The Role Of Forgiveness During Cbt Group Therapy Treatment With A Child

As I was reading the chapter on forgiveness in Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling by McMinn (2011), the personal life experience that jumped out to me was when I had to make the decision to truly forgive my ex-boyfriend and his parents for the emotional pain they caused me. After living in New Jersey for a month and spending time with my boyfriend and his family, working, and taking care of an elderly lady with dementia my world came crashing down on me. My ex-boyfriend’s parents discovered sin in his life and told me I could no longer pursue a relationship with him because of the sins he had committed. After finding out the sinful things my ex-boyfriend had done, I chose to forgive him. I also chose to give him a second chance at a relationship with me, but my effort to salvage our relationship was futile.

The author used client(Jane) to demonstrate effective methods while using Christian CBT. For instance, Jane, an adult experienced depression, and anger from her childhood. Her anger stems from her father lack of affection toward her, even though he provided financially She had a problematic time maintaining a personal relationship with God too. After using prayer and meditation during therapy, she gained knowledge and better understanding on how to cope with life struggles. Secondly, the author demonstrated scriptures using CBT and how its important not to interpret the wrong understanding while reading scriptures.

Beginning with his father, Conor witnesses how a parent can be unwilling to give their all for their children and acts selfishly in order to make him aware of this fact. He faces a reality of life at the time of his parent’s divorce; there was nothing he could do to keep them together. As a result, the bond he has with his father is imperfect. There is a clear barrier between the two that emerges from the distance that separates them. Even as Conor yearns for a proper parent figure in his life, he is unable to have one and he allows himself to act selfishly towards his father because he will eventually be the only parent Conor has left. By confessing to his father that he does not “want to live with grandma” (Ness, 88) and asking his father questions about “why can’t [he] come and live with” (Ness, 88) him, Conor wants his father to own up to his responsibilities as a parent. Despite being aware his wishes will not be granted, but he wants his father to realize how less he commits to caring for his son when he needs him the most. If all his father wants to do is make promises to only break them, then he might as well push his father to his limits and demand things from him regardless

Sean's mother does not care about Sean because she dismisses him until he starts community service “I don't want to see your ugly face again until Monday when they pick you up.” Also her first reaction is “You little scumball, this is just what I needed.” (Rottman, 27) she was mad about how this affected her not the other way around. Over the weekend Sean’s mom locked

His parents tried to play, read, and have a conversation with him but Sean was never interested. His parents turned to screaming and spanking as there only option, however, Sean never understood the consequences of his actions and never thought he was doing wrong.

Sean gets on with his brothers but mum reports that at times she feels her MS is too much on Sean and he finds difficult to express how he

For example, Bailey, the father of the family, shows that he does not care too much about anything and he treats his mother with much disrespect,

Jeannette and her dad started to grow apart. He was always leaving and not really there for Jeannette and his family. He would leave for days and wasn’t really working. Jeannette started to learn that his dad’s actions weren’t really smart. She started to see his lack of responsibility and what his actions are doing and what they lead to. She knew that her father had a drinking problem and would always go to the bar. Jeannette realizes that Rex keeps letting her down because he still continued to drink and gets drunk. Jeannette was at a breaking point and she asked her mom to leave her father. But her father still has his moments when they would still bond together when she is older .Every birthday he would give her a star and she would love it. But at the end of the day, Jeannette loved her

She even believes that she shares in the blame for her abuse, for she shows an apologetic attitude others (Allison 116). Through her feeling of isolation, she learns to depend on herself, especially on her imagination. She imagines herself with strength enough to fight back against Daddy Glen with “hands…a match for his” (Allison 109). She also visualizes other

Sean mentioned that his father was an alcoholic and used to come home all the time drunk, which caused tension between his father and mother. His father would come home slurring his speech, coming home buzzed or sometimes not coming home at all. His father attended AA meeting and he no longer drinks. The counselor asked Sean if it would be okay to set an appointment for him at the outpatient center at the medical center, which Sean seemed willing to do anything to stay in school. The counselor also agreed to meet with Sean’s parents to discuss the plan they have made to make it easier for Sean to confront them.

The main goal of CBT is to help individuals and families cope with their problems by changing their maladaptive thinking and behavior patterns and improve their moods (Blackburn et al, 1981). Intervention is driven by working hypotheses (formulations) developed jointly by patient, his/her family and therapist from the assessment information. Change is brought about by a variety of possible interventions, including the practice of new behaviors, analysis of faulty thinking patterns, and learning more adaptive and rational self-talk skills. (Hawton, Salkovskis, Kirk, and Clark, 1989).

There has been a significant amount of reports of emotional abuse in the United States. Nearly 35% of women have reported that they have been emotionally abused by a husband or a significant other. Spousal emotional abuse has been a problem for quite some time and the effects of the abuse are long lasting.

This client was Christian and from my estimation now looking back was just beginning their walk with Christ and not on the same maturity level that I was at that time in my walk with Christ. At that time I knew how forgiveness first and foremost is obedience to God, and secondly how it can set you free from so many emotional problems, McMinn said, “Forgiveness, in its theological and spiritual context, is profound, life-giving, and transforming. When we remove the religious context and think of forgiveness only as a clinical technique, we risk losing the essence of forgiveness.” (2011, p. 254) After reading this chapter it made me re-live an area in which I was not fully equipped to help client maneuver their way through. This particular chapter has allowed me to see how vital forgiveness is in a therapeutic session, and how it must be used carefully. It is made me aware of how important my Christianity is to forgiveness, but also to assess the level my client is currently on before beginning a session on forgiveness. Reflection

Today Cognitive behavioral Therapy has been influenced by two major therapeutic approaches: firstly, Behaviorism as developed by Skinner, Pavlov and others in the 1950s and 1960s, where the main research was related to rewards and punishments, or stimuli’ and their response. Second is Cognitive therapy which was introduced or made popular by Beck and Ellis in the 1960s. CBT by definition is a form of treatment that focuses on examining the relationships between thoughts, feelings and behaviors. By exploring the patterns of thinking that lead to negative actions and the beliefs that dictate these thoughts, families can identify and change the patterns in order to