CC12 Workshop 03 – The State of Affairs: Rethinking our Clinical Attitudes Toward Infidelity – Esther Perel, MA, LMFT

Description:

Sexual infidelity often triggers a crisis that threatens the entire foundation of trust and connection in a couple. In this workshop, we’ll discuss the complexities of marriage, sex, intimacy, and monogamy in couples from a multicultural, nonjudgmental perspective. We’ll explore the motivations behind affairs and their possible meanings in different relationships, both heterosexual and gay. We’ll examine the benefits and costs of truth-telling and transparency, how couples can rebuild trust and intimacy, and why affairs can actually stabilize a marriage. With an eye on the existential, clinical and ethical aspects involved, we will focus on how our own assumptions, values, and personal experiences can influence our therapeutic work and elude the needs of the couple. Combining didactic material, case studies, and video vignettes, we will lay out a nuanced therapeutic approach for working with extramarital relations, past and present, fantasized or real, disclosed or shrouded in secrecy.

Educational Objectives:

1. Demonstrate how the therapist can create a safe and flexible environment to help couples deal with the crisis of infidelity, and turn it into an opportunity.
2. Explore the complexities of secrets, and examine when the revelation of an affair can be helpful and when it is not.

*Sessions may be edited for content and to preserve confidentiality*