Sustained Effectiveness of Two Brief Group Interventions: Comparing an Explicit Forgiveness-Promoting Treatment with a Process-Oriented Treatment.

FORGIVENESS; CONDUCT of life; GROUP experiences; MENTAL health counseling; PSYCHIATRIC treatment; INTERPERSONAL relations; MENTAL health services; PATHOLOGICAL psychology; QUALITATIVE research; PSYCHOLOGY

The present study is a two-year follow-up to an outcome study conducted by Wade and Meyer (2009) in 2004-05, in which participants were randomly assigned to an explicit forgiveness treatment, a processed-oriented treatment, and a wait list. The effectiveness of both treatments was maintained after two years. Participants' revenge ideation and psychological symptoms remained the same as when treatment terminated, but negative reactions to their offenders had continued to abate. Positive regard toward the offender was the same pre- and post-treatment but was reduced during the two-year period between termination and follow-up. No statistically significant differences in the outcome measures were found between the two treatment groups. However, in qualitative analyses of open-ended responses about their experiences with the treatments, participants seemed to favor the forgiveness-promoting one. Most participants, regardless of condition, identified group therapeutic factors as major contributors to their positive group experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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