Healing the Wounds of the Heart

An exploration of the life-changing power of forgiving

Discusses 15 perceived obstacles to forgiveness and how to overcome them.

Details four different methods of forgiveness: the Hawaiian practice of Ho'oponopono, Colin Tipping’s Radical Forgiveness, Fred Luskin’s Nine Steps to Forgiveness, and the author’s own Gift of Forgiveness.

Shares inspiring testimonies and stories from around the world, revealing how forgiveness helps stop a spiral of destruction, cleanses the heart, and leads to relief, freedom, and inner peace.

Healing the Wounds of the Heart explores the profound question: Can everything be forgiven? Forgiveness allows our hearts to heal and love to be revived. Forgiving the small and average sufferings experienced throughout life is one thing. But what about bigger transgressions, like infidelity, abuse, or even large-scale offences such as genocide?

Olivier Clerc identifies 15 obstacles to forgiveness—prejudices, confusions, misunderstandings—and discusses from where these perceptions originate and how they might keep us from taking the path to healing. Drawing from his years of forgiveness work as well as from the Forgiveness Project, he details four practical methods for forgiveness, each with a unique approach: the Hawaiian practice of Ho'oponopono, Colin Tipping’s Radical Forgiveness, Fred Luskin’s Nine Steps to Forgiveness, and the author’s own Gift of Forgiveness, inspired by his work with don Miguel Ruiz.

Inspiring testimonies and examples from both victims and perpetrators who have rebuilt their lives after trauma show that even when faced with the unspeakable we can heal. Choosing to engage in a conscious process of forgiving helps stop a spiral of destruction, cleanses the heart, and leads to relief, freedom, and inner peace.