Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist · AASECT Certified Sex Therapist · Practicing Therapy Since 1988
Couples Therapy After Infidelity in Florida
Online Couples Therapy for Infidelity, Betrayal, and Affairs in Florida via Secure Telehealth
If you’re the partner who was betrayed…
Before discovering your partner’s infidelity, you trusted them to make decisions with your relationship in mind.
You didn’t necessarily agree about everything. You may have disagreed about money, work, parenting, or how to spend your time. But you believed that even when your partner made a decision without consulting you, they were considering how it would affect both of you.
Now you know they were making decisions that could have destroyed your relationship, and you knew nothing about them.
You’re still trying to understand how that happened. How did your partner justify continuing the affair while making plans with you? How did they decide what you deserved to know? And how could they take risks with your relationship without giving you any say in what was happening?
Your partner tells you they regret what they did. They say they understand how badly they hurt you and that they’ll never make those choices again.
You want to believe them, but you’re beginning to realize how much you relied on their judgment before the affair.
You may find yourself questioning situations you wouldn’t have worried about before. When your partner tells you about their day, makes plans without you, or says they’ll take care of something important, you wonder whether they’re telling you everything you need to know.
You don’t want to question every decision they make. But you’ve discovered that your partner was capable of keeping something enormously consequential from you while the two of you continued sharing a life together.
When you express those concerns, your partner may become frustrated. They remind you that the affair is over, that they’re telling you the truth now, or that they’ve always been dependable in other parts of your relationship.
And perhaps they have. You haven’t forgotten everything you trusted and appreciated about your partner before the affair.
But you’re struggling with something their reassurances haven’t answered.
You want to know that your partner will consider how their decisions affect you, be honest even when the truth is uncomfortable, and take responsibility for protecting your relationship without waiting for you to ask.
You want to be able to count on them again, but you don’t yet understand how they could have made the choices that led to the infidelity.
If you’re the unfaithful partner…
You’ve ended the affair, and you know how badly you’ve hurt your partner. You regret what happened, and you want to show them that they can count on you again.
You’ve been answering questions, trying to be more open about your day, and following through on the things you say you’ll do. You know rebuilding trust will take time, but you hoped your partner would begin feeling more confident in you as they saw how hard you were trying.
Instead, you’re finding that they question things they never used to worry about.
They want to know why you didn’t mention a conversation you had at work or why your plans changed at the last minute. Sometimes they seem uncomfortable with decisions you’ve made that have nothing to do with the affair.
You try to explain what happened. You haven’t been dishonest, and you don’t understand why an ordinary decision has become another reason for your partner to doubt you.
Sometimes you become frustrated. You remind your partner that you’ve always been responsible about certain things, or that you’re doing everything you agreed to do since the affair ended.
But your partner is struggling with something you may not fully understand yet.
Before the infidelity, they trusted that you would consider how your decisions affected them, even when they weren’t involved in making those decisions. Now they know you were capable of making choices that seriously harmed your relationship while keeping them completely unaware.
You may be able to explain why you stayed late at work or changed your plans. What’s harder to explain is how you made the decisions that led to the affair, and why your partner should feel confident that you’ll handle difficult situations differently now.
You want your partner to recognize that you’re being honest and responsible. But when they question another decision, you can feel yourself becoming defensive. You’re afraid that nothing you do will be enough to restore their confidence in you.
You want your partner to be able to rely on you again, but you’re struggling to understand why being dependable now hasn’t relieved their doubts about the decisions you made during the affair.
You know you need to rebuild trust, but you aren’t always sure what that requires beyond telling the truth and keeping your promises.
Hope after infidelity
Discovering infidelity can change how much confidence you have in your partner, even when they’re doing things they’ve always done. You may still trust them in some parts of your life while questioning decisions you wouldn’t have thought twice about before the affair.
In therapy, I’ll help you understand how the infidelity happened, including the decisions the unfaithful partner made, what they kept secret, and how they justified choices they knew could hurt your relationship. The betrayed partner can ask questions about what happened, while the unfaithful partner begins understanding what they need to change beyond promising never to have another affair.
We’ll also look at what rebuilding reliability means in your everyday relationship. I’ll help you establish clear expectations about sharing information, following through on commitments, and bringing up difficult subjects rather than avoiding them.
When the betrayed partner has concerns, we’ll work on getting those concerns addressed without the unfaithful partner becoming defensive or leaving their partner hesitant to ask questions again.
You can begin seeing that your partner is taking responsibility for being honest and dependable without having to ask about everything yourself.
And the unfaithful partner can better understand what helps rebuild confidence, so their efforts begin addressing the concerns that have made trusting them so difficult.
