It seems to me that forgiveness could work effectively when people are mildly hurt by others, but it would not work when there is deep trauma. Can you convince me that forgiveness actually is effective for trauma survivors?

We have many experimental and control group clinical trials with trauma survivors showing that they can forgive and with excellent mental health benefits.  As just one example, the study by Freedman and Enright (1996) with incest survivors showed that all 12 of the female victims of sexual abuse by a father or father figure led to a statistically significant reduction in psychological depression.  A follow-up study of six of these women, done approximately one year after the forgiveness intervention ended, showed that they still had normal levels of depression.

Here is the reference to that work:

Freedman, S. R., & Enright, R. D. (1996).  Forgiveness as an intervention goal with incest survivors.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(5), 983-992.

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