Forgiveness Therapy Eased Anxiety and Built Hope in Abuse Survivors

Healing after being harmed is some of the most personal, delicate work a person can do. A study in Pakistan explored a forgiveness-focused therapy with women who had survived domestic violence and were staying in shelter homes, a group navigating enormous hardship. The question at its heart was whether a structured program could ease their pain and help hope grow back.

What the researchers wanted to know

Forgiveness, in this research, isn't about excusing harm or reconciling with someone who caused it. In forgiveness therapy, it's understood as an inner process, gradually releasing resentment and anger so they stop dominating your emotional life. This study measured "the impact of forgiveness therapy" on women in shelter homes, testing whether the approach could work at "reducing depression, anxiety and anger while increasing forgiveness and hope" among those who had experienced domestic violence.

How they studied it

The study involved 30 participants, aged 25 to 40, recruited from shelter homes across several cities in Punjab, including Hafizabad, Lahore, Gujrat, Khushab, Sargodha, and Gujranwala. The women were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group, random assignment being one of the stronger ways to make sure the two groups are comparable at the start.

The experimental group took part in 15 therapy sessions. The control group didn't receive the structured program, though those participants were free to reach out to the therapist running the intervention if they needed help. To measure change, the researchers used established questionnaires: the Enright Forgiveness Inventory short form for forgiveness, the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale for low mood, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale for anxiety, the Herth Hope Index for hope, and the Clinical Anger Scale for anger. A domestic violence screening scale was used to confirm participants' eligibility.

What they found

Compared with the control group, the women who completed the forgiveness therapy showed "significant improvements in depression, anxiety, anger, hope and forgiveness". They reported lower depression, lower anxiety, and less anger, alongside higher levels of forgiveness and hope. In other words, the group that worked through the structured program didn't just feel less weighed down by difficult emotions, they also reported more of the forward-looking feelings, like hope, that make rebuilding a life feel possible.

What this means for you

Most of us aren't in the specific, painful circumstances these women faced, but the underlying idea has wide reach. When we've been hurt, resentment and anger can quietly take up permanent residence, coloring how we see ourselves and the future. This research is an encouraging reminder that those feelings aren't necessarily fixed, that with support, people can loosen their grip on anger and make room for hope again.

It's worth underlining what forgiveness meant here: an internal release, not a requirement to reconcile, forget, or minimize what happened. That distinction matters. Working toward forgiveness for your own peace is very different from letting someone back into your life.

If you're carrying old anger, you might explore practices that gently shift your focus toward what you can build going forward, reflective journaling, hope-oriented affirmations, or naming small things that still feel possible. And for anyone healing from serious harm, this kind of work is often best done with a trained professional who can hold the process safely.

The honest caveats

This was a small study, 30 participants, which means the results, while promising, need to be treated as preliminary rather than definitive. Effects seen in a small group don't always hold up when tested in larger, more diverse samples.

The participants were women in shelter homes in a specific region of Pakistan, so their experiences and the way the therapy worked for them may not transfer directly to other cultures, settings, or situations. The comparison group could also seek help if they needed it, which is ethically important but makes the contrast between groups a little less clean.

The outcomes were measured with self-report questionnaires, capturing how participants described their own feelings rather than any external measure. And the study looked at improvements over the course of the intervention; it doesn't tell us how long the benefits last once the sessions end. The authors are candid that the study "acknowledges its limitations".

Most importantly, forgiveness therapy is not a stand-in for safety or for professional care. If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse, reaching out to local support services and trained professionals comes first, before any inner emotional work begins. This research is a hopeful signal that emotional healing is genuinely possible, even after profound harm, but it is a supported process, not a do-it-yourself treatment plan you should feel pressure to tackle alone.