Social Work and Human Services

Posted: March 26th, 2020

Social Work and Human Services

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Institution

Social Work and Human Services

Summary

In their study, The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression, Anxiety, and Posttraumatic Stress for Women after Spousal Emotional Abuse, Gayle Reed and Robert Enright focus on identifying the effectiveness of forgiveness therapy on women who have faced emotional abuse. They conducted the study using twenty female participants aged from 32 to 54, who had been separated from their partners for two or more years and they had faced different forms of emotional abuse. To determine the effectiveness of the therapy, they compared it to an alternative treatment that focused on interpersonal skill building, anger validation, and assertiveness. The authors note that there is a difference between forgiveness and condoning, forgetting, reconciling, pardoning, and excusing.

Forgiveness is an active decision that involves giving up resentment and developing goodwill towards the person who has done wrong. It does not entail forgetting the injustices experienced and neither does it encourage continuous interaction with the wrong doer. Forgiveness is hard work and one has to discover a new purpose and find meaning to the abuse suffered. The survivors have to deal with the anger and the shame, reframe their former partners, and grieve the pain they experienced.

Forgiveness therapy does not require reconciliation of the victim and the wrongdoer. However, the clients have to find ways of focusing their emotions, thoughts, and actions in goodwill to those that hurt them. The researchers hypothesized that the therapy would lead to less depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among the participants. The results were positive and the researchers observed that forgiveness therapy was helpful in improving psychological health in addition to reducing the symptoms of the psychological conditions experienced by the victims.

Reflection

The article is insightful in the way it chooses to address the situation that emotional women experience. Most of them feel betrayed and they can live with resentment for a long time. the idea of replacing the resentment with benevolence is particularly challenging for a person who has experienced pain. However, the authors do note that they dealt with participants who had separated from their partners for more than two years. This shows that they recognize the importance of time in the healing process. It would be difficult to help a client who has just experienced emotional abuse using forgiveness therapy. Such a person is more likely to condone and excuse the behavior of the abusive partner instead of applying the critical elements of forgiveness.

One of the reasons for selecting the article is that I felt that it would offer a different way of helping people who have experienced different forms of abuse. Many of the women who decide to leave their partners do not do so amicably. I have also noticed that some people tend to downplay the emotional abuse they have experienced in their relationships. To them, they do not consider this form of abuse to be as serious as physical or sexual abuse. They tend to make excuses for their partners. However, they are able to move on once they end their abusive relationships. Some of them will find ways of clinging on to their partners in the hope that they will change. This is despite the fact that they abusive partners may have already moved on with their lives. Others are not able to get rid of the resentment their feel. This causes them to become bitter and they end up jeopardizing future relationships

Application

The results from the study can be applied in many settings. I would apply forgiveness therapy in a situation where a client was finding it hard to cope with the pain of rejection, resentment, and anger. The first thing would be to listen to the client’s point of view concerning the situation. I would ask the client open-ended questions about the relationship, and this would enable me to know the psychological situation of the patient. It is possible to know whether the client is angry based on the responses she gives. The questions would also focus on the emotions that the client has for the former partner, the relationships she has had since the separation, and the last time since the client saw the patient. Some of the patients avoid getting involved in relationships if they are still traumatized from the last relationship

I would introduce forgiveness therapy after listening to the patient. I would start by defining forgiveness and inform the client what it does and does not entail. I would proceed to answer the questions that the client might have, such as whether she has to meet with the partner for the therapy to be effective. I will then talk with the patients through the steps of forgiving. I would explain the nature of the work involved, such as grieving the pain even if it is not deserved. We would then embark on the process of reframing the abuser by looking at his personal history, his inherent worth, and his unfair and unequal power. A discussion on empathy and compassion would follow. Once the client has understood this, we would then embark on practicing goodwill, which would involve acts such as foregoing revenge and encouraging generosity. I would then find a way of encouraging and helping the patient to find meaning in the suffering she has experienced. The final step would be to find new meaning by helping others who are facing problems.

Reference

Reed, G., and Enright, R. (2006). The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression, Anxiety, and Posttraumatic Stress for Women after Spousal Emotional Abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Pyschology, 74(5), 920-929