A Voice of Forgiveness

Abstract

Forgiveness is not something that most incest survivors or those who write about incest think about or deem worthy. If forgiveness is mentioned in the context of incest it is usually misunderstood and advised against. However, the concept of person to person forgiveness has become more popular in the past ten years as illustrated in the multitude of books and articles written on the topic. The purpose of this paper is to describe one woman's participation in an educational intervention for incest survivors, using forgiveness as the goal, and the consequences that forgiveness has had on this woman's life. This paper may prove useful for therapists working with incest survivors and other individuals who have been deeply hurt by a family member. The paper concludes with guidelines for therapists who may be interested in implementing a forgiveness intervention with their own clients.

Key Words:

• Forgiveness
• a moral approach to incest
• case study
• educational intervention
• process model