Please no plagiarism and make sure you are able to access all resources on your own before you bid. Main references come from Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017) and/or American Psychological Association (2014). You need to have scholarly support for any claim of fact or recommendation regarding treatment. Please respond to all 3 of my classmates with references separately. You need to have scholarly support for any claim of fact or recommendation like peer-reviewed, professional scholarly journals. I need this completed by 03/21/2020
Expectation:
Responses to peers. Note that this is measured by both the quantity and quality of your posts. Does your post contribute to continuing the discussion? Are your ideas supported with citations from the learning resources and other scholarly sources? Note, that although it is often helpful and important to provide one or two sentence responses thanking somebody or supporting them or commiserating with them, those types of responses do not always further the discussion as much as they check in with the author. Such responses are appropriate and encouraged; however, they should be considered supplemental to more substantive responses, not sufficient by themselves.
Read your colleagues’ postings. Respond to your colleagues’ postings.
Respond in one or more of the following ways:
· Ask a probing question.
· Share an insight gained from having read your colleague’s posting.
· Offer and support an opinion.
· Validate an idea with your own experience.
· Make a suggestion.
· Expand on your colleague’s posting.
1. Classmate (C. Als)
Main Post
People will understand their sexuality based on their own experiences. Many couples have experienced infidelity, overcame the strain of that pain and were able to make their relationship work. You also have many relationships that didn’t survive infidelity, and, in these cases, it depended on the nature of the infidelity. Having some knowledge of infidelity, I am aware cultural, and environmental background will play a role in the recovery or demise of a relationship stemming from an affair. People understand the meaning of their sexuality based on the phases of their life span (Murray, Pope & Willis, 2017). For example: when you’re dealing with younger clients that have experienced one or both parties who have had an affair there may be a higher relationship survival rating to those who are mid to late age in life. As you tend to grow older individuals look at the meaning of relationships differently from when they were younger, and it makes it harder for the relationship to survive. However, in both incidents depending on the nature of the infidelity, cultural and religious beliefs will play a big role in the client’s decisions. The nature of the relationship means was there a baby produced from the affair, was it a best friend or relative that was involved or someone they know can all be difficult reasons for a recovery process when dealing with couples and affairs. Therefore, depending on the individual, their life span, experience, religion, cultural background and the nature of the infidelity, these will factor in the survival, or ending rating of the relationship (Murray, Pope & Willis, 2017).
When couples come in for therapy due to infidelity there are chances with therapy the couple can survive. It will take both the client’s participation to make the relationship work after an affair. As a counselor, allow both clients to openly voice their pain, concerns and their expectations from their therapy. Once the counselor obtains the information needed, the best way to facilitate a recovery is by addressing both the sexual and relational aspects that relate to the client’s immediate concerns (Murray, Pope & Willis, 2017).
Reference
Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017). Sexuality counseling: Theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
2. Classmate (A. Smi)
Infidelity, better known as an affair, is defined as a “secretive emotional and or/ sexual involvement with a person outside of a committed couple’s relationship” (pg. 386) which violates the couples committed agreement which each other and is the frequent cause of couple or martial conflicts (Schmidt, Green , & Prouty , 2016). Unfortunately, according to Wetchler and Hecker (2015) infidelity have been proven one of the most difficult issues to treat as reported by therapist. This is due to when having an affair, there is emotional truma causing a breach in trust and insecurity to the person being betrayed (Wetchler & Hecker , 2015) Although this may indeed be the case, recovery is based on the couple and their willingness to work through the problem (Murray , Pope, & Willis , 2017). This includes not only the betrayed partner willingness to forgive, but the betraying partner willingness to take on the responsibility of the wrong they have committed (Palmo & Palmo, 2008; Wetchler & Hecker , 2015).
