Couples and Infidelity, an Opportunity to Heal

You might be surprised to know that a lot of couples deal with an affair at some point in their relationship, and it’s really hard.  Sometimes divorce is an understandable reaction, but when the offending partner is able to feel and show deep remorse and empathy, there is lots of hope.  When there are kids in the picture and years of history and positive connection within the relationship, it can be really worth putting in the sincere and hard work that it takes to recover.

There are phases of what the injured partner will be feeling: disbelief, anger, betrayal, a feeling of complete distrust, renewed hope, as well as ‘I don’t know how I will ever recover from this’.  These are all understandable and normal reactions to this kind of shock and betrayal.  You can feel completely blind-sighted, like you can never trust the person you thought you could trust again.  Like your world has just been turned upside down.  

You think, 'even if my partner is apologizing and taking responsibility, how do I know this won’t happen again in six months?  How could the person I thought I knew so well lie to me?'

These thoughts are normal but hard to reckon with at first.  It’s like - this just doesn’t make sense, and it’s hard to organize in the brain and heart.

There are things that can be done.  One is working through the intense hurt and sense of complete betrayal that you are feeling together with your partner.  I know that sounds crazy, but research shows that if your partner is wiling to do what it takes to mend what has been broken, he or she being available to listen, empathize, be with you in your pain, your sense of connection and trust can heal. 

Research shows that empathy and emotional connection are the key to healing betrayal.  

In order for that to happen, the partner who had the affair has to be wiling to listen completely and often while putting aside explanations and defensiveness.  There often need to be countless rounds of listening to the hurt partner’s justified rage, despair, sadness, and distrust.  

The hurt partner also has a task - he or she has to be willing to come out of the licking wounds alone phase, and to vulnerably share how bad it feels, how horrible and awful it feels to be betrayed that way.

The listening partner needs to not only listen, but be able to reflect and empathize, to allow him or herself to be moved by the hurt partner’s emotional experience and show the inevitable regret and remorse.   

This scenario needs to happen repeatedly and often.

When you are feeling listened to and joined in your pain, you will feel less alone and like something is healing, something is changing.  This can take a long time.  As annoying as this sounds, this kind of life-changing situation can be an opportunity.  A chance to reconnect at a level sometimes never experienced between the you, a closeness maybe you have rarely felt before.  It is also a chance to pay attention to what was wrong before the affair.

After the healing begins and a sense fragile trust begins to come back, it’s important to heal underlying patterns that led to this imbalance in the first place.  The affair was a symptom of a sense of disconnection between you, the negative pattern that was driving you both apart.  This is an opportunity to heal that negative cycle, to find a way to come closer and be able to talk to each other in ways usually not experienced in a long time, if ever before.