Perhaps you are here because you are working with a couple who is suffering with infidelity, and you know that they have children. Maybe you are working with a child and have gotten clues that dad is having an affair. Or maybe your 20something client is cycling through a series of romantic relationships where cheating takes center stage.

The research is clear. Parental infidelity can have long term impact on the children in the family. Specifically, having cheating parents leads to poorer interactions with those parents into adulthood, and can double the likelihood that a child will end up with a partner who cheats on them.

More optimistically, the research is also clear that the way that a family discusses infidelity is as important to the health of the family as the affair itself. This will come as no surprise to you!

So the question becomes, how do you as a therapist help your clients start that conversation? As a social worker with 10 years of experience working with children and families, I have some ideas. You can start reading about some of them below in the Outgrow Infidelity Blog. This page has been tailored to the topics most relevant to therapists. If you find it helpful, please subscribe to my newsletter for weekly updates. 

For the hard research on children and parent infidelity, visit my research page. I have a list of all of the scholarly articles that I have used to write the blog, with links to the article itself. Soon, I will have a summary of each article available, as I know that few therapists have the time to read through pages and pages of research!

If social media is more your speed, visit @the.outgrow.infidelity.project on Instagram, or r/KidsofCheatingParents: My Reddit page where I post and comment. Reddit allows you to create an avatar that is completely anonymous.

This is still such a taboo topic for so many children, of any age, who are struggling with their parents’ cheating behavior. Thank you for being willing to help reduce the stigma.

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