Forgiving Others, Forgiving Ourselves: Understanding and Healing Our Emotional Wounds

Everyone seeks forgiveness at some point in their lives-in families, from friends, in workplaces, in communities or from ourselves. While we all need forgiveness to repair or let go of broken relationships, how to seek forgiveness and conquer the barriers that prevent forgiveness often elude us. Drawing on insights from many fields-communication, psychology, counselling and theology-as well as the authors' original research, the authors provide specific guidance about the personal journey toward forgiveness and offer a variety of tools toward achieving this goal: Ways to understand the relationship between forgiveness, apology and reconciliation, and the conditions that make reconciliation appropriate or inappropriate; The elements of effective apologies; Recent research findings to help readers understand the psychological, relational and spiritual complexities of forgiveness; Real-life examples of people in various stages of forgiveness; How to assist others to forgive in families, friendships, the workplace and communities; Reflection questions to help readers-individuals or groups, personal use or in counselling settings-explore their own relationship with forgiveness.