Is Anyone Beyond Hope?

I’m putting this out to the SJS community after discussing this yesterday. I was asked whether I believed anyone was “beyond help.” Looking back at my colorful caseload, I chuckled and thought “perhaps,” but took a moment to reflect on how even the most demanding of clients showed some signs of change. Dutiful as ever to my social work vows, my reply was “no, everyone can be helped, it just might not be the turn around you think it would.”

This is something we have to believe, that everyone no matter the severity, can have some level of positive change; especially if the person is actively seeking help. Now realistically we might not be talking about a lot of change, but something is bound to happen with time. Then he threw me my next curve ball;  given that everyone can have some measure of change, can we assume infinite qualities to that? For example,  let’s examine anger. A person with anger issues might learn to control his or her anger a bit. Now they’re in your office, can we expect more change? How about if you were 3rd, or 4th in line? Do we ever reach a point when it stops? I’d like to think not; I’d like to think that given time, different techniques and different people can all work continuously towards further change. What do you think?