Forgiveness Groups

Doing this work alongside other people changes it

A Forgiveness Group is six to twelve people working through the REACH Forgiveness Workbook on their own, then meeting to talk about the experience. Each meeting is guided by a short video, so you don’t need to be a therapist or an expert to facilitate one — we provide the films, the guidance, and the materials.

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What happens in a Forgiveness Group

In a Forgiveness Group, participants work through the evidence-based REACH Forgiveness Workbook on their own and then meet periodically to discuss their experience with the material. The group provides solidarity, support, and accountability in a community setting.

Each meeting runs one to one and a half hours. The facilitator plays a video — 8 to 12 minutes of educational content and a guided embodied activity — and the group spends the rest of the session on the reflection questions it raises.

The part people get wrong

The lessons happen before the meeting, not during it

Everyone works through their workbook lessons on their own, in their own time. The meeting is for talking about what that was like — it is loosely structured around the lessons already done, never a session for working through them together.

Each person is on their own forgiveness journey, and not everyone will reach full emotional forgiveness. That’s okay. If you ever need to pause or stop, you should. The guidelines below carry the rest, and they hold for every group.

Forgiveness Group Guidelines

These eight hold for every group, whichever series you use. Read them out at your first meeting.

    Facilitating a group

    Four things to get right. None of them needs training.

    Choose your format

    Three sessions using the REACH Forgiveness Workbook, or six using the church edition.

    Gather 6–12 people

    A church small group, a class, a workplace team, or friends.

    Everyone gets the workbook

    Free PDF or print. Everyone does their lessons on their own, before each meeting.

    Press play, then talk

    Watch the short video together, then discuss what it raises. The video carries the structure so you don’t have to.

    A facilitator guide and a short film on running a session are in production and will appear in your account. Coming with the video series

    Video-guided

    The two series

    A series is a set of films. At each meeting the facilitator plays that session’s video — about ten minutes of teaching and a guided activity — and the group talks afterwards. Choose the one that matches your workbook: three sessions for the REACH Forgiveness Workbook, six sessions for the REACH Forgiveness Workbook, Adapted for Churches.

    Both are ways of getting a group through the tested workbook — the evidence attaches to the workbook, and the series inherit it. The lessons listed against each session are the ones your group completes before that meeting.

    Connect with other practitioners

    Monthly · Free

    Forgiveness Community of Practice

    Learn about forgiveness research and implementation best practice, and connect with others spreading forgiveness. First Friday of every month, 12pm ET, on Zoom.

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      Tell us about your group

      If you’re planning to run the material, let us know. It helps us support you, send you new resources as they appear, and understand where this work is taking root — and it is how you get your group code.