The construction of a model of the process of couples' forgiveness in emotion-focused therapy for couples.
This study explored how forgiveness unfolds in the context of emotion-focused couples therapy (EFT-C) in eight cases of women betrayed by their partners. Forgiveness was defined as a process involving the reduction in negative feelings and the giving out of undeserved compassion. This was measured by changes in the pre- and posttreatment scores on the Enright Forgiveness Inventory, the Unfinished Business Resolution Scale, and a single item directly asking respondents to indicate their degree of forgiveness. A task analysis was performed to rigorously track the steps leading to forgiveness using videotapes of therapy sessions for eight couples. The performance of the four couples who forgave were compared with each other and then contrasted with the performance of another four couples who did not reach forgiveness at the end of therapy. Based on these observations, a model of the process of forgiveness in EFT-C and a process rating system were developed.
Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada. cjw@yorku.ca
Catalina Woldarsky
CW
Meneses
Leslie S
LS
Greenberg
D000328:Adult; D019546:Couples Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D061347:Forgiveness; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008388:Marital Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009769:Object Attachment; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D035502:Trust