Infidelity recovery / INF-A18-4
Rebuilding or Separating with Care — Session activity
Facilitate a structured practice of rebuilding or separating with care with preparation, reflection, and an agreed closing.
30 minutes · Session guide · Mental health professionals
Fictional example: Lee is exploring whether to continue the relationship and wants practical clarity.
Use within your training and assessment of readiness. Planning can support either repair or separation without privileging an outcome.
0–5 min | Agree on purpose and fit
Explain the educational scope. Ask what would be useful, check readiness and access needs, and establish choices to observe, adapt, or pass. Use an ordinary example; do not solicit trauma narratives.
5–10 min | Orient with an example
Planning can support either repair or separation without privileging an outcome. Fictional example: Lee is exploring whether to continue the relationship and wants practical clarity. Ask what is observed and what remains uncertain.
10–20 min | Practice and compare
Map practical needs, personal priorities, and appropriate professional consultation for the path currently being considered. Offer quiet individual work, a supported conversation, or an observing role. Compare two possible responses without evaluating people as right or wrong.
20–25 min | Reflect on meaning
What would support agency whichever path you choose? Ask what fit, what did not fit, and how culture, power, disability access, or external conditions affect the options.
25–30 min | Integrate and close
Invite one optional next step or support request. Orient to the current setting, allow an unfinished question to remain unfinished, and agree how to revisit it. End early or adapt if activation increases.
Adaptations
For a group, use fiction and no compulsory round-robin disclosure. For remote use, allow off-camera reflection and private notes. For brief use, keep one example and one question while retaining opening and closing choices.
Prompts for this resource
- What outcome would make this practice useful?
- What would support agency whichever path you choose?
- What adaptation or follow-up is needed?
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.