To what extent do you think a person should revisit the injustice, feel the emotions from that time, and relive the event in order to gain insight into how to confront all of this now?  I am concerned that such revisiting could induce re-traumatization.

The process of forgiveness does not require that the other revisit the event of the injustice.  Instead, the big question from that past time is this: Was I truly treated unjustly?  If the answer is “yes,” then the goal is to examine, not the actual past event, but instead the current effects of that event on the person now.  So, re-traumatization is not likely to occur because the person definitely is not asked to revisit in detail that past event.  We have to realize that some degree of trauma exists now, if the injustice is deep.  So, it is not that the potential forgiver is revisiting negative feelings.  Instead, it is the case that the person is examining current negative feelings that now can be changed to more adaptive emotions and reactions.

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