Beyond Traditional Marriage Counseling: A Specialized Approach to Infidelity & Recovery

PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING FOR COUPLES SUFFERING FROM INFIDELITY, BETRAYAL, POOR COMMUNICATION, & LACK of EMOTIONAL and/or PHYSICAL INTIMACY

As a marital therapist providing telehealth throughout Illinois and in-person care across the South and West Suburbs, Dr. Jane Braun works with couples on the brink of ending their relationship after discovering infidelity, pornography use, addiction issues, poor work-life balance issues, extended family issues, lack of physical or emotional intimacy, issues with parenting, or simply having an inability to communicate effectively with one another.   Dr. Jane Braun provides a professional consultation to determine the best clinical path for you and your spouse to restore trust, improve communication, resolve disagreements, and develop the emotional and physical intimacy you have always desired to have.

It is important to understand that prioritizing individual treatment is essential to long-term success. Attempting to move straight into couples work without addressing individual issues is like attempting to build a house on a cracked foundation. Without repairing the foundation first, the house will eventually fall apart. In this recovery process, individual work is metaphorically the foundation that allows the relationship to stand strong. 

Once individual counseling has established a firm foundation for trust to be rebuilt, you will learn that when you work with Dr. Braun, you will learn techniques for working through conflict in a healthy manner. You will learn skills to live in a loving and respectful manner with your partner. You will learn ways to live with your partner without having shouting matches or giving each other the silent treatment. Learning these types of skills typically helps people to have greater energy to invest in happy interactions with one another.

A frequent characteristic  of individuals suffering from sexual addiction issues is enmeshment with one's parent.

Common characteristics of a spouse or partner who is enmeshed with a parent involve:

1. Having difficulty making decisions without consulting one's parent

2. Being overly reliant on one's parent for emotional support and validation

3. Having an inability to set boundaries with one's parent and allowing the parent to run one's life

4. Making the parent's needs more of a priority than the needs of one's partner or spouse

Techniques used in counseling involve emotionally focused couples therapy, Gottman couples therapy techniques, and Solution Focused therapy techniques which address issues of attachment, addiction, depression, anxiety, and trauma.

Couples/Marital Counseling will provide you with these benefits:

1. You will learn the benefits of breaking through isolation and secrecy

2. You will come to understand any underlying issues that created a tendency to develop addictive behaviors in your life and issues related to your difficulties with forming attached and emotionally intimate relationships.

3. You will learn the reasons why you have turned to fantasy to manage sadness, anxiety or unhappiness in your relationship and methods that help most people change this pattern

4. You will discover the benefit of learning the value of gaining self-control over addictive behaviors that have threatened to destroy your individual life and your relationship.

5. You will learn the value of gaining self-control over your communication so that you will recognize the destructive nature of using words that wound one another.

6. You will learn the value of walking in self-control in order to have respectful interactions with your partner even when you have painful feelings of sadness or anger.

7. You will discover ways that have proven to be effective for many people to manage temptations to act out sexually or engage in other addictive behaviors while learning to substitute healthy behaviors for inappropriate addictive behaviors

8. You will learn the value of developing an agreement with your partner about what faithfulness in your relationship means moving forward to help you restore intimacy and trust.

9. You will learn the importance of developing an appropriate social support system outside of the relationship with your spouse/partner so that you will have an accountability partner to help you to cope with urges to relapse and engage in sexually inappropriate behaviors

10. You will learn the difference between infatuation and true love and the value of having true loving relationships in your life as well as the necessary factors to maintain these relationships

11. You will begin to recognize destructive thoughts that have contributed to the problems in your relationship such as "I don't need help to manage anything in my life."

12. You will receive assistance in attempting to negotiate areas of your relationship that did not feel possible to change

13. You will receive help in recognizing blind spots that were present in your relationship which contributed to there being a tendency to deny the severity of the relationship problems.

