In my experience, some people I know are anxious, and some are even depressed. At the same time, I see that they have suffered grave injustices against them. Yet, and importantly, these people that I know are oblivious to the connection between the injustices that they have suffered and their present psychological challenges. Even if I am wrong about this connection between their past and the challenging injustices against them, how can we safely explore the possibility that the current anxiety or depression may be caused by the disruption to their emotions from the injustices? And how can I suggest forgiveness as a way to address all of this with my clients?
One way to start is to gently examine the extent of the anxiety and/or depression. Have the clients rate the emotional challenge on the 1-to-10 scale, with a 10 being an extreme form of the emotion. If some of your clients are in the 6-to-10 range on either anxiety or depression, do they see that it would be good to address this emotion? If so, the next step is to see if: a) there are current life events that trigger the emotion; and b) the injustice from the past is still bothering any of them. If both (a) and (b) are present in any of the clients, you could gently discuss with them the existing scientific evidence that current emotional challenges can be linked to serious injustices against people that could have occurred years ago. See if the clients have any questions about this link (between past injustices and current emotional challenges). If they see this and are ready, you could examine whether or not any of these clients are open to exploring forgiveness, properly understood as not excusing, not necessarily reconciling if the offending person remains a danger, and not abandoning justice. As you did with the link between current emotional challenges and past injustices against your clients, you can show the scientific evidence that forgiving, even though it takes time, can ameliorate the excessive anxiety or depression. It may take time for them to think about and choose forgiveness, but if this pathway is chosen, you can introduce those clients to one of our self-help forgiveness books (Forgiveness Is a Choice, The Forgiving Life, or 8 Keys to Forgiveness). These books can be used in professional therapy or as a self-help resource. Thank you for your willingness to help hurting people.
