Using Forgiveness in Professional Christian Counselling without becoming a Priest

Forgiveness is being increasingly an excitedly advocated by secular therapists as if
they invented it only recently. Yet healing the complexity of ‘offense’ as both
offender and offended has been a practice of religions throughout time – and
something the Christian faith has something truly profound to offer. We will consider
the resources of the church and their suitable use by those not ordained.

We will explore the two important differences between secular forgiveness and
Christian forgiveness and in doing so challenge whether there is any biblical
justification for the common notion of ‘forgiving self’ as well as debunking the
unhelpful idea of ‘forgiving and forgetting’. Using tools and concepts from Ken
Sande’s The Peacemaker – A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict we will
explore a helpful model that can be applied to Christian and non-Christian clients
alike.

At the end of the course participants will be equipped with at practical ways they can
immediately support both the offended and offender client as victim and perpetrator
respectively.