Healing from Infidelity

Published on February 18, 2020

Infidelity is a deepest psychological cut. It’s a leading cause of breakdown, separation, and divorce in marriages or romantic relationships.

Betrayal in intimate relationships can be so devastating that it can lead to suicide, homicide, and other crimes of passion.

In my years of practice as a psychotherapist, infidelity proves to be a very common occurrence.  It’s a frequent source of “cuts and cracks” in the lives of couples.

Infidelity is as much of an escape as drugs and alcohol. Denying it often reigns supreme.

Couples need to face infidelity together when it’s present or discovered in the relationship.

“I want my wife back but I don’t want to talk about the affair,” said Mando during a marital therapy session. He had a long term affair with an office mate. His wife recently discovered it on his iPhone.

While hearing this, his wife was severely breaking down in much tears. The emotional pain of her husband’s betrayal and refusal to address the issue was overwhelmingly too much for her to bear.

I’m reminded of writer James Baldwin who wrote:

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Infidelity, when it strikes, needs to be faced on two fronts for proper healing to take place.

One, personal recovery (one person involved).

This is basic. Each partner must heal individually his or her own unique set of issues, wounds, hang-ups, or idiosyncrasies affecting one’s well being as well as his or her own relationship with the other person. Capacity and hope for recovery rest on this component.

Two, relationship recovery (two persons involved).

Both partners must work together to heal the relationship. When two partners are healing individually enough, the prognosis is bright for the relationship. This is so because each one is able to contribute their own respective personal “gains” towards the process of repair of the relationship.

Both of these components - personal and relational - are facilitated in the specialized “deep work” of infidelity therapy and counseling.

In the work I do with couples healing from infidelity, I delve not only on psychology and spirituality behind it. I also go into scientific findings that can be applied, such as found in neuroscience and epigenetics, for wholistic healing.

www.drsubida.com


Category(s):Couple Counseling, Infidelity, Marital Counseling

Written by:

Dr. Angelo Subida, Psychotherapist

Dr. Angelo Subida is a clinical psychotherapist, author, and speaker. He is author of books "Inner Healing," "Secrets Of Your Self," "Chess and Life," among others, blogs, and articles. He has appeared frequently as an expert on psychotherapy/life recovery issues on national television, radio broadcasts, print media, and webcasts, including GMA 7, TV 5, ABS CBN 2, Q-11, 700 Club, Radyo Veritas, Inquirer Radio, Smart Parenting Magazine, Business Mirror, among others, and has served as resident therapist/counselor for parents and kid-artists in the highly popular ABS-CBN 2 Voice Kids TV singing reality show. Dr. Subida is an eclectic, multidisciplinary therapist and originator of his own revolutionary high-tech, high-touch counseling plus model. His areas of specialization include parent-child therapy, clinical infidelity treatment, relationship/marital counseling, separation/divorce therapy, anger management, depression, addictions, psychotherapy-spirituality integration, and innovative chess therapy. For more of Dr. Subida, you can find him at www.drsubida.com.

Dr. Angelo Subida, Psychotherapist belongs to Dr. Angelo O. Subida Psychotherapy Clinic in Philippines