PartnerHope exists to help you brave hope and become more than your betrayal story. To help you find your true self, own your voice, connect your heart to the hearts of others, and ground deeply in your inherent worth as a child of God.
Shot to the Heart
Shot to the HeartNothing can prepare you for the moment when you discover that the person closest to you, who you count on the most, has cheated, betrayed your trust and violated the boundaries of your relationship.
In our romantic relationships we turn to one another and say, “You are my home, where I belong. You are my lover, where I desire and am desired. You are my companion; with you I feel I matter. You are my comfort, where I receive support and care in the face of hardship.”
When we entrust ourselves to each other in these profoundly important ways, we invite our partner into the deepest most tender heart of who we are, giving them the keys to parts of ourselves that no one else gets to access.
It is this vulnerable, dependent entrusting of ourselves to the care of another that betrayal shatters. This experience— finding that our dependency, vulnerability, and trust have been broken—is at the heart of betrayal.
It is this experience that makes partner betrayal so challenging to heal.
BRAVING HOPE AFTER BETRAYAL
BRAVING HOPE AFTER BETRAYALBraving hope is about what happens after you experience betrayal. Braving hope is about that moment, the one that comes at a different point for each person but is the same moment. The moment of choice.
Betrayal shatters our reality and places us at a crossroads. How will we handle this life-altering situation? The fundamental freedom we have as human beings is the freedom to choose our response to how life unfolds. So, the moment of choice is the moment.
Braving hope is about what you will do with your moment. Will you pause, take a breath and make room for the possibility that the cascading catastrophe your life has become is about more than surviving betrayal?
What if, without asking for it (because no one volunteers to be a betrayed partner) you are in the middle of a transformative moment in your life? Maybe the type of transformation that only a crisis that shakes you to your core and stretches you beyond your limits can produce?
In your moment, will you take the leap of faith toward believing that in spite of betrayal and all its trauma, in spite of shocking losses and unbelievable pain, there is a way through for you that will not destroy you but will actually strengthen you, free you, and give you the most precious gift of all – the gift of your true self?
Will you risk it all to become more than your betrayal story?
Michelle Mays LPC, CSAT-S is the founder and Clinical Director of the Center for Relational Recovery and PartnerHope.com. She has helped hundreds of betrayed partners and sexually addicted clients transform their lives and relationships and leads the field in in identifying and crafting effective treatment strategies for betrayed partners.