Dr Leisa Aitken
Clinical Psychologist
The Hope Practice
Clinical Psychologist, Coach and Speaker on the Northern Beaches, Sydney
Building hope for individuals and organisations is a vital task. The times we are living in can feel uncertain and overwhelming. We have overlapping crises of mental health, meaning, and hope. These influence our capacity to flourish in our work, our relationships and within ourselves.
I provide evidence-based ways to rediscover hope that can help to create stability and motivation for us as individuals and in our lives together.
My aim is to help people experience hope.
We all need hope - it is the glimpse of meaningful future possibilities that pulls back to the present and then in turn, keeps us activlely stretching forwards. It also enables us to persevere well now.
For over 25 years, I’ve been delivering counselling, supervision, talks and workshops in corporate workplaces, schools, hospitals, churches, group practices and in my private practice on Sydney's Northern Beaches. My PhD on the ‘psychology of hope’ explored how historical and recent reflections on hope can be practically applied to enhance the lives of my patients and communities. This research on hope, as well as my broader training and practice, is driven by and designed for real-world applications, making psychological strategies for wellbeing accessible to everyone.
Counselling, Coaching, Speaking and Seminars
The Hope Practice provides professional support through individual counselling and coaching services on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. It also offers public speaking engagements and seminars. These focus on sharing practical, evidence-based methods aimed at nurturing overall well-being, with a special emphasis on the transformative power of hope.
What is Hope?
My PhD thesis was on the Psychology of Hope, with supervisors from the University of Sydney and the University of Oxford. This involved interdisciplinary exploration in philosophy, theology and psychology to explore the rich history of reflections of great thinkers on hope over the last 2,500 years in the Western world. It also included a deep dive into current psychological research on hope, including the neuroscience of future-focused thought.
From this, I drew on common themes across these disciplines to develop a clearer understanding of hope to develop a psychological model, called Intentional Hope™. This defines four components of hope that are each able to be nurtured, cultivating the experience of hope.