COUPLES THERAPY AND EXTRA-MARITAL INVOLVEMENT: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

Marital relationships often go through difficult times, but emotional upheavals experienced after the discovery of an extra marital involvement create an extremely challenging context for therapy. Research on this domain is limited and quite often the knowledge is stored in places mostly inaccessible to clinical settings. Yet, these relationship anxieties are frequently a part of the presenting complaints for a large number of clients with psychiatric disorders as well as with marital discord. Extra-marital involvement becomes traumatic when it shatters the basic assumptions about the relationship, changes one's view about self and the partner and makes people feel completely, existentially vulnerable. When there is intense pain and crisis, growth fostering significant changes are also possible and a skilled therapist can help the clients in making right decisions and moving forward. This article provides a few facts, perspectives and strategies that can be useful while working with 'extra-marital involvement'. It focuses on EMI issues in clinical setting and is in two parts: Part one, provides information to help clinicians differentiate and document extra-marital involvement issues more accurately, and Part two covers guidelines for therapy with couples affected by these concerns.