Forgiveness and psychosocial reactions to disability: a pilot study to examine change in persons with spinal cord injury

Abstract

Spinal cord injuries (SCI) are among the most traumatic onset of disabilities to date. Due to the nature of spinal cord injury and how it affects the person’s life and psychosocial adjustment, there are a multitude of feelings, changes, persons, situations, and transgressions that need to be resolved and forgiven. In an effort to help persons with SCI do that, two interventions - Enright’s Forgiveness is a Choice intervention and Kennedy and Duff’s (2001) Coping Effectively with Spinal Cord Injury training – were facilitated on-line as part of a self-study treatment format among persons with spinal cord injury. The interventions were examined to determine their ability to aid in the increase of forgiveness and changes in psychosocial reactions to disability. Findings from this study found that both interventions are applicable and helpful in assisting persons with SCI in forgiving and experiencing changes in psychosocial reactions to disability, but differences were found in long-term change.