Forgiveness study on incest survivor

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After 30 years
of studying forgiveness

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what strikes me the most

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is how powerful the process
of forgiveness is

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for emotional healing, spiritual
healing, relational healing.

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For example, a colleague of mine
Suzanne Friedman

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at the University of Northern Iowa

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and I did a study of incest
survivors in the mid 1990s.

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Most therapeutic
sciences were telling us

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that the best kind of therapy
is to help

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maintain symptoms without
symptoms getting worse

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because there are no
psychotherapeutic techniques

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that can actually heal a woman

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who has been subjected to incest

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which is one of the most
horrendous injustices of the world

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where a father who is supposed to be honoring

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and protecting her
is taking advantage.

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We did a study with 12 women.

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All of them came to us
psychologically depressed

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and they didn't like themselves.

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Suzanne Friedman brought them
through a forgiveness process,

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one hour a week
for up to 14 months.

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Six of them, the other were in
a control group,

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and after 14 months of one
on one work with her,

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following our process of forgiveness,

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the women were depression free.

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Their depression
didn't just go down. It left.

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They also came into the study not
liking themselves for what happened.

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They ended up recovering
their self-esteem.

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And their anxiety went down.
Their hope for the future went up.

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I have been amazed at how
strong forgiveness is at targeting

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resentments and unhealthy anger

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and all the complications
that go with that

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when people have been treated
profoundly unjustly

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where they literally
can be healed from that.