Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist · AASECT Certified Sex Therapist · Practicing Therapy Since 1988
Couples Therapy After Infidelity in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Online Couples therapy after infidelity, betrayal, and affairs for Florida couples in Fort Lauderdale and all of Broward County
If you’re the partner who was betrayed…
Since discovering your partner’s infidelity, you’ve been looking back on your relationship and questioning things you never doubted before.
You remember a weekend when you were especially close. You were happy. Your partner seemed happy, too. You talked about plans for the future, and you felt certain that you were building a life together.
Now you know your partner was keeping a relationship with someone else secret from you.
You keep coming back to those moments. How could your partner have seemed so loving and committed while doing something that could destroy your relationship? Were they thinking about the other person when they were with you? Did they mean what they said about your future together?
When you ask, your partner tells you they loved you then. They say the happy memories were real and that the affair didn’t change how they felt about you.
You want to believe that. But they told you they loved you while they were lying to you, too. How are you supposed to know whether their words mean what you thought they meant?
Sometimes you remember something else—a conversation that didn’t make sense at the time, an explanation for why they were unavailable, or a change in their behavior. You ask another question, even though you’ve already talked about the affair so many times.
Your partner gets frustrated. They tell you they’ve answered your questions or that you’re bringing up things that happened long before the infidelity began.
But you aren’t only trying to establish what happened on a particular day. You’re trying to understand how the relationship you believed you had could have existed alongside something you knew nothing about.
You still love your partner, but you don’t know how to reconcile the person who seemed so committed to you with the person who was capable of betraying you. You want to understand what happened without having to doubt your memories, your judgment, or everything your partner tells you now.
If you’re the unfaithful partner…
You know you’ve hurt your partner terribly. You’ve ended the affair, you regret your decisions, and you want to repair your relationship.
But some of your partner’s questions catch you off guard.
They ask whether you meant it when you told them you loved them. Whether you were happy during a vacation you took together. Whether you were already thinking about leaving the relationship when you made plans for your future.
You remember being happy on that vacation. You remember loving your partner. You were excited about some of those plans, too.
So you tell them that.
But instead of reassuring them, your answer seems to upset them more.
They ask how you could have loved them and still had an affair. You try to explain that your feelings for them were real, even though you made terrible decisions. You aren’t trying to excuse what you did. You just don’t want them to believe that everything good between you was a lie.
Sometimes you become frustrated because you feel that your partner is questioning your entire relationship. They ask about things that happened before the affair even began, and you don’t understand what those memories have to do with your infidelity.
You remind them of the good times you shared. You tell them you’ve always loved them. You want them to believe you and begin moving forward.
Your partner reminds you that you said many of these same things while you were having the affair. You know you’re being honest now, but you don’t know how to help them believe you.
You can feel yourself becoming defensive. You repeat your explanations, insist that you’re telling the truth, or become impatient when the same questions come up again.
Then your partner becomes even more upset, and you’re back in another painful conversation about the affair.
You want your partner to know that your love was genuine, but you don’t understand why telling them that no longer helps.
Hope after infidelity
I’ll help you understand what was happening during the affair, including what your partner was thinking and feeling during moments you remember as happy or meaningful. You’ll have opportunities to ask about those memories, and I’ll help your partner answer honestly, including when their answers raise more questions.
I’ll also help the unfaithful partner understand why saying “I loved you then, and I love you now” may not reassure you. You heard those words when they were hiding the affair, too.
When they become defensive or impatient, I’ll step in and help them answer your questions without turning the conversation into another argument.
You can begin making sense of your shared history without having to decide that every happy memory was false or accept explanations that still don’t add up.
As your partner becomes more willing to answer difficult questions and acknowledge why their words no longer carry the same weight, you’ll also have a better basis for deciding whether their honesty and behavior now give you reasons to trust them again.
How Couples therapy after infidelity can change your relationship
With Kate McNulty, LCSW, LICSW | Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist & AASECT-Certified Sex Therapist
Discovering infidelity can change how you see your partner, your relationship, and the future you were planning together. I’ll help you get answers about what happened, understand the decisions that led to the betrayal, and begin rebuilding trust through honesty and meaningful changes in behavior.
Here’s what can change as we work together:
1. You can understand what happened during the infidelity without having to question every memory you share.
You remember feeling happy and loved during a time when your partner was secretly involved with someone else. When you ask how that was possible, your partner insists their feelings for you were genuine. But you’re still struggling to understand how both things could be true.
I’ll help you ask about specific experiences, conversations, and decisions during the affair. I’ll also help your partner answer questions about what they were thinking and feeling without becoming defensive or insisting that you accept their explanations.
When something doesn’t add up, we can examine it rather than leaving you to wonder whether you’ve misunderstood or been told another lie. And when your partner genuinely doesn’t remember something, I’ll help you distinguish what can be established from what remains uncertain.
You can begin putting together a more reliable understanding of your relationship during that time, without having to decide that every happy memory was false or accept answers that still trouble you. You’ll have more information to make sense of what happened and greater confidence in your own judgment.
2. 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.
3. If you’re the unfaithful partner, you can answer painful questions without becoming defensive or shutting down.
You know you were dishonest during the affair. You understand why your partner has questions, but it’s painful when they doubt things you’re telling them truthfully now.
