Forgiveness Practices


A 4-week course focused on discovering how to transform anger into forgiveness.

Next class series:

  • Time and date depending on student request.

  • 6 to 8 participants per class

Explore what really makes you angry.

Learn what forgiveness is and what it is not.

Discover how to forgive family, co-workers, community members, and maybe even systemic oppression. (Forgive but not forget.)

"When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future."

—BERNARD MELTZER

Class Details…

This class is a 4-week series. Each class lasts 2.5 hours. We will meet together online or in-person in San Fransisco.

Together, we will develop forgiveness superpowers. Practice forgiveness with cultural practices of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism readings, films, and personal reflections.

Study the role of forgiveness and reconciliation in the wake of injustice on a personal and institutional scale.

We will:

  1. Listen and support others as we learn about forgiveness.

  2. Describe in our own words what forgiveness is and is not.

  3. Explain how a grievance story is created.

  4. Understand how forgiveness promotes health and well-being.

  5. Identify literature, scriptures, and practices regarding forgiveness.

  6. Describe our own progress in applying forgiveness in real life.

“Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life.”


—GEORGE MACDONALD

Class Resources

  • Forgive for Good by Dr Fred Luskin. ISBN-13: 978-0062517210

  • Personal journal

  • Forgiveness buddy                 

  • ● The Power of Forgiveness (78 minutes), by Martin Doblmeier (2008)  

    ● The Cats of Mirikitani (74 minutes): Documentary about a homeless Japanese artist put in an internment camp during WWII and what it takes for him to let go of his anger and resentment.

    ● Forgiving Dr Mengele (82 minutes), documentary: Holocaust, Eva Mozes Kor and her twin sister, Miriam, the girls were able to survive Auschwitz; much of their family did not. Kor returns to Auschwitz on a quest to heal her wounds with an astonishing and controversial act of forgiveness.

    ● A Man Named Pearl (78 minutes), documentary:  The life an African American man who turned obstacles into breathtakingly beautiful possibilities in a magical garden as well as his extraordinary life, both of which serve as inspirations to his family, his community, and the thousands of visitors who come to experience Pearl s world each year.

    ● Emanuel (75 minutes), documentary: On June 17, 2015, a white supremacist walks into a bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and guns down nine African Americans. Many in the Church publicly forgave him the next day. Directed by Brian Ivie, Produced by Viola Davis and Stephen Curry.  

    ● Shakespeare Behind Bars (92 minutes), documentary: For one year a cast of convicted felons rehearse and perform a Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” a play that challenges the men about personal issues of truth, forgiveness and transformation.

    ● The Anonymous People (90 minutes, 2013): Feature documentary film about the 23.5 million Americans living in long-term recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction. Deeply entrenched social stigma and mass participation in widely successful anonymous 12-step groups have kept recovery voices silent and faces hidden for decades.

Cost for Class Series

$450 

Payment accepted on Zelle, Venmo, and Remitly. Installments can be arranged.

Ready to explore how to create more peace in your life through forgiveness?

Set up a free 15-minute phone appointment to discuss any questions you might have. And join a class!