Description
121: One-Day, One-Session, and One-Sided Forgiveness: When Offender is Unavailable through Death or Other Circumstances
Fred DiBlasio, Ph.D.
University of Maryland
525 W. Redwood St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
Summary
It is not unusual for a person to carry unforgiveness for a serious offense for months or even years after the offender’s death or otherwise unavailable situation. The excruciating emotional pain persists, and the other consequences have their adverse effects even though the offender is no longer living or in the life of the offended person. The powerful unresolved forgiveness issue for the devout Christian can interfere with current trust and intimacy with others and hinder a close relationship with God. This workshop aims to provide counselors with a one-day, step-by-step decision-based forgiveness session that can be used with willing clients to finally and truly forgive the offender and embrace a new peaceful life. These two approaches are consistent with the teachings of the immediacy of forgiveness in the Scripture. In addition, participants will be motivated to increase their understanding of the role that personality disorders can play in the process of serious unresolved offenses.
Learning Objectives
Participants will:
• Define decision-based forgiveness and how it fits into Scripture and normative Christian values in therapy for psychologists and licensed mental health professionals
• Integrate existing knowledge of people with personality disorders and why they are associated with serious offenders
• Employ the steps in helping individual counselees achieve decision-based forgiveness when the offender is unavailable through death or other circumstances