If a couple has chosen to recover their relationship broken by an affair, couples counseling would be helpful in resolving the “wound in the relationship” (Murray , Pope, & Willis , 2017, p. 242). In couple counseling the goals should include understanding what led up to the affair, repairing the relationship, all while reducing emotional distress of both parties (Cornish , Hanks , & Black , 2020). Counseling can offer numerous ways to help restore a relationship. This includes counseling which focuses of forgiveness, both self and the other person, building intimacy, and understanding the couple’s interaction prior the affair (Bahnaru & Runcan , 2019; Cornish , Hanks , & Black , 2020; Murray , Pope, & Willis , 2017). Counselors could use different therapeutic approaches such as emotional focused therapy, intersystem approach, integrative approach, and structural family approach (Bahnaru & Runcan , 2019). A counselor could also use behavioral couples therapy to focus on increasing initmacy, and narrative therapy for healing through storytelling (Bahnaru & Runcan , 2019). Counselors could also offer individual counseling for the couple to help with individuals issues related to the affair, as long as it is understood there is a no secret clause and both individuals agree (Smith, 2011).
Overall, a couple could indeed recover from an affair and counseling would be helpful in the reconnection process (Bahnaru & Runcan , 2019; Murray , Pope, & Willis , 2017; Smith, 2011). However, not everyone’s relationship will survive infidelity. In cases such as these individual counseling may be nessessary to help with dealing with grief and loss, depression, anxiety, etc (Murray , Pope, & Willis , 2017). For those who chooses to work it through, there are many steps counselors can take to help the couple reach their goals of relationship recovery.
References
Bahnaru, A., & Runcan , R. (2019). Social work and family: treating infidelity. Revista de Asistenta Sociala, 2, 39-50.
Cornish , M. A., Hanks , M. A., & Black , S. M. (2020). Self-forgiving process in therapy for romantic relationship infidelity: A evidence-based case study. Psychotherapy. Retrieved from .http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pst0000292
Murray , C., Pope, A., & Willis , B. (2017). Sexuality Counseling. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Palmo, P., & Palmo, L. (2008). Couple and Family Counseling: Issues related to couples. (I. (. Laureate Education, Interviewer, & Author, Editor) Baltimore .
Schmidt, A. E., Green , M. S., & Prouty , A. M. (2016). Effects is parential infidelity and interparental conflicts on relational ethics between adult children and parents: a contextual perspective. Journal of Family Therapy, 38, 386-408.
Smith, T. (2011). Understanding infidelity: An interview with Gerald Weeks. The Family Jounral: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families, 19(3), 333-339.
Wetchler , J. L., & Hecker , L. L. (2015). An Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy (2nd ed.). New Tork: Routledge.
3. Classmate (E. Mas)
Recovery from Affairs
When one or both partners have an affair in a marriage or a relationship, the results can be devastating. Murray, Pope and Willis (2017) wrote that the impact of an affair can be similar to the effects of other traumatic experiences. The individuals involved not only feel depressed but they may also grieve due to the potential loss of their relationship. An affair can certainly change the dynamics of a relationship. However, I do not think that infidelity is always an absolute means to the end of a relationship if the couple is willing to work through it.
As a counselor, there are various ways that we can guide a couple that is struggling with past or current infidelity. Murray, Pope, and Willis (2017) stated that it is important to work toward some level of forgiveness and healing. Forgiving and healing can lead to a reconnection of the couple, while also working through the issues of the infidelity. It is also important to be mindful of relationship issues that may have proceeded the affair. The couple may have previous, underlying issues that need resolving. Counseling could certainly help the couple work through these issues in order to move past the infidelity and begin their relationship once more.
References
Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017). Sexuality counseling: Theory, research, and practice.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Required Resources
Readings
· Course Text: Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017). Sexuality counseling: Theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
· Chapter 5, “Lifespan Development and Sexuality”
· Chapter 8, “Sexuality and Intimate Relationships”
· Article: Aalgaard, R. A., Bolen, R. M., & Nugent, W. R. (2016). A literature review of forgiveness as a beneficial intervention to increase relationship satisfaction in couples therapy. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 26(1), 46–55. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
· Article: Brotto, L. A., Chivers, M. L., Millman, R. D., & Albert, A. (2016). Mindfulness-Based sex therapy improves genital-subjective arousal concordance in women with sexual desire/arousal difficulties. Archives Of Sexual Behavior, 45(8), 1907–1921. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
· Article: Faircloth, C. (2015). Negotiating intimacy, equality, and sexuality in the transition to parenthood. SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ONLINE, 20(4). Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
· Handout: Sexuality in Adulthood Across the Family Life Cycle
