Author Archive: directorifi
Mother Forgives Those Who Beat Her Teenage Daughter Beyond Recognition
Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada – A 16-year-old Winnipeg high school student was attacked and beaten so badly last Friday night that her mother couldn’t believe it was her daughter when she first saw her in a hospital intensive care unit.
“I didn’t recognize her,” Julie Harper admitted. “I didn’t think it was Rinelle. But every day, she’s getting a lot better. I believe it is the prayers (from people touched by Rinelle’s attack) which pulled her through.”
Police said Rinelle was out with friends that night but became separated from them. She met two men in the south Broadway area who started talking with her and she walked with them to the riverwalk. That’s where the pair attacked her and tossed her into the river near the Midtown Bridge.
The girl was swept downstream, but when she managed to get out of the frigid water, she was attacked again and left for dead. A passerby discovered the unconscious teenager the next morning and called for help.
On Tuesday, thanks to tips from Winnipeg citizens, a 20-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy were arrested and charged with the teen’s attempted murder and aggravated sexual assault.
“When I first heard there was two arrests, the first thing that came to me was to forgive right away,” Julie Harper said after a news conference Thursday. “If any family members (of the accused) are listening, I forgive them. That’s what I was taught to do by my late grandparents. It’s hard, but I truly forgive them.”
Rinelle was moved from intensive care into a regular hospital ward on Wednesday and her mother said the girl is making steady progress.
Read the full story: “Forgiveness for Rinelle’s attackers: Teen’s mom says it’s what she was raised to do.”
Watch a video of Julie Harper forgiving the two attackers.
Justice and Forgiveness Confront Each Other in Court
Pittsburgh’s Action 4 News, Beaver, PA – An 85-year-old nun who has spent her entire life helping others while living out her vow of chastity, has forgiven the teenage man who raped her last December.
The victim testified at a preliminary hearing that she was grabbed, punched, choked and ultimately raped, and she told the magistrate she thought she was going to die. She survived the attack by 19-year-old Andrew Bullock who admitted to targeting the woman behind St. Titus Church in Aliquippa, PA.
The Sisters of St. Joseph nun wrote a Victim Impact Statement that was read in court at Bullock’s sentencing hearing on Wednesday. In the statement, the nun said she was asked by the media if she could forgive her attacker. Her response, she wrote, was: “My thought-out answer to the question was and had to be: ‘Of course he is forgiven.’ ”
The nun referred to Bullock by his first name and called him “my brother.” She said they should both “love one another and forgive one another. And, this I do, Andrew. . .”
The judge, who said that he had not seen such depravity in all his 42 years in the criminal court system, sentenced Bullock to 18 – 37 years in state prison.
Read the story: “Elderly nun’s rapist gets prison sentence, forgiveness”
Watch the video: “Nun’s rapist gets prison time from judge, forgiveness from victim”
Dr. Enright Forgiveness Workshop Now Online
NOTE: A videotaped recording of a webinar that Dr. Enright presented to members of the North American Association of Christians in Social Work (NACSW) in partnership with the Canadian Society for Spirituality and Social Work (CSSSW) is now available for viewing online. Here are the details:
Forgiveness: A Pathway to Emotional Healing
Based on his 25-years of peer-reviewed, empirical scientific research, Dr. Robert Enright will help you discover and learn a step-by-step pathway to forgiveness. This 4-hour online workshop will enable you to develop confidence in your forgiveness skills and learn how you can bring forgiveness to your family, school, work place and community for better emotional health.
“Forgiveness is a process, freely chosen, in which you willingly reduce resentment through some hard work and offer goodness of some kind toward the one who hurt you,” according to workshop presenter Dr. Enright. “This gives you a chance to live a life of love, compassion and joy.”
Dr. Enright explains during this workshop how you can learn and use that process to help yourself and others. He explains, for example that:
• Forgiveness is NOT reconciliation, forgetting, excusing or condoning.
• Forgiveness does not get rid of the injustice but the effects of the injustice.
• Forgiveness cuts across many different philosophies and religions.
• The benefits of forgiveness are significant: scientific analyses demonstrates that considerable emotional, relational, and even physical health benefits result from forgiving.
• The roadmap to forgiveness is the 20-Step Process Model of Forgiving developed by Dr. Enright.
• Once you’ve learned the forgiveness process, you can help create The Forgiving Community–bringing forgiveness to your family, your church, your clients and your community.
