<Institution>
Summary
Because of the prevalence of spousal emotional abuse, especially on women, it is considered as a significant societal problem that must be faced. According to several researchers, such as Dutton, Painter, Sackett and Saunders, psychological abuse leads to “serious negative psychological outcomes for the abused partner” (as cited in Reed and Enright, 2006). These effects include depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, learned helplessness, resentment, and low self-esteem. However, no kind of treatment has been empirically validated to be effective. One of the available treatments for the negative effects of spousal abuse is known as the forgiveness therapy. What makes the act of forgiving distinct is that it is a conscious choice to stop resentment, which is different from forgetting, pardoning, or reconciling with the abuser (Reed and Enright, 2006). Several studies have been performed on forgiveness therapy and its effectiveness. According to Enright and Fitzgibbons, forgiveness therapy “directly targets ongoing resentment, which can lead to depression, anxiety, and other negative psychological outcomes” (as cited in Reed and Enright, 2006). In the study conducted by Gayle Reed and Robert Enright, they hypothesized that forgiveness therapy, when compared to alternative treatments, would cause emotionally abused participants to experience less negative psychological outcomes, including reduced depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and higher self-esteem. The study involved 10 women participants who were psychologically abused and were either divorced or separated from their partner within 2 years at the least when the study was conducted. The participants were divided into 10 pairs and one of each pair were randomly assigned to the forgiveness therapy group and the alternative treatment group. The participants were asked to take a pretest, posttest, and follow up using the following measures: psychological abuse survey, the Enright Forgiveness Inventory, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Environmental Mastery Scale, the Reed Finding Meaning in Suffering, the PTSS checklist and the Story Measure. After pretesting, 10 of the participants took a one hour weekly forgiveness therapy session while the other 10 received a one hour weekly alternative treatment. When the results were compared, it showed that the psychological conditions of the participants who took forgiveness therapy greatly improved. In other words, forgiveness therapy was found to be more effective than alternative treatments in terms of the long-term recovery of women who were emotionally abused by their partners.
Interaction
Before I even began reading the article, I already believe that forgiveness can do wonders. It is not in my personality to hold grudges or resentment because for me, it is as good as giving someone else the permission to emotionally hurt me over and over again. This is why the topic of the research article caught my attention instantly. I didn’t know that my own belief on the power of forgiveness can be validated by researched evidence. As I read along the study that was conducted about forgiveness therapy, I felt convinced that it was carefully designed to consider all possible factors that might affect the validity of the results. For instance, the researchers made sure that all the participants have been separated from their abusive partners of spouse for at least two years. This is a good consideration to make in order to avoid “false forgiveness,” a tendency of abused women to believe that their abusers need to be forgiven because they will not abuse them again (Reed and Enright, 2006). I have seen and heard of this scenario many times before. By making such consideration, it can be assured that the participants are ready to embrace real forgiveness that is not confused with the concept of forgetting. Moreover, the researchers also used several types of measures to conduct an extensive understanding of the participants, such as the extent of the emotional abuse they received, their personal perspective on forgiveness, their level of self-esteem, their level of anxiety and depression caused by the abuse, and other significant pieces of information that would help measure the effectiveness of forgiveness therapy. In addition, another aspect of the study which I find important is the qualification of the intervener. This is one of the major strengths of the study because the intervener is highly qualified by having educational background and experience in psychiatric nursing and forgiveness process model. Because the results made the forgiveness therapy more promising, I plan to research and read other studies that have been conducted on the subject matter.
Application
The pieces of information I gained from the article would be very important for counselling situations. Let us say I am a clinician and a client came to me because she feels depressed and unworthy due to her failed marriage that was characterized by emotional abuse from her husband. First of all, I will ask her to describe how she feels so that I will be able to understand the severity of her depression and other negative emotions. By doing so, I will have a better understanding of how the emotional abuse affected her. Afterwards, I will ask about how she feels towards her husband for what he did. Somehow, this reflects how the researchers conducted the Enright Forgiveness Inventory for the participants (Reed and Enright, 2006). By gaining this insight from my client, I will understand how willing or how open she is about forgiving her abuser. After this, I will make sure that I explain to her what forgiveness means. This is important so that she would know that she does not need to forget that the abuse occured and she will not be confused whether or not she needs to reconcile with her husband. Unless her husband’s issues that made him abusive has been dealt with, it is not safe for my client to reconcile with him because she might be trapped in the cycle of abuse, which was also mentioned in the research (Reed and Enright, 2006). My client needs to understand this clearly. Once I have explained the concept of forgiveness, I will recommend that she takes forgiveness therapy to help her move towards forgiveness, which can ultimately free her from the negative psychological effects of the emotional abuse she suffered from.
References
Reed, G. & Enright, R. (2006). The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression, Anxiety, andPosttraumatic Stress for Women After Spousal Emotional Abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74 (5), 920-929. DOI: 10.1037/0022-006X.74.5.920
