ABSTRACT
This chapter provides counselors with a clear guide on integrating forgiveness in clinical practice. There are associated formal assessments for many of those types and dimensions, which can be used in clinical practice. Forgiveness is the rare area in the psychology of religion and spirituality with a robust empirical base that has evolved to rigorous randomized control trials studies. Integrating religion and spirituality in counseling also helps to address receiving divine forgiveness. Receiving divine forgiveness is related to self-forgiveness and forgiveness with others. Self-forgiveness is rooted in one’s personal relationship with God for many male clients with theistic beliefs. Forgiveness is a challenging religious and spiritual journey. Forgiveness is well researched in the psychological field, which has led to a strong empirical base for counseling interventions. Gender differences identified in research studies indicates that there is a gendered component to forgiveness as women have been found to be more forgiving than men.
