The importance of practicing forgiveness has been extolled for centuries, but only recently has research demonstrated that forgiveness can reduce anger and depression as well as enhance hopefulness and self-efficacy.

This workshop series has four sessions of lecture and discussion interspersed with guided practice of forgiveness tools. The format is not intended as group therapy; but rather to teach self-care skills to heal old wounds and prevent new ones.

Workshop participants who complete the series will be able to:

• Describe the core components that create an interpersonal grievance
• Articulate a practical definition of forgiveness for improved understanding of self and others
• Explain new strategies for managing anger and hurt
• Understand the physiological response to positive and negative affective states
• Describe the advantages to forgiveness as a general problem-solving strategy
• Discuss ways forgiveness can be used to enhance interpersonal relationships
• Use the HEAL model of working through interpersonal grievances
• Practice the positive emotion refocusing technique
• Learn how to practice forgiveness to prevent conflicts

More about the instructor

Dr. Frederic Luskin is the director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project and author of Forgive for Good, published by Harper Collins. He is a research associate at the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention. He holds a PhD in Counseling Psychology from Stanford University and is a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. Dr. Luskin's personal web site, Learning To Forgive, has access to video, audio and book products.