Imposing forgiveness can sabotage trauma recovery by overriding or compromising your feelings of safety, by reinforcing damaging gender roles, by reinforcing societal inequalities, by hindering or attempting to repress your need to feel, express, and process negative feelings such as anger and rage, and by promoting shame and self-blame. Unfortunately, some people even intentionally use forgiveness as a weapon to harm, silence, or police you—or to in fact center and prioritize the interests of your offenders rather than those of survivors themselves—under the guise of moral virtue.
