Effects of Forgiveness Therapy

Journal Article Review:

The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression, Anxiety, and Posttraumatic Stress for Women After Spousal Abuse

Lekisa Stevens

Liberty University

Summary

The purpose of this is article is to show the effects of forgiveness therapy and alternative treatment on women who suffer from emotional abuse long after the relationship is over. The article begins by talking about how emotional abuse from a spouse or romantic partner is a major problem and that 35% of the women that report this type of abuse shows noticeable psychological signs. The article then identifies various classifications of spousal psychological abuse that includes: criticizing, ridiculing, jealousy, purposeful ignoring, threats of abandonment and harm and damage to personal property, which produces negative outcomes that includes: depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, low self-esteem, learned helplessness and a long term resentment of the person who has abused them or towards others whose behaviors imitates that of the past abuser. The article then talks about a study of how forgiveness therapy (FT), in oppose to an alternate treatment(AT), better helps women deal with the resentment and hurts of past relationship and shows a significant improvement in the abused woman’s self-esteem. The study was conducted between a period of five to twelve months and consisted of twenty psychologically abused women who had been out of their previous relationships for at least two years, nine pretest measures, individualized weekly one hour therapy sessions, posttest and follow up. Results for the study showed that the women in FT showed an outstanding increase in the improvement of their attitudes and a surprisingly low resentment towards their abusers in oppose to the women in AT. So basically the study, along with research, showed how beneficial FT can be in the lives of emotional abused women who have been subjected to this emotional demon of mistreatment...