Citation

Butler MH, Dahlin SK, Fife ST. J. Marital Fam. Ther. 2002; 28(3): 285-298.

Affiliation

Marriage and Family Therapy Program, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA. Mark_Butler@byu.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12197152

Abstract

Forgiveness is a significant intervention for healing interpersonal injury. Yet therapists do not often use forgiveness intervention. Employing a semantic perspective and a survey design (n = 307), this study investigated whether the language used to rationalize forgiveness intervention (set at five levels: personal growth, relationship reconciliation, spiritual issue, others' growth, and pardoning/condoning) may affect its acceptability. Gender, problem type, and choice were also included in the analyses. Overall, forgiveness was found to be an acceptable intervention. A pardoning/condoning rationale led to significantly lower acceptability ratings. Other results are discussed. We conclude that therapists should be less apprehensive about using forgiveness, but need to inform themselves better concerning its purpose, process, and articulation.

Language: en