Forgiveness and Letting Go in Emotion-Focused Therapy

Many individuals and couples come to therapy because of unresolved feelings of anger and hurt due to experiences of being wronged, betrayed, or violated. Over the past 20 years, Leslie Greenberg and his colleagues have undertaken clinical research to articulate a model of emotional injury resolution and map out a therapy-assisted path to forgiveness.

This book shows how forgiveness oriented Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) helps individuals and couples process distressing negative emotions and transform them by accessing internal resources of strength and self compassion. Step-by-step guides for conducting EFT and EFT for couples (EFT-C), along with analyses of extensive clinical case material, show readers how to:

promote clients’ ownership of their emotional experience empower clients to appropriately assign responsibility for harm done help clients see themselves as having the personal resources and resilience to recover from the emotional injury

Therapists will also learn to help clients determine whether forgiveness-with or without reconciliation with the injurer-is the right path, or whether it may be enough to simply let go of negative feelings.