The content of this workshop will not only teach you about forgiveness but it also emphasizes the historical and current religious components of forgiveness.
NACSW (provider #1078) is approved as a provider for social work 
continuing education by The Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB). Social Workers are eligible for 4.0 continuing education clock hour(s) for completing this training.
Registration fee for this online workshop is $60 for NACSW and CSSSW members; $75 for non-members. Watch a video clip of the first six minutes of the workshop. Get all the details at the NACSW Online Continuing Education website.
“Helping Clients Forgive” – Our Online CE Course >Get Started Today
Psychologists and other helping professionals: enhance your professional expertise and capabilities by learning how forgiveness can help your clients and how you can apply the forgiveness process in your practice.
This CE course is based on the book: “Helping Clients Forgive: An Empirical Guide to Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope” by Dr. Robert Enright 
and Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons. The course work includes the empirical foundations of forgiveness therapy, process models of forgiveness interventions, and the clinical application of forgiveness in a variety of clinical presentations such as depressive and anxiety disorders, substance abuse, eating disorders, marital and family adjustment disorders.
The goal of the home study course is to provide professionals: 1) with an understanding of the empirical basis for forgiveness in therapy; 2) with a working knowledge of the psychological processes of forgiveness; 3) with an understanding of the relevance of forgiveness for many clinical presentations; and 4) with clinical expertise in applying the forgiveness process to his/her own practice.
All course work is offered online. The cost is $175.00. Licensed psychologists who successfully complete the course will receive 15 credit hours from the American Psychological Association (APA). Social workers in Wisconsin are also eligible for the 15 credit hours.
The faculty includes Dr. Robert Enright, Licensed Psychologist and Professor of Education Psychology, Dr. Elizabeth Gassin, Professor of Educational Psychology, and Dr. Catherine Coyle, Lecturer in Educational Psychology and Researcher. Each of these instructors has more than 20 years of experience researching and teaching about forgiveness. The following links will enable you to view the full CV of each of the faculty members: 1) Dr. Robert Enright; 2) Dr. Elizabeth Gassin; 3) Dr. Catherine Coyle.
This course was developed for Licensed Psychologists who are only now learning about the psychology of forgiveness as well as those 
with intermediate and advanced knowledge in the area. It has also proven beneficial, however, for ministers, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and other professional counselors who have completed the course.
The International Forgiveness Institute is approved by the APA to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Forgiveness Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
4-Hour Online Forgiveness Workshop – Sign Up Now
Forgiveness: A Pathway to Emotional Healing
Based on his 25-years of peer-reviewed, empirical scientific research, Dr. Robert Enright will help you discover and learn a step-by-step pathway to forgiveness. This 4-hour online workshop will enable you to develop confidence in your forgiveness skills and learn how you can bring forgiveness to your family, school, work place and community for better emotional health.
“Forgiveness is a process, freely chosen, in which you willingly reduce resentment through some hard work and offer goodness of some kind toward the one who hurt you,” according to workshop presenter Dr. Enright. “This gives you a chance to live a life of love, compassion and joy.”
Dr. Enright explains during this workshop how you can learn and use that process to help yourself and others. He explains, for example that:
• Forgiveness is NOT reconciliation, forgetting, excusing or condoning.
• Forgiveness does not get rid of the injustice but the effects of the injustice.
• Forgiveness cuts across many different philosophies and religions.
• The benefits of forgiveness are significant: scientific analyses demonstrates that considerable emotional, relational, and even physical health benefits result from forgiving.
• The roadmap to forgiveness is the 20-Step Process Model of Forgiving developed by Dr. Enright.
• Once you’ve learned the forgiveness process, you can help create The Forgiving Community–bringing forgiveness to your family, your church, your clients and your community.
NOTE: This online workshop is a videotaped recording of a webinar that Dr. Enright presented to members of the North American Association of Christians in Social Work (NACSW) in partnership with the Canadian Society for Spirituality and Social Work (CSSSW). The content emphasizes the historical and current religious components of forgiveness.
NACSW (provider #1078) is approved as a provider for social work continuing education by The Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB). Social Workers are eligible for 4.0 continuing education clock hour(s) for completing this training.
Registration fee for this online workshop is $60 for NACSW and CSSSW members; $75 for non-members. Watch a video clip of the first six minutes of the workshop. Get all the details at the NACSW Online Continuing Education website.
