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Research project: Forgiveness facilitation through media therapy

| Debra Janson

The need for this project grew out of an earlier project led by Dr. Ann Recine, Assistant Professor, UWEC Nursing Department: Literature Review for Forgiveness Bibliotherapy, funded by an internal UWEC grant. That project's aim was to search the scholarly literature to answer the research question, "What books or other media (apps, movies, etc.) help people forgive?”. Bibliotherapy, the use of books and other writing to promote wellbeing in patients, is a nursing intervention. Helping patients forgive by letting go of anger is also a nursing intervention since forgiveness can have a significant effect on health. The project's aim was to facilitate these two interventions working together by identifying lists of books and other media that research has shown to be effective in helping people forgive, but no such lists were found. So, Dr. Recine and five undergraduate nursing students set out to create such a list in the Summer 2019 Forgiveness Facilitation through Media Therapy project, also funded through an internal UWEC grant. They started by interviewing as many people as they could during the summer term. They first asked people to make recommendations as to what books or other media could help others let go of anger towards themselves or others or to have a kinder intention towards themselves or others. They then invited people to share personal stories of how a book or other media helped them with either of these, in order to better understand how specific books or other media were helpful. When enough interviews are completed, a list of books and other media will be compiled for nurses and other healthcare providers to use with patients who are open to forgiving themselves or others.

 Photo: Dr. Ann Recine, Shawna Helmuth, Megan Jacobson, Anna Theisen, Summer Peoples, Dr. Diane Marcyjanik and Dr. Ann Aschenbrenner