Creating a Hope Narrative for Veterans in Recovery Using Photography and Written Expression

ABSTRACT

Hope is critical for mental health recovery. The study evaluated a program using photography and writing to explore hope in recovery and analyzed psycho-social-spiritual themes related to hope. Veterans (n = 89) from multiple war periods completed a 4-week photography workshop. Hope photo book narratives were created using 10 photographs that were paired with 10 hope words used in a descriptive sentence. Questionnaire mean differences for class efficacy and hope status were statistically significant using paired samples t-test. Of 890 hope words categorized by thesaurus definition, 5 multidimensional themes emerged. Love, support, strength, future, and focus were the most chosen words within each theme. Creating a hope photo book narrative can help build hope and improve hope during recovery.

KEYWORDS:

• Creative expression
• creativity in counseling
• mental health
• photography
• recovery
• veterans

Acknowledgments

Thank you to James Moore Ph.D. for his excellent statistical analysis of the data and critical review of the manuscript.