Practicing Forgiveness
A Path Toward Healing
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Our relationships enrich our lives. Strong bonds with family, friends, and colleagues make our lives full and vibrant, but they can also be a source of distress or even trauma. Few relationships are perfect, and we often find ourselves let down by even the people we count on most; learning to navigate the challenges is vital to protecting our health and wellbeing.
In this book the author presents a model for forgiveness that addresses how we either repair relationships when someone has harmed us, or how we move forward when relationships are beyond repair. Repairing a relationship is not always practical. The model presented in this book can be helpful to promote self-healing and to either re-establish relationships with others or move forward when reconciliation is harmful or not possible.
Practicing Forgiveness draws on the perspectives of counseling professionals from across the country to explore contextual and cultural aspects of forgiveness with stories, humor, clinical examples, research, and empirical findings, while also considering the influence of environment and religion. The forgiveness process is a universal one, and this book serves as a resource to anyone wishing to gain insight into their own personal journey.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This enlightening resource from Balkin (Counseling Research), professor of counselor education at the University of Mississippi, presents a model of forgiveness. Balkin opens with the story of Sheila, an adolescent who, after coming forward about years of abuse by her father, is told, "You know as a Christian you have to forgive him." The author questions this troubling response: Is forgiveness a moral imperative? How is it influenced by religion and culture? Balkin distinguishes between two valid forms of forgiveness: interpersonal forgiveness, which works toward healing the breach in a relationship, and intrapersonal forgiveness, which aims to "relinquish feelings of ill-will" but not to create reconciliation. Following from this distinction, the book's remainder covers the Forgiveness Reconciliation Model a process by which a person explores their feelings about the situation and determines which type of forgiveness is correct before moving toward emotional and relational resolution. For instance, Sheila (who must undergo an internal, intrapersonal forgiveness toward her father) works through interpersonal forgiveness with other members of her family following Balkin's steps of collaborative exploration, reconciliation, remorse and commitments to change, and, eventually, forgiveness. Balkin's approach is refreshingly nonjudgmental; he emphasizes that each situation has many different factors, and refuses to endorse a one-size-fits-all resolution. At the same time, the descriptive rather than prescriptive approach means this should not be mistaken for a how-to guide to forgiveness. This technical work offers a carefully considered road map of forgiveness that is ideal for counselors and academics working in therapeutic research.
