Beliefs of Counselor Trainees about Forgiveness

AbstractCounselors might be able to help clients to forgive after interpersonal hurts and one of the first tasks of working toward forgiveness with clients is helping them understand exactly what forgiveness means. However, a counselor who wants to use forgiveness in his/her work must first know what forgiveness is, what forgiveness is not, and which factors affect the forgiveness process. The purpose of the present study is to determine the beliefs of counselor trainees about forgiveness. The scope of this study includes how trainees define forgiveness, as well as their beliefs about their own forgivingness, the factors affecting forgiveness, and the importance of forgiveness in counseling. A qualitative study was conducted with 59 undergraduate students attending the Division of Psychological Counseling and Guidance in Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey, during the 2012-2013 academic year. The data from individual interviews were analyzed using content analysis techniques. The results indicated that the trainees considered forgiveness to be a conditional process in an interpersonal context and attributed some conditions about the offender and the offense to their forgivingness. In particular, apology and awareness of the offender about his/her fault affected their decisions to forgive. In the counseling process, forgiveness was considered an important issue and mostly regarded as a counselor characteristic.Keywords: Forgiveness * Counseling * Counselor trainees * Counselor development * Therapeutic toolsForgiveness is a concept that has been studied in different cultures and religions for thousands of years (Denton & Martin, 1998) through religious and philosophical studies. Until the 1980's the concept was ignored in psychological studies, but it is currently seen as an important issue for psychological research (Bugay & Demir, 2011, 2012; Erguner-Tekinalp & Terzi, 2012; Legaree, Turneri, & Lollis, 2007; McCullough, Bellah, Kilpatrick, & Johnson, 2001; McCullough, Pargament, & Thoresen, 2000). Forgiveness is an important element for both spiritual development and psychological healing (Gartner, 1988). Forgiveness is considered as a tool to reach the therapeutic goals of counseling (Berecz, 2001; Hope, 1987; Murray, 2002; Wade, Bailey, & Shaffer, 2005) as well as a counseling technique (Fitzgibbons, 1986). Actually, being an effective counselor warrants an integration of field knowledge with techniques and skills within the personality characteristics and self-awareness of counselors (Ikiz & Karaca, 2011; Johns, 1996). In order to reach the intended outcomes involving client growth, the therapeutic relationship itself is the main determinant of the counseling process. The relationship is one of the most important factors in outcome variance (Tursi & Cochran, 2006). The construction of a therapeutic relationship impacts a counselor's growth to establish a meaning for life, to cope with his/her own stress and traumatic life events, and to develop his/her own spirituality and mental health (Jodry, 2003). Effects of forgiveness on counseling students' overall wellness were investigated, and forgiveness was found to contribute a significant proportion of variance in wellness for counselor trainees (Moorhead, Gill, Minton, & Myers, 2012). They emphasized that "counselor trainees who were more inclined toward forgiveness also reported meaning-making processes toward self and others" (Moorhead et al., 2012, p. 90). In the present study, we examine counselor trainees' thoughts and experiences about forgiveness, and the place of forgiveness in counseling applications according to their views, to draw attention to their personality development by considering interpersonal and intrapersonal processes. Moreover, a review of the concept of forgiveness and its treatment in counseling provided in the paper will help readers to establish a concrete perspective for the importance of forgiveness, both in counselor education and applications. …