It was when he found himself in Iowa, after studying to become a general surgeon, that New Jersey-born Ken Hamilton and his wife decided to look for a place to live in a four-season location with hills and trees and easy access to the ocean. An opening at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway provided the perfect fit. Hamilton later left his career in medicine to found Healing of Persons Exceptional, which aims to help people in crisis find personal meaning and purpose.

How old are you? 76

How did you get the idea to start HOPE? My patients showed me how important it was to listen, and Earl Nightingale and his colleagues showed me valuable experiences that I could share with my patients to their benefit.

Why did you decide to leave your job to pursue HOPE full-time? When I was asked to lead the fifth HOPE Group, I knew that I was being called on. Stephens had two other excellent general surgeons, so it was OK.

What do HOPE groups offer? Weekly, open, yet confidential meetings in which to explore the challenges that all sorts of life’s conditions can present us.

What is the most rewarding part of HOPE? The most difficult part? Answer to both: being present to people taking charge of their lives and getting the most out of what their health care providers and others can provide them that helps in getting on with those lives.

Does your medical background play into the meetings at all? Of course … my understanding of disease processes helps people come to a deeper understanding of the challenges that they and their health care providers have to deal with.

How has the move to the Progress Center affected the organization? It has led us from being an organization focused for 18 years on providing the community with a sizable selection of alternative and complementary health care services in a lovely 10-room Victorian home to a tight focus on helping people find meaning, value and purpose in their lives … and getting that focus out to the nation from a lovely office where there is room for the weekly HOPE Group meeting as well. We bring the experience of over 6,000 HOPE Group meetings (of which I have led over 5,000) to human beings in all sorts of situations and walks of life, helping them work their way through the diversity of challenges that life can meet us with in this modern, complex world.

Who are some of your influences? A businessman, Earl Nightingale, a great student of success (“the progressive realization of a worthy ideal”) taught me that the world’s spiritual traditions all maintain that “we become what we think about most,” and that our choice of attitudes gets us there. Barry Wood, M.D., taught me about medical psychologies and introduced me to ACoA Al-Anon 12-step groups. Bernie Siegel, M.D., and Jerry Jampolsky, M.D., taught me their kinds of medical support groups.

What do you see in HOPE’s future? Developing HOPE Group Guide trainings and support using the Internet, which would make it possible for me or another senior HOPE Group Guide to visit a group anywhere in the world to help it find its way through another of life’s challenges.

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