Beautifully written, Rick Balkin's Practicing Forgiveness provides a brilliant conceptualization of the dynamic and often complex path toward forgiveness, and the role that faith, community, and family can play in navigating the aftermaths of loss, injury, and trauma. Drawing from his wealth of experiences as a counselor, researcher, and educator, Dr. Balkin offers a deeply moving accounting of the injuries and injustices we experience as relational beings
and proposes empathic and thought-provoking pathways toward reconciling and healing our hurts.
Richard S. Balkin, PhD, LPC, NCC, is a Professor and Doctoral Program Coordinator in the Department of Leadership and Counselor Education at the University of Mississippi. Dr. Balkin is a Fellow of the American Counseling Association; Past Editor for the Journal of Counseling & Development, the flagship journal for the American Counseling Association; and Past President for the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling. Dr. Balkin began practice as a
professional counselor in 1993 and has worked in academe since 2003. Dr. Balkin's publications include textbooks on assessment in counseling, research, and the counseling relationship; published tests and technical manuals; peer-reviewed manuscripts; book chapters; and conference proceedings. His
counseling experience with at-risk youth was formative to his research agenda, which includes understanding the role of counseling and relevant goals for adolescents in crisis and counseling outcomes. He has published in the area of religious
diversity and forgiveness and developed a model and measure for counseling clients through issues of forgiveness and conflict.