Infidelity recovery / INF-A06-5
Accountability without Defensiveness — Review journal
Review an attempt at accountability without defensiveness and choose what to keep, change, or leave aside.
10 minutes · Journal prompts · Adults; supported use as appropriate
Fictional example: Quinn wants to acknowledge a broken agreement without explaining it away.
Use an ordinary or fictional example, with a clinician when appropriate. Accountability can name choices and impact without demanding immediate trust.
Before looking back
Choose one ordinary attempt or decide to review the fictional example instead. This journal has no scores, required disclosure, or expectation of progress.
Revisit the practice
Draft a statement that owns a known action, acknowledges impact, and offers a concrete next step without blaming the hurt partner.
Notice context and impact
Record what actually happened, including an unhelpful or neutral outcome. Note resources, power differences, accessibility, and changed conditions rather than attributing everything to personal effort.
Choose a revision
What can be owned plainly? Keep the approach, change one part, ask for support, or set it aside. A mismatch is useful information.
Prompts for this resource
- What I tried, or what happened in the fictional example:
- What I noticed before, during, and after; what remains uncertain:
- What helped, did not help, or was outside my control:
- What can be owned plainly? My optional adjustment or support request:
Conceptual background
Integrative Model of Affair Recovery — American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
Background on the approach only. Original exercises and wording are by More Than Therapy with AI assistance; the source does not validate or endorse these materials.