Welcome to Hope-Lit


My name is Denise Larsen. Welcome to the exciting field of hope research and to my faculty website at the University of Alberta. This site offers information related to my work with both the University of Alberta and the Hope Foundation of Alberta (a non-profit research and community service institute affiliated with the University of Alberta). In addition to providing some of the features common to many faculty websites, Hope-Lit provides links to the Hope-Lit Database. Available world-wide and free of charge, the Hope-Lit database is a comprehensive large-scale index of English-language hope research and literature.

About Me

As Team Lead for Hope Studies Central, I am involved in research that explores hope from both health (specifically counselling psychology) and educational perspectives. In my role as a professor of counselling psychology at the University of Alberta, I offer a course for graduate and undergraduate students entitled, Hope and the Helping Relationship*. As a researcher I am especially interested in the application of hope within professional care giving interactions. I speak regularly at local and international conferences and have published articles on the use of hope in various settings. As a registered psychologist, I also maintain a limited counselling practice employing hope-focused methods.