Forgiveness and Spirituality in Psychotherapy ─ A Relational Approach

This guide explains how to create a therapeutic relationship that helps clients use spirituality and religion to forgive in brief or long-term psychotherapy. They discuss the role of forgiveness in psychotherapy, misconceptions about it, and the role of tensions that occur between religion, spirituality, and forgiveness. Those sections are followed by a forgiveness model and discussion of why and when forgiveness and spiritual transformation might be appropriate therapeutic goals--through models of how forgiveness helps people cope with stress, how spiritual transformation occurs, how relationships with attachment figures affect relationships with the sacred, and why spiritual transformation may be needed for forgiveness, along with supporting research. The second section contains case studies and applications of these ideas to personality change, brief and long-term formats, couples and families, groups. Annotation c2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)