Marital, Couples, Individual, Family, & Teen Counseling in Marietta, Georgia & Teletherapy in Illinois
Does Affair Recovery Counseling Work?
Yes! Affair Recovery Works.
This isn’t where you thought you’d be. But you’re here—looking for answers, hope, and a path forward. Whether you’re feeling betrayed, overwhelmed, or unsure of what comes next, you’re not alone.
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An affair can feel like an emotional earthquake. It shakes the foundation of trust, connection, and security. You may find yourself asking: Can we recover? Can I trust again? Can we ever feel close like we once did? These questions are natural, and healing is possible. As a therapist, I believe in the power of transformation—even when hope feels distant.
Couples I’ve worked with have discovered that beneath the pain lies an opportunity to rebuild something stronger and more honest. At Maverick Marriage Therapy, we provide a compassionate, non-judgmental space to help you and your partner process, heal, and reconnect.
How Can Affair Recovery Counseling Help You?
When everything feels uncertain, counseling gives you a roadmap for healing. Here’s how it can help:
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Process the Pain: Understand, express, and release the intense emotions you’re carrying.
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Rebuild Trust: Establish new patterns of transparency, honesty, and accountability.
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Improve Communication: Share openly, listen with empathy, and rebuild mutual understanding.
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Address the “Why”: Explore what led to the affair and address underlying relationship needs.
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Reconnect Emotionally: Heal the distance and restore intimacy, both emotionally and physically.​
Recovery isn’t just about “moving past” the pain—it’s about building something deeper and more resilient. Together, we can find a path forward that works for you.
Here’s what one couple had to say:
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“When my husband and I started counseling with Christina, I was skeptical. I didn’t think anything could help us. But from our first session, Christina made us feel seen, safe, and understood. She gave us the tools to heal and grow, holding us with both compassion and honesty. With her guidance, we rebuilt trust and connection in ways I didn’t think were possible. Her work didn’t just save our marriage—it changed our lives and the life of our family forever.”
Feeling Hopeless After an Affair- You’re Not Alone.
Everything you trusted has been called into question. If you’re struggling with thoughts like these, you’re not alone:
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“How could this happen to us?”
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“I want to heal, but I don’t know where to start.”
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“I feel so disconnected. Can we ever get that closeness back?”
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“I’m not sure I can forgive this.”
These feelings are normal. The pain feels heavy, but it doesn’t have to be permanent. I’ve walked alongside couples who thought they could never recover—only to watch them rebuild trust and find connection they didn’t think possible.
Through counseling, you can:
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Find clarity about what happened and where you go from here.
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Learn tools to heal individually and as a couple.
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Take intentional steps toward trust, communication, and emotional safety.
Your relationship doesn’t have to end here.
Proven Methods
​At Maverick Marriage Therapy, I use proven, evidence-based methods to guide couples through healing:
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Stabilization: Address the immediate pain and create a safe space for honest, open communication.
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Understanding the Affair: Explore the factors behind the infidelity to uncover unmet needs and patterns.
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Rebuilding Trust: Develop clear steps for accountability, emotional transparency, and trust restoration.
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Restoring Connection: Strengthen emotional and physical intimacy through intentional, supportive work.
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Planning for the Future: Equip you with tools to prevent future disconnects and nurture lasting connection.
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Every relationship is unique, but this proven process helps couples move through the pain toward understanding and growth. I’ll support you every step of the way.
A Step-by-Step Approach to Rebuilding Trust
Our Clinical Framework for Infidelity & Affair Recovery in Marietta
The Gottman Method: Rebuilding Trust on Objective Data
Affair recovery cannot rely on guesswork. At Maverick Marriage Therapy, our Marietta counselors utilize The Gottman Method Couples Therapy—a framework built on over 40 years of empirical clinical research.
When a marriage experiences infidelity or betrayal, the core of the relationship collapses. To rebuild, we systematically apply the structured
Gottman Trust Revival framework across three critical stages:
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The Atonement Phase: Establishing absolute transparency and safety. Our clinicians guide the unfaithful partner through answering questions without defensiveness, allowing the hurt partner's central nervous system to slowly down-regulate from trauma responses.
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The Attunement Phase: Helping couples navigate lingering emotional triggers and developing non-defensive communication patterns to discuss the underlying issues.
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The Attachment Phase: Transitioning the relationship away from defensive posturing and actively building brand-new pillars of shared meaning, trust, and ultimate covenant restoration.