DON'T WAIT UNTIL YOU HIT ROCK BOTTOM, you develop a sexually transmitted disease (STD), you give this STD to your spouse/partner, your infidelity is discovered by your spouse/partner, your other addictions are ruining your life, or your spouse/partner tells you he/she wants a divorce or separation.

Call Dr. Braun today before your it is too late: (708) DR-BRAUN or (708) 372-7286

Realize there is HOPE FOR CHANGE!

Take the FIRST STEP:

1.   Individual Stabilization for the Betrayed Partner:  The betrayed partner needs a specialized space to process the trauma of betrayal and develop healthy boundaries. Often, progress is stalled when a partner simply says, 'I am sorry, please trust me,' but the betrayed partner is left asking, 'How do I know this won't happen again?' Without tangible proof of change, traditional couples work often fails. We focus on creating empowerment and managing the life chaos infidelity creates, utilizing specialized tools like EMDR to process the underlying trauma. 

2.   Trauma Repair & Empowerment: For the betrayed partner, recovery involves more than just 'getting over' the incident. It requires learning how to reclaim your voice, establishing boundaries that protect your emotional well-being, and receiving specialized support to manage the intrusive thoughts and physiological stress that accompany betrayal trauma. The betrayed partner needs help feeling safe and processing what has happened as a result of the betrayal or lack of effective communication so that trust can start to be rebuilt if betrayal is present.

3. The Recovery Tool Kit for the Unfaithful Partner: The partner who has committed the betrayal must move beyond simple apologies to building a comprehensive Recovery Toolkit of tools to prevent relapse.  Individual work must be done to learn techniques to immediately overcome powerful urges to relapse and move toward wholesome behaviors that do not threaten the integrity of your relationship. This individual work ensures you are bringing a 'repaired foundation' back to the relationship. It allows you to approach your partner with confidence rather than empty promises that always result in another relapse and more trauma to your partner.  

4.  Integrated Progress & Transparency: While individual stabilization is the primary focus, a key objective of this protocol is the Integration of Care. With the unfaithful partner’s consent, Dr. Braun facilitates a structured loop of communication with the betrayed spouse. This ensures that the partner is not left in the dark, but is instead kept informed of the progress being made in individual therapy as it occurs. This collaborative approach allows for verifiable transparency, ensuring that as the individual foundation is being repaired, the path toward shared marital healing remains open and honest. 

5.  Effective Communication for the Unfaithful Partner:  The unfaithful partner must learn effective communication strategies and empathy skills to manage the trauma they have caused their partner.  The unfaithful partner must understand that trust must be earned through consistent, proven action rather than just words. The partner who has committed the infidelity needs to learn skills to rebuild trust.  The unfaithful partner needs to learn that restoration of their relationship will not occur through the mere passage of time.  In addition, while effective communication is essential for a loving relationship, this skill in isolation will not produce the change they are hoping to occur.

6.  Origins of the Infidelity for the Unfaithful Partner: The partner who has committed the betrayal also needs help understanding why he/she committed the infidelity or drifted away from the relationship to connect with someone elsewhere to stop this problem from recurring in the future. 

7. Recovery work for Both Partners: Both partners need assistance with recognizing the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance, overcoming extended family issues, and handling parenting issues so that they have the ability to give their relationship the priority it deserves in their lives.  They also need help with rebuilding healthy communication skills, intimacy, and trust.

Dr. Jane Braun, Ph.D., CSAT is a Clinical Psychologist and Certified Sexual Addiction Therapist with over 15 years experience helping individuals and couples overcome issues of betrayal, infidelity, sexual addiction, pornography addiction, trauma, depression, and anxiety all in an atmosphere of confidentiality, respect, and genuine care for your needs.

Begin your recovery today with a confidential telephone consultation with Dr. Braun.

For more information or to schedule a first appointment, call Dr. Braun at (708) DR-BRAUN or 

(708) 372-7286

Dr. Braun serves couples in Frankfort, Palos Heights, Orland Park, Mokena, New Lenox, Tinley Park, Joliet, Plainfield, Lockport, Oswego, Bolingbrook, and throughout the state of Illinois via telehealth.