Helping Clients Forgive: An Empirical Guide for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope [Hardcover]

Robert D. Enright (Author), Richard P. Fitzgibbons (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1557986894 | ISBN-13: 978-1557986894 | Publication Date: July 15, 2000 | Edition: 1

Forgiveness has been found to be a pivotal process in helping clients resolve anger over past betrayals, relieve depression and anxiety, and restore piece of mind. Synthesizing over 20 years of research in forgiveness, pioneers Robert Enright and Richard Fitzgibbons explain the process of forgiveness in psychotherapy in a way that can be applied by clinicians regardless of their theoretical orientation. How to recognize when forgiveness is an appropriate client goal, how to introduce and explain to clients what forgiveness is and is not, and concrete, step-wise ways of working forgiveness into therapy with individuals, couples and families are among the many topics covered in this comprehensive volume. The roles that anger and forgiveness play in specific emotional disorders and clinical examples of work with individuals suffering from these disorders make this a highly practical resource as well as a well-documented sourcebook for all mental health practitioners.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 376 pages
• Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA); 1 edition (July 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557986894
• ISBN-13: 978-1557986894
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #289,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert D. Enright is professor in the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is president of the International Forgiveness Institute at UWMadison, has lectured across the country, and has appeared on ABC News 20/20.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forgiveness for the Mainstream Clinician, May 28, 2003

By 

philip m sutton (South Bend, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Helping Clients Forgive: An Empirical Guide for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope (Hardcover)

Thanks to "Helping Clients Forgive", the concept and process of "forgiveness" are not just for the confessional or the minister's office any more. I find much to recommend to clinicians- as well as pastoral caregivers and educators- about Enright and Fitzgibbons' book.

First, it is the fruit of many years of multidisciplinary reflection on an extensive review of both practical (clinical and pastoral) and theoretical sources. The conceptual understanding of forgiveness is based on an extensive review of both the social (e.g., psychology and sociology) and speculative (philosophy and theology) sciences.

Second, Helping Clients Forgive fits into and expands the broader and better known clinical approaches to the management and resolution of anger and to overcoming emotional trauma. The book describes how "forgiveness" may be an effective, and sometimes indispensable, means for dealing with anger when awareness, understanding, assertive expression, or sublimation of the anger have proven inadequate for resolving it.

Third, I found the book insightfully reviews research about anger as a cause or co-morbid difficulty of a wide range of DSM-IV disorders. Whether a clinician ever encourages a client- or a client attempts- to use forgiveness to try to resolve the anger associated with these conditions, I think that this knowledge about the prevalence of anger associated with so many problems presented by clients is invaluable.

Fourth, many clients have a religious world-view and tend to view forgiveness as a moral duty- and sometimes an anxious compulsion. I think that reading Helping Clients Forgive will enable clinicians (pastors, et al.) to respect their clients' values and worldview while explaining what emotional and other psychological factors make it difficult to forgive, and even more important, how to forgive. I think that the phases of forgiveness and the ways of forgiving during each phase will help guide a religious client's efforts to forgive and to relieve any inauthentic guilt about lingering resentment despite past efforts to forgive.

Fifth, the authors write with intellectual humility about a process that offers significant benefits, yet is commonly long, uncomfortable and sometimes paradoxical. Enright and Fitzgibbons write about when and how forgiveness is possible. They acknowledge that while an empathic understanding of and beneficence toward the "offender" may be the ultimate outcome, the forgiveness process may and often must begin with the self-interested need to overcome the personal costs of repressed or suppressed resentment.

For me, the discussions on helping clients understand what healthy or authentic anger is, and even more what forgiveness is not, are especially insightful. For example, victims of emotional trauma or long-term offenses can be reassured by learning that forgiveness does not mean unassertively tolerating another's irrational anger or attempting to reconcile or otherwise trust past offenders who remain insensitive and unmotivated to changing their offensive behavior. Forgiveness may lead to reconciliation with one's offender, but one may forgive and free oneself from the emotional consequences of the offense even if one's offender is unwilling or unable to seek or accept forgiveness.