How couples therapy can Change Your Relationship after infidelity
1. You can get the answers you need without every conversation feeling like an interrogation.
You may have spent hours discussing the affair, only to find yourself asking another question the following day. The betrayed partner needs to understand what happened, while the unfaithful partner may struggle to explain their choices without becoming defensive or shutting down.
In therapy, I’ll guide those conversations so you can discuss difficult details without one of you feeling like a prosecutor and the other like a defendant. I’ll help the betrayed partner identify what they need to understand and the unfaithful partner respond honestly, even when the answers are uncomfortable.
Some questions may need to be answered more than once. That doesn’t mean the conversations aren’t helping. As your partner’s answers remain consistent and their behavior begins matching their words, you can gradually develop greater confidence in what they tell you.
You can begin understanding what happened without feeling that every answer has to be fought for or independently verified.
2. You can disagree and make decisions together without every argument returning to the affair.
Since discovering the affair, even ordinary decisions may have become difficult. A disagreement about money, parenting, or plans for the weekend can bring up questions about trust. The betrayed partner may question whether they can rely on the unfaithful partner’s judgment, while the unfaithful partner may feel that having an affair means they’ve lost the right to disagree.
In therapy, I’ll help you separate the responsibility for repairing the betrayal from the decisions you still need to make together. The partner who had the affair remains accountable for their choices, but both of you need to be able to express concerns and participate in decisions that affect your shared life.
I’ll also help you recognize when a disagreement is beginning to escalate. You’ll practice expressing concerns without criticism, listening without immediately becoming defensive, and taking a break when emotions become too intense to continue productively.
If the affair comes up during a disagreement, we won’t assume it’s irrelevant or insist that you set it aside. Instead, you’ll learn to address the concern about trust while still working toward a decision about the original issue.
You can begin making decisions together again without feeling that one partner must give in or that every disagreement threatens the relationship.
3. If you’re the unfaithful partner, your hurt and dissatisfaction can be heard and taken seriously, too.
You may feel tremendous shame about your decision to have an affair while also feeling angry about how your partner treated you. And you may worry that whenever you describe something hurtful they did, the conversation will return to your infidelity, and your complaints will never receive serious attention.
In therapy, I’ll help you express how your partner’s behavior hurt you, including things you may have struggled to communicate before the affair. I’ll help you explain what happened and how it affected you without suggesting that your partner was responsible for your decision to be unfaithful.
This makes it easier for your partner to hear what you’re saying without feeling blamed for the affair. They can begin to understand the impact of their behavior, take responsibility where they’ve hurt you, and offer meaningful apologies, even when you remember parts of your relationship differently.
You can receive genuine understanding and apologies for the pain you experienced, even though you were the partner who had the affair. You’ll also learn how to express dissatisfaction and painful feelings directly, rather than withdrawing, avoiding difficult conversations, or keeping your unhappiness secret.
4. You can build a relationship where difficult needs and feelings are discussed openly and honestly.
Before the affair, there may have been problems neither of you knew how to discuss. Perhaps one of you felt lonely or dissatisfied but avoided bringing it up because you were afraid of hurting your partner or starting an argument. Or maybe you tried expressing what you needed, but your concerns came out as criticism, leaving your partner feeling attacked rather than understanding what was wrong.
Those difficulties may help explain what was happening in your relationship, but they don’t excuse the affair. The partner who had the affair remains responsible for that decision. Once we’ve begun repairing the betrayal, I’ll help you address the older problems in your relationship without shifting responsibility for the infidelity.
You’ll practice expressing dissatisfaction without criticism, listening without becoming defensive, and having conversations you might have avoided for years. I’ll help you recognize when one of you is withdrawing, making assumptions about what the other thinks, or agreeing to something simply to avoid conflict.
Over time, you can become more comfortable discussing difficult subjects without worrying that disagreement will threaten your relationship. You may find yourselves talking more openly about sex, money, parenting, or plans for the future, including concerns that neither of you felt comfortable raising before the affair.
You can build a relationship based on greater honesty and understanding, where both of you feel able to express what you need and address problems together rather than leaving important concerns unspoken.
How affair recovery works
How I help Florida couples repair their relationship after infidelity, betrayal, and affairs
When you come to couples therapy because of an affair, we won’t spend months discussing older relationship problems before addressing the betrayal. After our initial three-session assessment, we’ll begin working directly on the affair, the questions that still need answers, and the hurt it’s caused.
There’s a clinical reason for starting here, too. Even when you’re trying to talk about problems that existed before the affair, the betrayal can affect how you hear and respond to each other. We need to address what happened before we can work effectively on those older problems.