Sometimes you become defensive because you feel that nothing you say will be believed. You insist that you’re being honest or remind your partner that you’ve already answered the question. Your partner becomes more upset, and the conversation ends with both of you frustrated.
When that happens in therapy, I’ll help you understand what your partner is trying to find out. Sometimes they need a factual answer. Other times, they’re struggling to understand how you could have made certain choices while telling them you loved them.
I’ll help you respond to those concerns without demanding that your partner believe you immediately. We’ll also address what happens when you genuinely don’t remember something or when your explanation raises another question.
You can become more comfortable staying in difficult conversations and taking responsibility, even when you feel ashamed or frustrated. Your partner can get the answers they need without having to argue for them, and you can begin having conversations that help repair the damage rather than causing more hurt.
4. You can make decisions about your future without every disagreement bringing you back to the affair.
Before discovering the infidelity, you may have been making plans together about your home, family, finances, or the next few years of your relationship. Now even ordinary decisions can feel complicated.
You may disagree about a financial commitment, for example. But after the infidelity, the disagreement can become about something more than money: whether you can trust your partner’s judgment and the promises they’re making.
I’ll help you recognize when a disagreement about a present decision is also bringing up concerns about the betrayal. We’ll address both the practical question and what the betrayed partner needs to know before they feel comfortable relying on their partner’s judgment.
I’ll also help you discuss those concerns without the conversation becoming another argument about whether the affair should still matter. You can ask for information, explain reservations, and work through disagreements without treating them as proof that your relationship can’t recover.
You can begin making important decisions together with greater confidence, even while trust is still being repaired. Instead of having the infidelity overwhelm every disagreement, you can understand what each of you is concerned about and work toward a decision together.
5. You can begin feeling comfortable with physical affection and sexual intimacy again.
After discovering infidelity, sex and physical affection can feel different. You may have stopped having sex, continued having it, or found that your desire changes from one day to the next.
You might miss the affection you once shared but find that being touched brings up hurt or thoughts about your partner’s sexual relationship with someone else. Or you may still enjoy sex while struggling with questions about what happened during the affair.
If you had the affair, you may miss physical affection but feel unsure whether it’s welcome. You don’t want your partner to feel pressured, and you may not know how to ask what they’re comfortable with.
As an AASECT-certified sex therapist, I’ll help you talk about how the infidelity has affected your desire, comfort with touch, and feelings about sex. We can address painful comparisons or questions about the sexual aspects of the affair, and discuss what kinds of affection each of you wants or isn’t ready for.
We’ll talk about what helps each of you feel comfortable with physical closeness, how to communicate your needs, and how to handle moments when one of you wants affection or sex and the other doesn’t. There’s no need to rush sexual intimacy or treat it as proof that the relationship has recovered.
You can begin enjoying affection without worrying that it creates expectations for sex. Whether you’ve stopped having sex or continued throughout recovery, you can become more comfortable expressing desire, saying what you’re not ready for, and enjoying intimacy when you both want it.
How affair recovery works
How I help Fort Lauderdale 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 →
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 in Fort Lauderdale and 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 Fort Lauderdale, Florida
I’m registered as an Out-of-State Telehealth Provider with the Florida Department of Health (registration #TPSW16), which allows me to provide online couples therapy throughout Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding communities in Broward County.
This includes:
Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods: Las Olas, Victoria Park, Colee Hammock, Rio Vista, Harbor Beach, Coral Ridge, Imperial Point, Lauderdale Isles, and Sailboat Bend.
Nearby coastal communities: Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Pompano Beach, Lighthouse Point, Dania Beach, Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, and Deerfield Beach.
Central Broward: Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Lauderdale Lakes, Lauderhill, Plantation, Sunrise, Tamarac, and Davie.
Western and southern Broward: Weston, Cooper City, Southwest Ranches, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, and Coral Springs.
All sessions take place through secure, HIPAA-compliant video. You and your partner can attend from anywhere in Florida.
Common Questions About Couples Therapy After Infidelity in Fort Lauderdale —
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No. You don’t have to know whether you’ll be able to rebuild trust or whether your relationship will ultimately survive the infidelity.
But both of you do need to want to try to repair it. My couples therapy is focused on helping partners reconcile after an affair, rather than helping couples decide whether to attempt reconciliation.
We’ll address the betrayal, the questions that still need answers, and the changes necessary to begin rebuilding trust. You can find out whether those efforts lead to a relationship you both want to continue.
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Sometimes a partner genuinely doesn’t remember a particular conversation or when something happened. Other times, an explanation may be incomplete or inconsistent, especially if information has been withheld before.
I’ll help you identify which questions your partner can answer, where further clarification is needed, and what remains uncertain. I’ll also help your partner respond honestly without becoming defensive or expecting you to accept an explanation that still doesn’t make sense.
You may not get an answer to every question, but you can get a clearer understanding of what happened and make decisions about your relationship without being pressured to ignore unresolved concerns.
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I provide couples therapy exclusively through secure, HIPAA-compliant video sessions. I don’t have an office in Fort Lauderdale.
You and your partner can join from the same location or from separate locations. You will need a private space and a reliable internet connection.
I’m licensed or registered to provide therapy in Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Washington.
Still Have Questions about Couples Therapy for Infidelity?
Contact me using the button below. I’ll respond within 2 business days.