Affairs are a means of avoiding emotional closeness and can be harmful to relationships, whether they are consummated, emotional, digital or long-distance.
An affair is an attempt to avoid problems in a primary relationship by creating a clandestine, secondary relationship to which a person can escape. This attempt at finding happiness creates the reverse, as the individual having the affair tries to maintain two separate relationships, one real and one fantasy. The stress of keeping this intermittent relationship a secret and the denial employed by those involved, wears everyone down. When the person having the affair is caught, whether by accident or design, the truth often results in the end of the primary relationship.
Couples Counselling
Some couples do feel enough attachment to one another and are able to take responsibility for their actions so that a rebuilding of trust is possible. Together, we will explore the causes of your affair along with the roles each partner plays in order to better understand and effectively deal with it. Making a commitment to work on your relationship through couples counselling, where you learn to communicate, resolve conflict and be supportive of one another, will provide the support necessary to rebuild your shared, emotional intimacy.