Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Forgiveness

Amazing Grace: How Unconditional Forgiveness Assists Recovery
  http://www.recovery.org/pro/articles/amazing-grace-how-unconditional-forgiveness-assists-recovery/

In the above referenced article, the author, Rita Millios, discusses the health and recovery benefits of forgiveness and offers a forgiveness exercise.

She also mentions Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ACT, described below.

 

Rita Millios is also author of "Tools for Transformation."

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Acceptance and Comitment Therapy on wikipedia

"Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT, typically pronounced as the word "act") is a form of clinical behavior analysis (CBA)[1] used in psychotherapy. It is an empirically-based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies mixed in different ways[2] with commitment and behavior-change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility. The approach was originally called comprehensive distancing.[3] It was developed in the late 1980s[4] by Steven C. Hayes, Kelly G. Wilson, and Kirk Strosahl.[5]

The objective is not happiness; rather, it is to be present with what life brings us and to "move toward valued behavior".[6] Noam Shpancer describes acceptance and commitment therapy as getting to know unpleasant feelings, then learning not to act upon them, and to not avoid situations where they are invoked. Its therapeutic effect is according to him a positive spiral where feeling better leads to a better understanding of the truth.[7]"

1. Jennifer C Plumb, Ian Stewart, Galway JoAnne Dahl, Tobias Lundgren (Spring 2009). "In Search of Meaning: Values in Modern Clinical Behavior Analysis" . Behav Anal. 32 (1): 85–103. PMC 2686995 . PMID 22478515 .
2. Hayes, Steven. "Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)" . ContextualPsychology.org.
3. Zettle, Robert D. (2005). "The Evolution of a Contextual Approach to Therapy: From Comprehensive Distancing to ACT" . International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy 1 (2): 77–89.
4. Murdock, N. L. (2009). Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: A case approach. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Merrill/Pearson
5. "Getting in on the Act - The Irish Times - Tue, Jun 07, 2011" . The Irish Times. 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
6. Hayes, Steven C., Strosahl, Kirk D., and Wilson, Kelly G. (2012). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: The Process and Practice of Mindful Change (2 ed.). New York: Guilford Press. p. 240. ISBN 978-1-60918-962-4.
7. Shpancer, Noam (September 8, 2010). "Emotional Acceptance: Why Feeling Bad is Good" . Psychology Today.