You do not have to forgive. If you choose to – it may be a long journey – Pete Walker

As per Pete Walker – a very gifted and insightful complex trauma survivor and therapist

http://pete-walker.com/forgiveness.htm

“There has been a lot of shaming, dangerous and inaccurate “guidance” put out about forgiveness in the last few years, in both the recovery community and in transpersonal circles. Many survivors of dysfunctional families have been injured by the simplistic, black and white advice that decrees that they must embrace a position of being totally and permanently forgiving in order to recover.

Unfortunately, those who have taken the advice to forgive abuses that they have not fully grieved, abuses that are still occurring, and/or abuses so heinous they should and could never be forgiven, often find themselves getting nowhere in their recovery process. In fact, the possibility of attaining real feelings of forgiveness is usually lost when there is a premature, cognitive decision to forgive.

Posters I have made, to help educate about complex trauma and child abuse.

To suggest no parent ever intentionally abuses their child, is completely wrong, and offensive to intelligent people. People will apply all manner of cognitively distorted thinking to abuse – rationalising, minimizing, avoidance, excuses etc. None are rational, none are wise.