A Professional Development Workshop to Facilitate Self-Forgiveness.

Background: Evidence suggests that forgiving one's self, others, and events improves relationships and self-esteem; reduces anxiety, depression, and stress; lowers blood pressure; improves cardiovascular health; and boosts immune function.

Objective: We determined the efficacy of a workshop to facilitate forgiveness in medical education professionals.

Methods: A 1-hour self-forgiveness workshop conducted by 4 facilitators was presented at a medical education conference in 2018. The workshop included a didactic presentation on forgiveness and Internal Family Systems, small group discussion on self-forgiveness concepts, a 15-minute guided imagery audio meditation on self-forgiveness, and postintervention small group discussion. The 18-item Heartland Forgiveness Scale (HFS), which measures forgiveness for self, others, and situations, was completed preintervention and postintervention (score range, 18-126).

Results: There were 91 participants, including graduate medical education managers and directors (61%), deans/clerkship directors (19%), and academic faculty/others (20%). Participants were from the South (20%), West (17%), Midwest (31%), and Northeast (32%) US regions. Baseline HFS scores showed that 53% were forgiving, 47% were neutral, and no participants had unforgiving tendencies. Total HFS score significantly increased (90.31 pre versus 95.7 post,  = .013), with significant increases in forgiveness of self (53% pre versus 73% post;  = .012; odds ratio = 2.47) and forgiveness of others (49% pre versus 69% post;  = .020; odds ratio = 2.3). Preintervention group discussion topics focused on guilt, shame, and barriers to forgiving, while postintervention discussions centered on challenges and benefits.

Conclusions: A brief guided meditation intervention with focused discussions was feasible and improved the immediate tendency to forgive.