News
Dr. Lisa Gassin, IFI Founding Board Member, Receives Award for Academic Excellence
Dr. Elizabeth (Lisa) Gassin, a founding board member of the International Forgiveness Institute, received the 2015 Samuel L. Mayhugh Award for Scholarly Excellence from Olivet Nazarene University during the 102nd Commencement Convocation on May 9.
Dr. Lisa Gassin
Founding IFI Board Member
Dr. Gassin teaches courses in developmental and cross-cultural psychology. She has been an Olivet faculty member since 1995, except when she was working in Russia from 2000 through 2003. In 2007, she received Olivet’s Richard M. Jones Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence.
She holds degrees in human development; educational psychology with an emphasis in gifted education; educational and developmental psychology with minors in research and statistics and moral education; and marriage and family counseling. She focuses her research on the psychology of forgiveness, bereavement and play therapy.
Dr. Gassin has produced various publications and presentations on the topic of forgiveness. She is a member of the Association for Play Therapy and the American Counseling Association. Serving the greater Kankakee community, she provides counseling services and also volunteers with Hospice of Kankakee Valley.
She has earned a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, two master’s degrees — one from Purdue University and one from Governors State University — and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California-Davis. Currently, she is in a specialized graduate research program in 
qualitative research methods with Nova Southeastern University.
“Dr. Gassin is an outstanding example for our students of scholarly achievement, Christian service and compassion for others,” said Dr. Dennis Crocker, vice president for Academic Affairs. “Her commitment to learning and growing, both as a professor and an academic leader, continues to inspire others.”
Olivet Nazarene University is an accredited Christian, liberal arts university offering more than 120 areas of undergraduate and graduate study. Olivet’s main campus is in Bourbonnais, Illinois, 50 miles south of Chicago.
Read Dr. Gassin’s full Curriculum Vitae.
8 Keys to Forgiveness: Dr. Enright’s New Book Unlocks the Forgiveness Process
While it may seem like a simple enough act, forgiveness is a difficult, delicate process that, if executed correctly, can be a profoundly moving and deep learning experience. Whatever the scenario may be—whether you need to make peace with a certain situation, with a loved one or 
friend, or with a total stranger—the process of forgiveness is an art and a science.
8 Keys to Forgiveness is a how-to guide by the man Time magazine has called “the forgiveness trailblazer”—Dr. Robert Enright, who has researched, developed and implemented forgiveness education programs for the past 30 years.
This hands-on guide walks readers through the process in 8 key steps. How can we become forgivingly “fit”? How can we identify the source of our pain and inner turmoil? How can we find meaning in what we have suffered, or learn to forgive ourselves? What should we do when forgiveness feels particularly hard? All these questions and more are answered here, leading us to become more tolerant, compassionate, and hopeful human beings.
“This book has the potential to enrich and improve more lives than any psychology book in decades,” according to Frank Farley, Ph.D., former President of the American Psychological Association. “Robert Enright is the pioneer of the psychology of forgiveness, and his great wisdom, experience, and very practical advice are all compiled in this highly readable guide. Don’t give up on forgiveness in your life until you read this book and try its proven strategies.” (Read more reviews and endorsements here.)
Dr. Enright’s latest book is officially publishing September 28 but will be available directly from W. W. Norton & Company for mid-June delivery at the W.W. Norton & Company website.
Parents of slain state trooper forgive accused killer
Reuters, Mount Pocono, PA – “It doesn’t do you any good to hate somebody for whatever they have done to you, because all it does is eat you up. And in the end, what does it do for you? Absolutely nothing.”
Those are the words of Bryon Dickson, father of a slain Pennsylvania State Police trooper who said Sunday that he and his wife have forgiven their son’s alleged killer. Bryon and Darla Dickson said forgiveness has helped them move on and avoid becoming bitter.
Police Corporal Bryon Dickson II was killed by a sniper outside his barracks last fall. The defendant, Eric Frien, is a survivalist now awaiting trial on murder charges that carry a possible death sentence.
