of the process of our own self-care. Inskipp and Proctor describe supervision as a space to be supported and to experience the nurturing ‘restorative’ effects of this core relationship and process.¹⁰ By understanding the subtle and, yet draining effects of working with the emotional needs of others, and balancing this with our own self-care needs, it is possible to find equilibrium. A critical component of an effective coaching relationship is the health and wellbeing of the coach. This cannot simply be assumed. In nature, there are processes at work all the time to ensure that there is a balanced system for plants to grow and thrive: Hawkins and Shohet describe supervision as a ‘living system’ that supports reflection, learning and renewal.¹¹

Nourishing ourselves

As coaches, we can also connect to the natural world to sustain our own practice and self-care. Approaching the natural world with curiosity and reverence can help to restore a sense of connection, meaning and perspective. These are some of the key elements of hope and resilience that were identified by anthropologist Jane Goodall as ‘foundations to human flourishing’.¹²

Resting

There is increasing pressure on us to do more or to disconnect from unsettling thoughts and feelings through digital distractions. The continued rise of AI is often positioned as an aide to productivity. Multitasking is seen as a necessity in the modern age, despite growing evidence from neuroscience that our brains were designed for serial activities.⁹ As psychologist Oliver Burkeman writes, the more we focus on using time well, the more each day begins to feel like something we need to get through, on the way to a calmer, better, more fulfilling point in the future, which never actually arrives.¹³

Rediscovering rest and why it matters is key to thriving in the world and maintaining the optimism that is an intrinsic part of hope. Taking time away from doing to recharge mental and physical batteries facilitates greater reflection and awareness. In The Art of Rest, author Claudia Hammond identifies the following ingredients as essential for rest:¹⁴

• Taking a break from other people
• Resting your mind as well as your body
• Exerting your body in order to rest your mind
• Being distracted from your worries
• Allowing your mind to wander
• Giving yourself permission not to achieve anything in particular.

Behaviours that need to be cultivated to be able to rest well include saying ‘no’ and scheduling breaks into our diaries.

Spending time in nature

The importance of our connection with nature is central to this article. As coaches, we can advocate this connection for the mental and physical wellbeing of clients, and yet fail to integrate it into our own lives.

Being in nature can help us to achieve a sense of our place in the world and it also provides time to step back from the pressures of everyday living. As coaches, it is essential that we make time to simply be, and nature offers us a way of slowing down and reducing the cognitive chatter.

Reading

In a large-scale rest experiment documented in her book, Hammond found that reading was considered the most restful activity for participants. She writes that it is important to consider what happens in the mind of a reader as we read: ‘We read at our own pace and in our own way. This means we take control of the emotions we are experiencing. Sometimes, it distracts us from our own worries and at other times, it does the opposite. Rather than taking us away from our own world, it allows us to reflect on our own lives as our minds wander’.¹⁴ Reading for enjoyment allows us to gain perspective, another crucial ingredient in nurturing hope.

Hope as a living system

Viewed through psychological and ecological lenses, hope is not static, but a living process. It ebbs and flows, adapting to context and season. To nurture hope in coaching is to participate consciously in this cycle of renewal. As practitioners, we can draw inspiration from nature’s resilience: from seeds that lie dormant before germinating, from rivers that find new paths when blocked, from ecosystems that regenerate after disturbance. Change happens all the time and, even when faced with difficulties, nature can renew and flourish.

In the end, hope is not something we give to others – it is something we nurture together. Like nature, it reminds us that renewal and regeneration are always possible, even after the bleakest winter. Despair, like the season of winter, has its place: it invites rest, reflection, and the composting of old beliefs to prepare us for new beginnings. Winter reminds us that we cannot always see our future growth and that there is often work going on beneath the surface that nourishes roots in nature and, in our clients’ work, builds strong self-esteem and confidence.

When we help clients to sow a seed of an idea, we plant a narrative of future possibilities. It is an act of hope. In The Well Gardened Mind, author Sue Stuart-Smith captures hope by acknowledging that not all the seeds we sow will germinate, but there is a sense of security in knowing that we have planted seeds in the ground.¹⁵

Revisiting my original article has revealed my rather limited reference to supervision and to the ‘living system’ within coaching.² I originally, erroneously, assumed that, as coaches, we would be able to take care of ourselves and our own needs and, if not the case, we would work out what to do. With greater reflection, I have formed a wider frame of reference into understanding the need to explicitly set out ideas on coach self-care: a key agent in cultivating hope for others. It is essential that the human nature of each and every coach is nurtured regularly to allow us to continue to hold hope for our clients in the coaching process. Nature is the ultimate teacher, from which we can learn how to understand hope and continue to thrive during the most challenging of times.