Department
Counseling and Human Services
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Date of Award
Spring 4-2024
Format
Degree Level
Ph.D.
LCSH subject
Marriage counseling -- Case studies; Marriage Counselors -- Attitudes; Adultery
Medium
manuscript
Proquest Document ID
31146104
Identifier
1518560929 (OCLC)
School/University
St. Mary's University (San Antonio, Tex.)
Size or duration
288 pages
Document Type
Dissertation
First Advisor
Comstock-Benzick, Dana L.
Second Advisor
Reyna-Vasquez, Priscilla
Third Advisor
Wooten, H. Ray
Abstract
No research seems to exist that focuses on how the nonexclusive spouse and the exclusive spouse discuss the third party in couple therapy for infidelity. Similarly, we know almost nothing about mental health professionals' perceptions of what the couple says and does, how the therapist responds to them, and what they perceive about the third party and their work with married, heterosexual couples. Eight licensed and experienced mental health professionals from the Austin, Texas community participated in this study grounded in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Findings suggest that training programs fail to provide information and evidenced-based techniques for working with couples dealing with infidelity, as all respondents said they learned through experience. Their suggestions to improve programs are shared herein. Most of their nonexclusive patients were male. Respondents expressed compassion for these individuals and gently tried to get them to take responsibility. Female exclusive spouses were called "awful" and hard to work with because of their intense emotional reactions to the betrayal. Often, their anger was directed toward the third party, and respondents had difficulty refocusing their awareness on their spouse. Most respondents worked to keep any discussion of the third party out of the sessions, if possible, stating that those individuals already took up too much space in the therapy. Professional bias and countertransference were evident, especially in terms of their supportive to neutral perceptions of males and their harsh, diagnostic comments about females, no matter what their role in the infidelity triangle. Each therapist sought to discern what was missing in the marriage as the key to engendering repair. The study participants shared anonymous stories of couples with whom they had worked. This led to the creation of The Infidelity Continuum, Couple Therapy, and the Third Party as an outline of the scenarios related to all party's feelings, thoughts, and actions in the context of the nonexclusive spouse's affair and the typical reactions of the exclusive spouse and the mental health professional concerning the third party.
Keywords: infidelity, the third party, couple therapy, mental health professionals’ perceptions, sexism in psychotherapy
Recommended Citation
Freid, Suzanne M., "Mental health professionals' perspectives on the third party when treating married heterosexual couples for infidelity: an interpretive phenomenological analysis" (2024). Dissertations. 72.
https://commons.stmarytx.edu/dissertations/72
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
