Forgiveness in the Context of Psychotherapy

The aim of this article is to present a topic that is quite neglected in Czech professional literature. We deal with employing forgiveness in psychotherapy. First, we focus on specific theoretical concepts of forgiveness, its structure, mediators – that is the constituents that can facilitate forgiveness, and barriers that can, on the contrary, stand in its way. Further, we introduce different approaches to forgiveness that can be generally divided into three groups – entirely positive attitude, purely aversive attitude, and an attitude which stands in the middle of the aforesaid poles and depends on certain conditions. The core of this article is a presentation of different possibilities that show how forgiveness can be employed in psychotherapeutic practice, and a presentation of specific models that show us how to work with it. These are the results of many researches and experience of many foreign psychotherapists. The main chapter is divided according to specific approaches to the comprehension of forgiveness, different ways of using it, and according to various clients that are involved (e.g. family, an individual, a victim together with the offender etc.).

Magdalena Lavičková, Special Education Centre, Nový Jičín, Czech Republic e-mail: magdalena.lavickova@specskolanj.czMarek Kolařík, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University in Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic e-mail: marek.kolarik@upol.cz