O’Rourke, Vincent, McElvaney, Rosaleen
ORCID: 0000-0002-0204-7270 and Kirrane, Melrona
ORCID: 0000-0002-4831-9411
(2025)
Grappling with Infidelity: The Experiences of Therapists.
Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, 24
(1).
pp. 24-48.
ISSN 1533-2683
Abstract
A presentation of infidelity has been described as one of the most challenging issues to work within couple therapy. Yet the subjective experiences of therapists as they engage with couples working through infidelity remains poorly understood. We undertook a grounded theory study building on the Person of The Therapist (POTT) model to explore this phenomenon. Eight therapists with up to 20 years’ professional experience who drew on a range of professional theoretical orientations formed our sample. Our analysis led us to conclude that the concept of ambivalence best captured and described therapists’ experiences of working with infidelity. We identify three distinct facets of this theme and developed a model of its trajectory over the course of the therapeutic process. In this way, our work contributes to our understanding of how therapists deal with infidelity and provides some much-needed guidance for therapists working in this field.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article (Published) |
|---|---|
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Infidelity; couple therapy; therapists’; experiences |
| Subjects: | Social Sciences > Social psychology |
| DCU Faculties and Centres: | DCU Faculties and Schools > DCU Business School |
| Publisher: | Taylor & Francis Group, llC |
| Official URL: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15332... |
| Copyright Information: | Authors |
| ID Code: | 32675 |
| Deposited On: | 21 May 2026 12:32 by Tam Nguyen . Last Modified 21 May 2026 12:32 |
Documents
Full text available as:
Preview |
PDF
- Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 2MB |
Metrics
Altmetric Badge
Dimensions Badge
Downloads
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year
Archive Staff Only: edit this record