Infidelity recovery / INF-A14-5
Self-Blame and Responsibility — Review journal
Review an attempt at self-blame and responsibility and choose what to keep, change, or leave aside.
10 minutes · Journal prompts · Adults; supported use as appropriate
Fictional example: Lee wonders whether being busy caused Quinn's deception.
Use an ordinary or fictional example, with a clinician when appropriate. Responsibility for deceptive choices should not be shifted to the hurt partner.
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
Separate relationship difficulties from the choices involved in breaking an agreement and note what remains uncertain.
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 responsibility belongs to each person without assigning blame for another's choices? 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 responsibility belongs to each person without assigning blame for another's choices? 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.