*February 17, 2021. It’s freezing here in Texas, we’ve had no power for three days now and my family has COVID, I have COVID Pneumonia. My oxygen is 91 so I get to stay at home! Yay! Today is Dad’s birthday, but alas it’s his second Earthly birthday spent in Heaven. I’m missing him greatly and feeling the weight of the world being cold, tired, sick (breathing is difficult) and grieved- not to mention deadlines. But I digress, life goes on and we do the best we can. Besides, HE always does His best work, when I am weak. Truly grateful, I am!
Forgiveness Therapy (FT) Counseling Model for both licensed and lay peoples:
Everett Worthington Jr. has created the most basic concept regarding the practice of forgiveness therapy. That is not to say the putting in to practice will be easy, but that the model itself is relatively simple and should be easy to learn. The acrostic REACH is used in working with people through the process of REACHing forgiveness.
R Recall the hurt, but differently- in a more helpful way. Permit the client to recall and express (not suppress) the emotion over the transgression freely. Assessment occurs at this point (Worthington, p. 170, 2006.)
E– Empathize with the person who hurt you by replacing negative emotions with positive emotions, such as; compassion, sympathy, empathy and or love for the transgressor (Worthington, p. 172, 2006.)
A- Altruistic gift of forgiveness is chosen. The person is encouraged to give the gift of forgiveness as a form of blessing for and over another human being. Not because of any personal benefit such as physical, mental or spiritual health. (Worthington, p. 170, 2006.)
C- Commit to the emotional forgiveness. Have the individual make a public profession of to what degree (percent wise, perhaps) they are able to forgive. The public profession, as Worthington states, shapes a person’s internal reality to match the external profession. At this time, giving a client something as simple as a “forgiveness certificate” (with their percent or ration on it) is encouraging and may be motivation enough to repeat the process until forgiveness is completely expressed.
H- Hold on to forgiveness when doubts arise. The consistent reminder that one has already forgiven a transgressor to a certain degree is helpful at maintaining that level of forgiveness and continuing to move on.
While the REACH model is simple at its core, understanding the nuances of personality and change and how to address each type are where the difficulty lies. Forgiveness expressed verbally and not also deep within the heart, as a cognitive choice is worthless. And WORTHington, would not create a worthless model. Therefore, in order to make this acrostic work, one must also be skilled in helping their clients change their personalities- this is where the assessment takes place. Please see assessment tab for further instruction.