The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression, Anxiety, and Post-Traumatic Stress for Women after Spousal Emotional Abuse

The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression, Anxiety, and Post-Traumatic Stress for Women after Spousal Emotional Abuse

Summary

The article under discussion has been written by G. L. Reed and R. D. Enright to explore the efficacy of Foregiveness therapy in treating emotionally abused women. It is basically a research study revealing the effects of forgiveness therapy on depressed instincts of woman who have experienced some sort of emotional abuse by their spouse. The study is aimed at exploring a concrete and effective treatment for the women suffering from some sort of emotional abuse. The authors have provided a fine comparison between forgiveness therapy and alternative therapies commonly structured around insolence, interpersonal communication and validating aggression to weigh up their relative effectiveness.

The findings of the research study reveal that despite of the availability of various treatments for emotionally abused women, there is no empirical framework for judging their effectiveness (Reed & Enright, 2006). The article also narrates the previous studies conducted on standard ways to identify the type of emotional abuse structured around criticism, defamation, and jealousy moderation. The forgiveness therapy actually revolves around compassionating and showing empathy to the abusing spouse with eradicating the anger and aggression along with keeping it distinct from forgetting or reconciliation (Reed & Enright, 2006). The hypothesis for this research study was developed on the notion that individuals participating in FT would show fewer symptoms of apprehension, despair and post traumatic stress and a higher self-esteem as compared to the individuals engaged in any alternative treatment. The research method applied is survey of a sample consisting on 20 emotionally abused woman aged between 32-54 years along with integrating screening measures, posttraumatic stress symptoms checklist and a case study of 36 year old victim (Reed & Enright, 2006). Discussing their findings, the researchers truly stated that psychologically abusing woman may result in difficulty in reinforcing the emotional stability even after terminating the abusive relationship “because of continuing resentment about the unfair harm of the abuse”( Reed & Enright, 2006,p.927). The results indicated that FT is more successful in yielding the desired outcomes regarding the reformation of adverse psychological implications of spousal emotional abuse.

Interaction

The article has substantially covered the grave issue of emotional abuse caused by a spouse or love partner particularly on woman. The most appealing point in the article is ...