Forgiveness therapy: a clinical intervention for chronic disease.

Every year, chronic illnesses result in significant costs, disability and deaths. Efforts to understand the causes, treatments and management possibilities for chronic illnesses are ongoing. Some chronic conditions, including addictions, obesity, mental health circumstances, COPD and cirrhosis, have been identified as health conditions with social and interpersonal etiologies. Recent research documents that these conditions are related to adverse early life experience; treatment and prevention of these chronic conditions remains challenging. Concurrent research investigating forgiveness interventions has been reported in the counseling therapy literature, which may have enormous personal and public health impact.