Relational Life Therapy (RLT): Moving Past Blame to Radical Accountability
For marriage survival after an affair, passive counseling fails. That is why our Cobb County practice infuses Terry Real’s Relational Life Therapy (RLT) into our intensive affair recovery sessions—a fierce, compassionate framework designed to break through the gridlock of toxic relationship dynamics.
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Using the structured RLT Relationship Grid, our Marietta therapists pinpoint exactly where each partner gets stuck during a crisis, breaking down recovery into three actionable paths:
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Unmasking the Relationship Grid: We identify whether partners are fleeing into love avoidance ("walled off"), reacting out of boundaryless panic, or dropping into toxic grandiosity or shame.
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Practicing Loving Confrontation: We don't play neutral; our clinicians firmly stand for the health of your marriage. We use direct, loving confrontation to cut straight to the root of the betrayal and expose the hidden, toxic dynamics that preceded the rupture.
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Enforcing Radical Accountability & Trauma Recovery: RLT demands absolute, radical accountability from the unfaithful partner to repair the systemic boundary violations, while providing a structured, supportive space for the profound trauma recovery of the betrayed spouse.
Clinical Leadership: Led by Founder Christina Neri, LCSW
At Maverick Marriage Therapy, our faith-integrated counseling approach is designed and clinically supervised by our founder, Christina Neri, LCSW. Christina is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Georgia and Illinois with over a decade of specialized experience guiding individuals and couples toward relational healing, spiritual alignment, and deeper emotional intimacy.
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Christina’s unique leadership ensures your therapy is grounded in both clinical excellence and spiritual integrity:
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Advanced Clinical Expertise: Christina is a Certified Level 3 Gottman Method Therapist. She has completed post-graduate training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Relational Life Therapy (RLT), and Internal Family Systems (IFS). She has studied with world-renowned couples experts Dr. David Woodsfellow and Dr. Michael McNulty.
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True Faith Integration: Her personal values are non-denominational Christian based. She firmly believes in utilizing the structural wisdom of evidence-based psychological research, while measuring every clinical strategy against the foundational truth of Scripture.
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Your Journey, Your Pace: Under Christina's clinical direction, our practice meets you exactly where you are. We support you in choosing the precise level at which your personal counseling integration includes biblical frameworks, spiritual exploration, and prayer.
Why Choose Maverick Marriage Therapy?
Compassionate Support and Proven Results
Recovering from an affair takes courage. Here’s how I can help:
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Proven Methods: I use evidence-based approaches like the Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Therapy to guide your healing process.
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Safe, Supportive Space: You’ll feel heard, understood, and valued as we explore your emotions without judgment.
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Personalized Care: I believe every couple’s story is unique. Together, we’ll tailor counseling to meet your needs and goals.
I know the courage it takes to seek help after betrayal. I’ve seen firsthand how couples can move from pain to clarity, from mistrust to connection. With support, healing isn’t just possible—it’s within reach.
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Let’s work together to restore trust, rebuild your bond, and create a relationship that feels stronger than before.
location
Our offices are located at:
4343 Shallowford Rd. Suite 510 Marietta, GA 30062
support@maverickmarriagetherapy.com
ph (770) 913-6557
Appointments Available Online As Well
Affair Recovery Counseling FAQ
What is Affair Recovery Counseling?
Affair recovery is the process of healing your marriage mentally, emotionally, and physically after it has experienced infidelity. Marriages who survive affairs are stronger than they were before the affair began.
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How long does affair recovery counseling take?
The timeline is unique for each couple. While some see improvements quickly, deeper healing may take time. Affair Recovery Therapy is for couples willing to commit to therapy for 6mo to 2 years while setting goals that work for you both.
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Can we really rebuild trust after an affair?
Yes. With transparency, accountability, and consistent effort, trust can be rebuilt. Counseling provides the guidance and tools to make this possible
Do we both need to come to counseling?
While it’s ideal to work together, one partner can start the process alone. Positive changes in one partner often inspire the other to join.
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What happens in a counseling session?
Sessions focus on creating a safe space for honest conversations, exploring emotions, and building actionable steps for trust, connection, and healing.
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We also support couples and families with Marriage Counseling and Pre-Marital Counseling, and Family Counseling to keep you going strong.
Infidelity doesn’t have to mean the end of your relationship. With the right support, you can heal, rebuild trust, and reconnect. Let’s take that step together.