And sixth, researchers and more empirical-minded clinicians will find invaluable a careful reading of the chapters which detail the results of Enright's two decades of empirical research on these phases. As does any competent report of current research, Enright and Fitzgibbons also propose an agenda for future research, including the study of how offenders are affected by being forgiven.

After reading Helping Clients Forgive, I found myself wishing that a companion book for non-professionals would be written. I was delighted to discover that Robert Enright has written a sequel for clients' called: Forgiveness is a Choice (APA Books, 2001). I understand better the forgiveness process described by Enright and Fitzgibbons in Helping after having read the didactic material- and having worked through some of the related self-reflection questions- present in Enright's more recent book. The additional material in Choice on how an offender appropriately may seek to be forgiven was particularly welcome.

Philip M. Sutton, Ph.D. South Bend, IN

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Psychology & Christian Ethics Agree, July 19, 2002

By 

Germain Grisez (Emmitsburg, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Helping Clients Forgive: An Empirical Guide for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope (Hardcover)

I am deeply impressed by this work, which is well written and (so far as I can judge) methodologically sound. The authors avoid jargon and provide a straightforward statement of their theory as well as clear factual descriptions and treatment guidelines. They manifest command of an extensive psychological literature, are cautious in making claims for forgiveness therapy, and encourage further research in the hope that it will correct their findings if necessary and refine patient care.

I noticed nothing in the work touching on my own field (Christian ethics) that even seems questionable. And, of course, psychological evidence that forgiveness is conducive to mental health is perfectly harmonious with Christian moral teaching that calls for love of enemies and forgiveness.

The fact that this fine work was published, not by some commercial press, but by the American Pscyhological Association commends it to serious readers.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book that does not confuse forgiveness and pardon, November 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Helping Clients Forgive: An Empirical Guide for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope (Hardcover)

This book is valuable for many reasons. One in particular is that it does not confuse forgiveness and pardon. For some people (fewer now than 20 years ago, based on what people are saying in print) forgiveness was equated with: 1) judging the wrongdoer guilty; 2) reducing or eliminating their sentence (or foregoing collecting what is owed); and 3) restoring them to full legal standing in the community. This is *pardon,* not forgiveness. Philosophers and psychologists have now come to realize that pardon is not the same thing as forgiveness. One can pardon someone and be a judge----not even the one who was hurt. One can pardon someone and be quite neutral about that person, even harboring resentment as you reduce their deserved punishment or forego what is owed. (For example, one might forego what is owed because of harsh judgement that the wrongdoer is morally incapable of repayment.) Forgiveness, instead, is the costly process of struggling to love someone who has hurt you. It is neither cheap nor superficial. Once a person has achieved even a little of this love, then he or she is free to express that love as he or she wishes to the offender. Enright and Fitzgibbons are aware of this. That is why they do not prescribe precisely what a forgiver is to say or do toward a forgiven person. What the forgiver says or does will differ substantially in each encounter. Certainly, the authors expect the forgiver to reach out to the offender when this is appropriate. Forgiveness is not only an internal process. The authors are very clear that forgiveness includes thinking, feeling and *behaving.* They are also clear that forgiveness does have certain meaning and not others. They actually take great pains to review the ancient literature on the topic from Hebrew, Christian, Buddhist, and other sources. Further, they painstakingly review the modern scholarship in philosophy, showing the overlap in the meaning of forgiveness between the ancient and the modern views. Joanna North's philosophy, in particular, dovetails brilliantly with the ancient and the modern scholarship. That she was not widely known before Enright and Fitzgibbons began to cite her work is no argument at all against what she *says.* Enright and Fitzgibbons have done their homework and have presented an accurate picture. Clients and patients are the ones who gain from this careful scholarship.