I’ll guide you through the recovery process in this order:
A three-session assessment
Repairing the betrayal and hurt caused by the affair
Repairing older hurts and vulnerabilities in the relationship
Finally, repairing your sexual relationship, once trust has had enough time to rebuild
Read more about the full process I take couples through after infidelity here →
Practicing Gottman Method Couples Therapy since 2000
I’ve been a therapist since 1988 and began studying with the Gottman Institute in 2000. I’ve been fully certified as a Gottman Method couples therapist and Gottman workshop leader since 2009.
The Gottman Method is grounded in decades of research with thousands of couples, including research on relationships affected by infidelity. It provides a structured approach to understanding what has happened in a relationship and helping couples make meaningful changes.
Gottman certification is a multi-year process. I completed all three levels of clinical training, then recorded my therapy sessions and submitted them to the Gottman Institute. Senior clinicians reviewed my work, provided feedback, and evaluated my ability to apply the method with couples.
I bring that training and clinical experience to my work with couples recovering from infidelity, helping them address the betrayal, rebuild trust, and work through difficulties in their relationship.
Who is a Good Fit for this Service?
I work with every form of infidelity: physical or emotional affairs, a secret online relationship or sexting, hidden pornography use or visits to strip clubs, secretly paying for sex, or a broken agreement in an open or non-monogamous relationship.
Therapy with me is for couples where both people want to repair the relationship.
If there is ongoing domestic violence in your relationship, couples therapy is not an appropriate service. Couples therapy asks both of you to speak honestly in session, and when one partner is being hurt or controlled at home, that honesty can create danger after the session ends. Individual therapy is a safer starting place.
Infidelity therapist & certified Gottman method couples therapist
I’m Kate McNulty, LCSW, LICSW
I’ve been a licensed therapist since 1988, and affair recovery has been a central part of my couples practice for more than two decades. An affair is a crisis, and most couples who come to me have already spent months trying to resolve it on their own, leaving them feeling even more disconnected.
Infidelity creates a specific communication breakdown that good intentions can’t fix. The betrayed partner needs to talk to process what happened; the unfaithful partner shuts down out of shame or defensiveness. Attempts to resolve the damage caused by the affair without outside intervention reinforce that breakdown rather than interrupt it.
I provide the research-supported structure of repairing your relationship after infidelity.
If the description on this page sounded like your relationship, I’d like to help.
Logistics
Pricing, scheduling, and online couples therapy sessions
All sessions are conducted by secure, HIPAA-compliant video. I work with couples across Florida.
Sessions are private pay, billed at $500 per hour and $750 for 90-minute sessions. Extended sessions (3+ hours) are available for couples who want to make faster progress. I am not in-network with insurance and cannot bill them directly. For more information about pricing, please see the pricing page.
How to get started in couples therapy
To schedule your first appointment, please choose a day and time on my secure, HIPAA-compliant calendar, using the button directly below.
After I approve your request, typically within one business day, you and your partner will receive new client forms via email, which you’ll both review and digitally sign before we meet.
Areas Served in Florida
I’m registered as an Out-of-State Telehealth Provider with the Florida Department of Health (registration #TPSW16), which allows me to work with couples after infidelity in Florida by secure, HIPAA-compliant video.
This includes:
Northeast Florida, including Jacksonville, Palm Coast, Daytona Beach, and St. Augustine
North Florida and the Panhandle, including Tallahassee, Pensacola, and Panama City
Central Florida, including Orlando, Kissimmee, Gainesville, Melbourne, Palm Bay, Ocala, Winter Garden, Sanford, Apopka, Titusville, Winter Haven, Lakeland, Deltona, Ocoee, and Altamonte Springs
Tampa Bay, including Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota, Bradenton, Largo, and Spring Hill
Southwest Florida, including Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, Port Charlotte, and Bonita Springs
South Florida and the Treasure Coast, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Hollywood, Hialeah, Port St. Lucie, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Coral Springs, Miami Gardens, Davie, Sunrise, Plantation, Boynton Beach, Deerfield Beach, Homestead, Doral, Weston, Delray Beach, Wellington, North Miami, Coconut Creek, and Fort Pierce
If you’re anywhere in Florida, I can work with you.
Questions about couples therapy after infidelity in Florida
Frequently Asked Questions —
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Yes. Florida state law requires that you’re physically located in the state at the time of each session.
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No. My practice is fully online, so there’s no office to visit in Florida. Every session happens by secure video, so you don’t need to live near any city to work with me.
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Both of you need to be physically located in a state where I’m licensed or registered at the time of the session: Oregon, Washington, New York, Massachusetts, or Florida.
If one of you is traveling outside those states, we’ll reschedule for a time you’re both in a state I can legally see you.
Still Have Questions about Couples Therapy for Infidelity?
Contact me using the button below. I’ll respond within 2 business days.