Healing After An Affair
It is a process. A journey.
It takes time and relentless commitment to work with your partner in the journey healing and recovering from an affair. As a professional counselor, I work with couples that experience challenges in their relationship and desire more than anything to move forward together. To nourish their bond day in and day out.
The process of healing and recovering from an affair is not one that should be taken alone. To heal the relationship. To allow new growth to take places and old wounds to heal. You and your partner should find commitment. A way to come together and heal.
I wrote the book, Re-Building Us: A Guide To Healing And Recovering After An Affair. To help couples join hands in the journey.
I want to share with you common questions that couples who have experienced infidelity often ask.
How long will the hurt remain?
The experience of an affair may not leave. The mind tends to hold onto events and exposures we have experienced. The hurt shifts overtime.
Early in the process, the hurt feels extreme. To the point of debilitating. The hurt captures the very ground that we walk on. As you continue to heal and recover, you will grow stronger.
The relationship will grow stronger. The positive change allows you to hold the hurt you feel in a different manner. The hurt doesn’t leave but it becomes different. Almost like a different shade of blue. A shade that you grow to understand, appreciate, and use to strengthen your life and that of the relationship.
Is it possible to rebuild the marriage?
Yes.
If the unfaithful partner is willing to end the relationship and willing to work with the faithful partner in healing and recovering from the affair. Both partners must be entirely committed to healing together, to understanding what is working and what needs to be adjusted, and to work towards acceptance and forgiveness.
What helps in the process of healing and recovering?
Time helps with the addition of devotion and work. Each partner must be completely devoted to the other while working to expose the vulnerabilities of the relationship, expressing the hurt, and growing from the experience.
Seeking counseling can directly support the process of healing and recovering. In addition, it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle. During the process of healing and recovering be mindful of continuing practices that previously supported your physical, psychological and emotional stability. For instance, continuing to engage in physical exercise, spending time with your support system, attending church, and/or eating healthy.
I hope that the answers to the questions above have provide support. If you are in the midst of infidelity take time to explore the relationship book for couples seeking to heal and recover. Re-Building Us.
