By Kim Archer in tulsapeople.com Nov 25, 2919, updated Dec 2, 2019

How one Tulsa doctor is measuring, studying and informing other on the importance of hope.

As a psychologist, Hellman was immediately interested in how the young man he refers to as “David” was dealing with his change of circumstance. Was he depressed? Did he have anxiety?

“It turns out he wasn’t displaying any of that,” Hellman says. “Instead, he began telling me of his plans to take classes at Tulsa Community College and outlining all of these steps he would take to get where he wanted to be.”

In just a short conversation, David had introduced Hellman to the concept of hope.

Left alone and homeless as a young teen in a small farming town in northwestern Oklahoma, Hellman says David’s story resonated with him.

“I realized that I had been trained as a psychologist to focus on what is wrong with people as opposed to what is right,” he says. “I learned we don’t have to be defined by our adversity.”

In 2006, Hellman focused on providing outcome assessments to nonprofit organizations. As the science of hope emerged, in spring 2018 the effort was renamed the Hope Research Center at OU-Tulsa, the first of its kind in the country.

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