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Handbook of the Psychology of Self-Forgiveness

  • Provides scientific basis of self-forgiveness

  • Offers guidelines for clinicians

  • Internationally noted roster of contributors

  • Applies to a variety of clinical settings

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Softcover Book USD 279.99
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Hardcover Book USD 279.99
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  • Durable hardcover edition
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Table of contents (24 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxi
  2. Understanding Self-Forgiveness

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Orientation to the Psychology of Self-Forgiveness

      • Lydia Woodyatt, Everett L. Worthington Jr., Michael Wenzel, Brandon J. Griffin
      Pages 3-16
    3. Understanding Shame and Guilt

      • Colin Wayne Leach
      Pages 17-28
    4. Working Through Psychological Needs Following Transgressions to Arrive at Self-Forgiveness

      • Lydia Woodyatt, Michael Wenzel, Melissa de Vel-Palumbo
      Pages 43-58
    5. Repairing Meaning, Resolving Rumination, and Moving toward Self-Forgiveness

      • Kirsten L. Graham, Jessica L. Morse, Maeve B. O’Donnell, Michael F. Steger
      Pages 59-72
  3. The Causes and Consequences of Self-Forgiveness

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 73-73
    2. Self-Forgiveness and Health: A Stress-and-Coping Model

      • Loren L. Toussaint, Jon R. Webb, Jameson K. Hirsch
      Pages 87-99
    3. Self-Forgiveness and Personal and Relational Well-Being

      • Michael Massengale, Elise Choe, Don E. Davis
      Pages 101-113
    4. Self-Forgiveness Within Couple Transgressions

      • Sara Pelucchi, Camillo Regalia, F. Giorgia Paleari, Frank D. Fincham
      Pages 115-130
    5. Self-Forgiveness and Religious/Spiritual Struggles

      • Julie J. Exline, Joshua A. Wilt, Nick Stauner, Valencia A. Harriott, Seyma N. Saritoprak
      Pages 131-145
    6. The Dark Side of Self-Forgiveness: Forgiving the Self Can Impede Change for Ongoing, Harmful Behavior

      • Michael J. A. Wohl, Melissa M. Salmon, Samantha J. Hollingshead, Sara K. Lidstone, Nassim Tabri
      Pages 147-159
  4. Applications of Self-Forgiveness in Psychopathology and Psychotherapy: Models and Modalities of Intervention

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 161-161
    2. Self-Forgiveness in Individual Psychotherapy: Therapeutic Models and Counseling Outcomes

      • Marilyn A. Cornish, Nathaniel G. Wade, Ana Cikara
      Pages 163-177
    3. Group Intervention to Promote Self-Forgiveness

      • Everett L. Worthington Jr., Brandon J. Griffin, Nathaniel G. Wade
      Pages 179-192
    4. Self-Forgiveness in Couple and Family Therapy

      • Elizabeth G. Ruffing, Sarah H. Moon, Jennifer Krier, David R. Paine, Eliyohu Wolff, Steven J. Sandage
      Pages 193-206
    5. Self-Directed Intervention to Promote Self-Forgiveness

      • Brandon J. Griffin, Everett L. Worthington Jr., Christopher M. Bell, Don E. Davis
      Pages 207-218
  5. Applications of Self-Forgiveness in Psychopathology and Psychotherapy: Clinical Applications to Specific Domains

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 219-219

About this book

The present volume is a ground-breaking and agenda-setting investigation of the psychology of self-forgiveness. It brings together the work of expert clinicians and researchers working within the field, to address questions such as: Why is self-forgiveness so difficult? What contexts and psychological experiences give rise to the need for self-forgiveness? What approaches can therapists use to help people process difficult experiences that elicit guilt, shame and self-condemnation? How can people work through their own failures and transgressions?

Assembling current theories and findings, this unique resource reviews and advances our understanding of self-forgiveness, and its potentially critical function in interpersonal relationships and individual emotional and physical health. The editors begin by exploring the nature of self-forgiveness. They consider its processes, causes, and effects, how it may be measured, and its potential benefits to theory and psychotherapy. Expert clinicians and researchers then examine self-forgiveness in its many facets; as a response to guilt and shame, a step toward processing transgressions, a means of reducing anxiety, and an essential component of, or, under some circumstances a barrier to, psychotherapeutic intervention. Contributors also address self-forgiveness as applied to diverse psychosocial contexts such as addiction and recovery, couples and families, healthy aging, the workplace, and the military.

Among the topics in the Handbook:

  • An evolutionary approach to shame-based self-criticism, self-forgiveness and compassion.
  • Working through psychological needs following transgressions to arrive at self-forgiveness.
  • Self-forgiveness and health: a stress-and-coping model.
  • Self-forgiveness and personal and relational well-being.
  • Self-directed intervention to promote self-forgiveness.
  • Understanding the role of forgiving the self in the act of hurting oneself.

The Handbook of the Psychology of Self-Forgiveness serves many healing professionals. It covers a wide range of problems for which individuals often seek help from counselors, clergy, social workers, psychologists and physicians. Research psychologists, philosophers, and sociologists studying self-forgiveness will also find it an essential handbook that draws together the advances made over the past several decades, and identifies important directions for the road ahead.

Editors and Affiliations

  • School of Psychology, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

    Lydia Woodyatt, Michael Wenzel

  • Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA

    Everett L. Worthington, Jr.

  • San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, USA

    Brandon J. Griffin

About the editors

Lydia Woodyatt is an Assistant Professor at Flinders University, Adelaide. Her research focuses on the psychological needs humans have following transgressions and the process of self-forgiveness. An award winning teacher, she combines her research in experimental social psychology with her previous career in pastoral care, speaking regularly to schools, universities, organizations, community groups, and the media on the topic of selfforgiveness,shame, self-compassion, and coping with negative emotions following failure and transgressions.


Everett L. Worthington, Jr., is Commonwealth Professor of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He is also a licensed Clinical Psychologist in Virginia. He has published 35 books and over 400 articles and scholarly chapters, many on the processes of forgiving others and oneself. Over the course of his career, Worthington has administered millions of dollars in grant funding, appeared regularly in the media, and spoken across the globe with the intention of promoting forgiveness in every willing heart, home, and homeland.


Michael Wenzel is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. He has published around 70 journal articles and book chapters in the fields of social justice; justice restoration, forgiveness and moral repair in interpersonal and intergroup relations; social discrimination and tolerance between groups; and compliance with the law. He was the president of the International Society for Justice Research 2012-14.


Brandon J. Griffin is a doctoral candidate in the APA-accredited counseling psychology program at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has authored multiple manuscripts on the topic of self-forgiveness, including the largest randomized controlled trial conducted to promote self-forgiveness among interpersonal offenders. He currently develops and implements self-forgiveness interventions designed to help military service members
reclaim their sense of purpose and restore trust in their relationships after experiencing a moral injury.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Handbook of the Psychology of Self-Forgiveness

  • Editors: Lydia Woodyatt, Everett L. Worthington, Jr., Michael Wenzel, Brandon J. Griffin

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60573-9

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and Psychology, Behavioral Science and Psychology (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-60572-2Published: 20 September 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-86892-9Published: 18 August 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-60573-9Published: 07 September 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXI, 369

  • Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Cognitive Psychology, Emotion

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 219.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 279.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 279.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access