Helping Couples Get Past the Affair

Donald H. Baucom, PhD, is Richard Lee Simpson Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on couples and marriage. Through his approximately 175 publications, Dr. Baucom has helped to shape an understanding of the role of cognitions in intimate relationships, which has contributed to the development of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy. An award-winning researcher, teacher, speaker, and mentor, he maintains an active clinical practice working with couples and individuals around relationship difficulties. Douglas K. Snyder, PhD, LMFT, is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Texas A&M University, where he also served as Director of Clinical Training for 20 years. Dr. Snyder has engaged in clinical practice and training of couple therapists since the 1970s, and is a clinical member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). He is coauthor or coeditor of several books for mental health professionals and general readers. Dr. Snyder has served as editor of the Clinician’s Research Digest and as associate editor of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology and the Journal of Family Psychology. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Contribution to Research in Family Therapy Award from AAMFT, the Distinguished Contribution to Family Psychology Award from the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 43 (Society for Couple and Family Psychology), and the Distinguished Psychologist Award from APA Division 29 (Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy). Kristina Coop Gordon, PhD, is Associate Professor and Associate Director of Clinical Training in the clinical psychology program at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She has served as Vice-President for Science of Division 43 (Family Psychology) of the American Psychological Association and is currently chair of its task force on empirically validated couple and family therapies. Dr. Gordon has authored numerous articles and book chapters on forgiveness, couple therapy, and dyadic processes, and maintains a clinical practice specializing in couple therapy.

I. Preparing for Treatment 1. Conceptualizing an Integrative Treatment for Affair Couples 2. Initial Assessment and Formulation 3. Creating a Therapeutic Environment II. Stage 1 of Treatment 4. Damage Control 5. Restoring Equilibrium 6. Addressing Emotional Upheaval III. Stage 2 of Treatment 7. Preparing the Couple to Examine Contributing Factors 8. Examining Relationship Factors 9. Examining Outside Factors 10. Examining Individual Partner Factors 11. Complex Affairs 12. Tying It All Together: Creating a Formulation of How the Affair Occurred IV. Stage 3 of Treatment 13. Addressing Issues of Forgiveness and Barriers to Moving Forward 14. Moving Forward
15. Concluding Comments