There are other ways to move on from tragedy besides forgiveness. Is it not possible to go on by facing life head-on, carrying a grudge, and taking a march forward? Forgiveness is merely one of many strategies to move past injustices, isn’t there?
One of the numerous strategies for overcoming tragedy is forgiveness, although some strategies work better than others. Scientific studies have demonstrated that forgiveness is a particularly powerful tool for trauma recovery.
For instance, in a 1996 study that we both published, Suzanne Freedman and I examined women who had experienced incest. Each of the women had psychological sadness, anxiety, low self-worth, and little hope for the future when they came to see us. Before beginning forgiveness therapy, all of these women had attempted various methods of emotional healing, but none of them had proven to be very successful. After each participant received a one-on-one forgiveness intervention from Suzanne for an hour each week for about 14 months, those who received the forgiveness program saw a considerable improvement in their emotional well-being as compared to the control group (who did not receive the forgiveness intervention).
Following the start of the forgiveness intervention (once the original experimental participants finished the program), the members of the control group also experienced a notable improvement in their emotional state after about 14 months. If achieving emotional recovery is the aim, or perhaps one of the goals, then it is worthwhile to consider forgiveness as a method of addressing profound trauma.
