About this event
Reclaiming Freedom: Empowering Clients to Choose Forgiveness.
A four-week course from 30 September to 21 October 2025
Reclaiming Freedom: Empowering Clients to Choose Forgiveness Promotional Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LISgiIywIuM
The urge to hit back when we have been hurt is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history. Due to our long ancestry in small nomadic groups we learnt to avoid being exploited by others because that put us at extreme risk. Our instinctive response was to hit back hard and remove the threat.
Now living in the developed world, things are more complicated, but the basic principle remains the same—if we’re hurt, we can feel that we owe it to ourselves to make the other person pay. We do this by withholding forgiveness and allowing ourselves the illusion of control.
Perhaps we feel that we’ll look weak if we forgive someone too easily, or that we’re ‘letting them off the hook’. We’re worried people will forget our pain, and we wish to show that our suffering matters. Perhaps there’s an even deeper reason at play. We hold on to the hope that if we withhold forgiveness, we’ll finally get the comfort and care we feel was not available at the time in the way we wanted.
It’s certainly the case that learning to forgive is a challenging and profound process. It’s not easy but if we choose the path of forgiveness then we take ourselves out of the role of victimhood and put ourselves back in the driver’s seat. While we refuse forgiveness to make the other person pay, then we imprison ourselves in a cycle of pain. If we can take responsibility and choose forgiveness, then we have the chance of reclaiming our lives and finding freedom.
This course will be closed course for a small group of 25 people who are interested to explore this topic thoroughly. People will be requested to have their cameras and microphones on and participate in break-out rooms, so that we can all learn from each other and provide sharing and support among the group.
The approach will be interactive with time for questions and sharing. The course will consist of explanations,video extracts, exercises, contemplations and practices. There will be a workbook for the course, with a new section coming for each session. The course sessions will be recorded and participants will be able to access these after the course.
DATES
30 September Telling Your Story
7 October Naming the Hurt
14 October Granting Forgiveness
21 October Renewing or Releasing the Relationship
Learning objectives participants can expect from this event
• An opportunity to practice Archbishop Tutu’s 4-step path to forgiveness.
• Understanding fears around forgiveness.
• Assess the impact of forgiveness on individual wellbeing.
• Learn techniques for working with emotions that can impede forgiveness.
• Explore integrating the ability to forgive into everyday life.
How will this event affect your practice?
This course will help practitioners understand the importance of forgiveness and its role in feelings of resentment and anger. By learning techniques for practicing forgiveness and integrating them into daily life, practitioners will be better equipped to help clients recognize and work with their own process of forgiveness. Additionally, the course will give practitioners the opportunity to examine and work through their own forgiveness journey, which will improve their ability to empathize with and support clients in their own paths to forgiveness.
Who is this event for?
This 4-week online course is for counsellors, therapists and any individuals who are interested in reflecting and working with forgiveness and how it enhances wellbeing.
RECORDING
This course will be recorded and the recording ticket is already included upon purchasing the course. This will be useful for colleagues who are not able to attend live and also for those who attend live and want to watch it again.
ZOOM
This workshop will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our cameras and microphones to interact with each other as a group.
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All the colleagues at ONLINEVENTS and the presenters we collaborate with are committed to working in a manner consistent with the BACP Ethical Framework, which can be accessed on the link below. When registering for this event you are agreeing to be present and interact in a manner that is consistent with this Framework.
Maureen Cooper
Maureen is the founding director of Awareness in Action, an organization dedicated supporting people to make sustainable wellbeing part of their lives—through developing clarity, connection and openness.
Drawing on more than thirty years of experience as a professional educator, senior manager in a non-profit organization, an entrepreneur and as an experienced practitioner of Buddhist meditation, she leads Awareness in Action workshops and training programs in the UK and Europe.
Her new book, The Stress Workbook is a groundbreaking effort that brings together the best of modern science and the wisdom of the world’s ancient contemplative traditions into a practical manual for thriving in today’s fast-paced world. Although born in London, UK love took Maureen to Amsterdam, The Netherlands where she lives with her husband.
Website | www.awarenessinaction.org
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Instagram | awarenessin
LinkedIn | Maureen Cooper
