So occasionally I read and review a self-help book to use in
my practice. Feel free to read along
with me if you would like.
The one I have been recently reading is about
forgiveness. It’s called “8 Keys to
Forgiveness” by Robert Enright, and can be found here on Amazon. It’s available as a kindle book, as well. Before I bought it, I specifically looked for
something that was not spiritual in nature. In my initial search, I found that many books
written about forgiveness have a spiritual or religious focus. While I think
that spirituality can be an important component in many peoples’ wellness, I am
biased toward Western Medicine. I knew
that there was a good deal of research available about the health benefits of
forgiveness, so I looked for that.
Many of my clients have past abuses or hurts that they are
working to understand and heal. Sometimes those hurts were perpetrated by a
parent. I am of the firm belief that typically, ‘parentectomies’ aren’t very
helpful for people. While some might
need interpersonal distance from close family members to heal from a past hurt,
or to protect themselves from current ones, portraying the perpetrator
(especially if it is a family member or loved one) as ‘all bad’ promotes black
and white thinking that is not helpful to people in the long run.
On the other hand, asking someone who has been seriously
injured by another to ‘forgive’ is no small matter. It takes time, and work, and patience. At
times, it even seems disastrous to tell someone who has recently experienced a
severe injury to start a process toward forgiveness.
Let’s see what’s inside the book…
No comments:
Post a Comment