Unfaithfulness within a marriage can really put a lot of stress and heartache on the people involved. It leaves the one being cheated on feeling confused, betrayed, and depressed. In many cases, an affair ends up breaking apart a relationship for good. In other cases, couples can repair the damages created by infidelity. This is done with the use of therapy, which can often be the saving grace of a broken marriage. It can seem and feel impossible, but relationship counseling for a cheating spouse offers hope to heal and fix a broken marriage or relationship.
What Causes Someone to Cheat?
Affairs tend to happen for a multitude of different reasons. One of the main reasons is that there may be a lack of satisfaction in the relationship. A person can be left feeling unsatisfied in many ways such as emotionally, sexually (intimacy), financially, due to a lack of support, or for other reasons as well. A successful and thriving relationship needs to leave both people feeling safe and secure, therefore lack of satisfaction can leave the relationship vulnerable and make infidelity much more likely.
There are reasons other than just lack of satisfaction that lead people to cheat on their spouses. A cheating spouse may also enter an affair due to personal unhappiness with themselves. It may happen simply because they feel they need a confidence boost or something to inflate their own ego. They may also have the desire for a new sexual experience, or they could be looking for emotional intimacy.
The Effects of Cheating on a Loved One
Cheating impacts both parties in the relationship, and if you have children, they will also feel the effects. Spouses who are cheated on by their partner often feel a great deal of resentment. A cheating spouse can have a severely negative effect on the other person in the marriage and can even affect their physical and mental health. Someone may experience:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Low self-esteem
- High distress
- Extreme anger
- Self-blame
- PTSD
- Emotional unattachment
- Unhealthy coping mechanisms
- Poor diet
- Drug or alcohol use
The Best Way to Mend Your Marriage
The most successful way to fix a marriage after a spouse has cheated is to seek help from a therapist. Relationship counseling gives you access to someone with whom you can talk openly about the problems in your relationship. A therapist can not only help you determine exactly why the cheating happened to begin with but gives you ways to make your relationship healthy and happy again. Relationship and marriage counseling offers guidance and support towards clarifying issues and helping couples heal and move forward.
The effects of an affair on a marriage can be devastating. Infidelity and unfaithfulness can be a very hurtful and damaging thing that a couple goes through, but it does not have to mean the relationship is over. Relationship therapy provides a comfortable and healing space where a couple can voice opinions and get to the root of the problem so that they can begin a journey towards resolution. Part of a solid relationship between two people is being able to trust one another. After trust has been broken, it may feel like the relationship is unfixable. Relationship experts know how couples can still be successful in overcoming trials such as this.
A Marriage Broken by Cheating Can Be Healed
Being able to openly communicate with your spouse about the cheating, what caused it, and all the other problems you are facing and learn productive ways of communicating for the future is the key to a healthy relationship. Communication can solve most problems before they even arise. Therapy helps to teach couples how to communicate with each other in a positive and constructive way. With caring guidance and support from a trained therapist, most couples can heal and even strengthen their relationship.
You Don’t Have To Go It Alone
At the Counseling Center for Growth and Recovery, we offer a solution-motivated approach where we can explore, in a safe way, the challenges in your relationship through evidence-based couples counseling that can mean the difference between a divorce and reconciliation, leading back to love, fulfillment, and happiness. You do not have to face these difficult and traumatic problems with your spouse on your own. We are ready to help you overcome the pains and struggles in your life every step of the way. Now is the time to get the help you need. Let us help you do it with our decades of combined successful experience in relationship counseling for a cheating spouse.
