Forgiveness Therapy: An Empirical Guide for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope

About Richard P. FitzgibbonsRobert D. Enright

Robert D. Enright PhD is a licensed psychologist and a professor of educational psychology at the University of WisconsinMadison. He has been a leader in the scientific study of forgiveness and its effects since 1985. Time magazine referred to him as the forgiveness trailblazer. He is the author of more than 100 publications including five books. In 2022 he received the American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal Award for Impact in Psychology for his innovative work in forgiveness. Dr. Enright and his colleagues have developed and tested a pathway to forgiveness that has helped incest survivors and people in drug rehabilitation in hospice in shelters for abused women and in cardiac units of hospitals among others. His recent work has been in schools within conflict regions such as Belfast Northern Ireland assisting teachers to deliver forgiveness programs to students.  Richard P. Fitzgibbons MD received his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine in 1969 and completed his training in psychiatry at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Child Guidance Center in 1976. He participated in cognitive therapy research in his training with Aaron T. Beck. Currently he is the director of a private practice outside Philadelphia. Since 1976 he has used forgiveness therapy and in 1986 he wrote a seminal paper on the use of forgiveness in psychotherapy. Dr. Fitzgibbons has presented at many conferences for over 40 years to couples mental health professionals educators and business and church leaders on forgiveness therapy in the resolution of excessive anger in children adolescents and adults in schools families and marriages. He has made numerous appearances on radio and television discussing the treatment of excessive anger through forgiveness therapy.