Research suggests forgiveness is effective in reducing anger, anxiety, and depression while increasing a sense of hope and self-esteem. Letting go of resentment can lead to greater physical and psychological health.
If you are experiencing difficulty in a relationship it may be due to resentment. You may be able to heal a relationship through forgiveness, save a marriage, or restore a connection with an adult child, parent, family member, or loved one.
You may be struggling with difficulty forgiving someone no longer in your life or possibly deceased.
Forgiveness is for you more than the person who has offended or hurt you. You may find greater freedom to enjoy life, and more success and fulfillment in all your relationships. You may gain release from the effects of abuse, or recover from an addiction through forgiveness.
Are you stuck in anger? Forgiveness is often a process, so if you want this release in your life we can work together to help get you to the other side. The therapy consists of education about forgiveness, sharing your situation, and help working through the various stages, such as anger, sadness, and mistrust.
We also explore reconciliation, when is it safe or unsafe to trust again, Forgiveness and reconciliation are two different things that sometimes are related and sometimes not. You can forgive without reconciling. We explore when it is safe to reconcile and when it is not. If you choose to reconcile we explore what that looks like and discuss any boundaries you want to put into place.
Individual, couples and family therapy sessions are available.
Among several theorists I base my therapy on the work of Richard Fitzgibbons, MD, who trained with Aaron T. Beck in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and his colleague Robert D. Enright, PhD.
“Anger and the wish to punish a family member for past grievances often remain resistant to the most useful cognitive-behavioral approaches. Enright and Fitzgibbons show how forgiveness can help finalize past resentment and allow people to lay their past grievances to rest.”
— Aaron T. Beck MD