Live Webinar
Legacy Virtual Series: Rebuilding Purposeful Lives: Insights with Ross Ellenhorn

Fear of Hope and Psychosocial Injury: The Real Chief Complaint

Ross Ellenhorn, MSW, PhD
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Information

Date & Time

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Participants will develop an outlook on attachment that places hope front and center.

  • Participants will discuss the power of disappointment as a demoralizing force in people’s lives.

  • Participants will review the research on Fear of Hope and how to apply this concept to their practices.

Description

The result of hoping and then experiencing deep disappointment can be a profound poisoning of hope. You recoil from hope, because hoping risks another disappointment. In this situation, hope appears tainted, so you stop hoping altogether. Individuals who have experienced extensive histories in behavioral health treatment are vulnerable to the profound impact of fear of hope. And yet, this hidden “chief complaint” is often unseen by clinicians, left as a kind of undisclosed pain and even trauma within therapeutic settings. Dr. Ross Ellenhorn calls this “Fear of Hope”. He joined a team at Rutgers University to study it, developing a Fear of Hope Scale, showing that fear of hope is a valid variable in people’s lives. In his talk he discusses this research, the theories behind it, and how they apply to the lives of individuals diagnosed and treated for psychiatric and addiction issues.

Target Audience

  • Counselor
  • Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker
  • Substance Use Disorder Professionals

Presenters

Ross Ellenhorn, MSW, PhD

Dr. Ellenhorn is the Founder and CEO of Ellenhorn.  is a pioneer and leader in the development and promotion of community integration services, types of care that serve and empower individuals diagnosed with psychiatric and/or addiction issues while they remain in their own communities and outside institutional settings.

 

Trained as a sociologist, psychotherapist and social worker, he created the first fully operating intensive hospital diversion and wrap-around program in Massachusetts. Ellenhorn later created and led one of the first public Programs for Assertive Community Treatment teams in the state. In 2022, Ellenhorn co-founded CARDEA, a psychedelics based practice that assists those who seek recovery from deep and entrenched psychological anguish, from behaviors that are out of control, as well as those who want a more awakened life and expanded sense of existence.

 

Dr. Ellenhorn has authored three books on human behavior. Parasuicidality and Paradox: Breaking Through the Medical Model addresses psychiatric hospital recidivism and techniques for diverting hospital use. It was published by Springer Publishing in 2007. His most recent book, How We Change (and the Ten Reasons Why We Don’t), takes a deep dive into the dynamics that influence all human change. Published by Harper Collins, and in seven different languages, How We Change was released in May of 2020. Purple Crayons: The Art of Drawing a Life celebrates our inherent “sacred originality” and establishes a new framework for self-reliance. It was published in 2022. He has authored numerous articles, gives talks and seminars throughout the country, and provides consultation to mental health agencies, psychiatric hospitals and addiction programs.

 

Dr. Ellenhorn is the founder of the Shifting The Paradigm conferences, a bi‑annual series that addresses humanistic and empowering changes in behavioral healthcare. He is the executive producer of the film, Recovering Addiction: A Public Health Rescue Mission, a documentary on new, less‑oppressive means for understanding problematic substance use and other distressing habits.

 

Dr. Ellenhorn is the first person to receive a joint Ph.D. from Brandeis University’s prestigious Florence Heller School for Social Welfare Policy and Management and the Department of Sociology.

Financially Sponsored By

  • Ellenhorn