“Justice lays behind (us), where Eric Frein must be held accountable for what he did to our son,” Darla said. “Forgiveness, however, lays before us. It is our hope. We know as Christians we will see Bryon again.”
The Dicksons spoke about the death of their son and the healing power of forgiveness during three “Blue Sunday” services honoring law enforcement at the Community Church in Mount Pocono, about 110 miles north of Philadelphia.
“The only alternative is bitterness,” the church pastor, David Crosby Jr., added. “Forgiveness is the difference between becoming bitter and getting better.” Darla and Bryon Dickson nodded in agreement.
Read more:
Parents of slain Pennsylvania trooper forgive accused killer, Business Insider (Reuters – US Edition).
Forgiveness ahead for Trooper Dickson’s parents, The Standard Speaker, Hazleton, PA.
Parents of slain trooper declare forgiveness for man awaiting trial, Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Forgiveness Intervention Improves Health of Women with Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia News Today, Dallas, Texas – Fibromyalgia patients who suffered abuse during childhood achieved “significant improvements in forgiveness, anger and overall fibromyalgia health” after a forgiveness intervention administered as part of a new study conducted by the International Forgiveness Institute (IFI) and University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
Fibromyalgia is a medical disorder characterized by widespread chronic musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, stiffness and numbness in certain parts of the body, headaches, sleep disorder
and mood alterations. Fibromyalgia can affect people’s ability to conduct simple daily tasks, compromising their quality of life. Women are usually more affected than men.
Medical researchers believe that childhood abuse or trauma may change the body’s response to stress, potentially leading to the development of fibromyalgia. In fact, people with fibromyalgia have a higher prevalence of childhood abuse compared to the U.S. population in general.
According to the study, clinicians may be able to help patients cope with fibromyalgia through a forgiveness intervention and the changes that it induces in the patient’s mental and physiological state.
The study is entitled “A Forgiveness Intervention for Women With Fibromyalgia Who Were Abused in Childhood: A Pilot Study.” It was published in the September 2014 issue—Vol. 1(3), pages 203-217—of the journal Spirituality in Clinical Practice®, a publication of the American Psychological Association. Study team leaders were Dr. Robert Enright, founder of the IFI who has been studying forgiveness for more than 29 years, and Yu-Rim Lee, UW-Madison Department of Educational Psychology.
Read the full story: Forgiveness Intervention Helps Women with Fibromyalgia Abused During Childhood Improve their Condition.
Read the complete Fibromyalgia Study: A Forgiveness Intervention for Women With Fibromyalgia Who Were Abused in Childhood: A Pilot Study.
Some Auschwitz Survivors Disagree with Eva Mozes Kor
The Irish Times, Dublin, Ireland – The court trial for a former Nazi concentration camp guard has triggered an emotional battle among Holocaust survivors over whether they can – or should – forgive their tormentors.
Former SS Sgt. Oskar Groening is being tried in Germany as an accessory to the murder of at least 300,000 Jews at Auschwitz. (See the Forgiveness News article immediately below this one dated 4/28/15 for more on the 93-year-old Groening’s trial.)
Now 81-year-old Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Eva Mozes Kor, who was subjected to horrific experiments at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by camp doctor Josef Mengeleis, is being critized after publicly forgiving Gröening for his role in the crimes against her family.
Other concentration camp survivors (co-plaintiffs in the trial) have attacked Kor for staging a “one- woman rehabilitation” show.
“Being a co-plaintiff in the name of the murdered while using this role for public and personal forgiveness – that doesn’t fit together,” they said in a statement. “We cannot forgive Mr Gröening for his participation in the murder of our relatives.”
Kor, however, is unrepentant. She says her show of forgiveness is a gesture of respect to Holocaust victims and has given her inner peace.
“Even if every Nazi was hanged for their crimes, my life would be the same,” she said. “But if we give each other the hand as humans – good, bad and indifferent – then something can happen.”
Kor added, “I’m a survivor, not a victim. Fostering victimhood doesn’t help victims and society shouldn’t encourage it. We cannot heal victims by continuing victimhood, but by encouraging forgiveness.”
Read the full story: “Auschwitz survivors row over forgiveness”
