Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SPONTANEOUS
HEALING PLAN
Discover Exactly
What You Need to
Say and Do to Save
the Relationship
Immediately
After an Affair
21-Step Spontaneous
Healing Plan
——————— • ———————
www.MarriageSherpa.com
Copyright © 2010 Breakthrough Learning Institute LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this book or any part of
this system, including, but not limited to, interior design, cover design and icons, may be reproduced or trans-
mitted in any form, by any means, (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
IN T RO D U C T I O N
T
his bonus report is a preview to Dr. Gunzburg’s comprehensive Survive an Affair program plus compan-
ion workbook. His home study program is designed to help the injured and the cheater heal themselves
first and then work together to transform the marriage and make it better than ever.
The program is divided into three phases. Each phase corresponds directly to a part of the healing process.
Click Here to
Order Right Now
The following report summarizes each phase and the 21 most important components of Dr. Gunzburg’s Survive
an Affair program. Read through each step to understand the value the program can offer. After each step you
will find corresponding page numbers to access specific solutions inside Dr. Gunzburg’s program.
This is one of the most comprehensive alternatives to marriage counseling because inside the program Dr.
Gunzburg breaks down the specific steps both individuals need to take to heal after the affair and then restore
the marriage and make it better than ever.
Wishing you hope and healing for your marriage,
Stephanie Anderson
Editor-in-Chief
Marriage Sherpa
P.S. At the end of the program I have included the full table of contents for How to Survive an Affair.
Phase 1: Individual Healing – Understanding Personal Healing
and Sorting through Emotional Problems
P
hase I is all about you. And when I say you, I mean whoever is reading the book. This
phase (as well as most of the book) will focus primarily on the injured because he or she is
the one who has the most emotional turmoil to work through. However, there are specific
sections in this phase for both the injured and the cheater. The cheater will probably benefit from
reading the injured person’s sections and the injured person will probably benefit from reading
the cheater’s section, although it is not necessary.
When people are affected by infidelity, their first instincts are to look for reasons that the affairs
happened. They want to know the details of the affairs. They want to know why their loved one
did what they did. They want to know if they will ever be able to trust their partner again.
This is what Dr. Gunzburg calls “externalizing.” Externalizing means that people are looking
outside of themselves for answers to emotional issues that are happening within them. When you
first start working on your relationship after an affair, the first thing Dr. Gunzburg teaches you
inside his program is how to look within yourself.
You need to stop trying to figure out the other person; you need to be honest about your own
thoughts and feelings concerning the affair; and you need to shift your perspective from the
outside to the inside, from the external to the internal.
Not only will Phase I help you take a good honest look at what is going on for you, it also will
give you a lot of concrete strategies that will help you cope with and overcome your troubling
thoughts and feelings.
Rest assured; inside Dr. Gunzburg’s program you will get to the other things you are worried
about. We will look outside as well. We will ask the hard questions. But first you need to look
within. That’s what Phase I is all about.
PHASE I HIGHLIGHTS: now, but you can’t run away from your feelings; you
have to go through them.
For the Injured
Rather than trying to stuff down your feelings or run
Step 1: Get in Touch with Your Pain away from them, allow your feelings to come out and
As counterintuitive as it might sound, the first thing move into them. Focus on the negative feelings, and
that an injured person in an affair needs to do is try to define exactly what they are.
look inside themselves and get in touch with their To give you a head start, you will likely face the
emotions. If you have been injured in an affair, it following eight heart-wrenching emotions when
might seem like this is the last thing you would want you are confronted with the knowledge of the affair:
to do. You might “want” to stop feeling the feelings (These are explained in detail on pages 18-21)
that are plaguing you right now and try to turn them • Betrayal • Vengefulness
off in order to do so. That is the wrong course of
• Guilt • Fear
action to take.
• Disappointment • Frustration
It is possible to stop feeling what you are feeling right
• Anger • Paranoid Feelings
A
fter each of does some some work on your own, you will start to look more closely at the
way you and your partner function as a couple.
In this phase, Dr. Gunzburg will give you a step-by-step program for effectively
communicating with your partner. This is a critical component in your healing process. After
infidelity, communication becomes incredibly strained. But if you don’t communicate, you
can never heal and you can never build your relationship into something that is beautiful and
rewarding. Communication is the key to every good relationship.
You will also examine the ten critical dimensions to a good relationship, and you will be asked to
explore how you might be better fulfilled in each of these dimensions. Knowing this will set the
stage for rebuilding your relationship into something that is even better than anything you could
have hoped for.
It is also in this phase that you will determine whether it is important for you to discuss the details
of the affair. You might be surprised to know that this step isn’t always critical, and unless it is
approached properly, it can do more harm than good. But Dr. Gunzburg will help you navigate
those waters successfully on page 92-94.
Step 10: Ask for Forgiveness To create a real apology, use the following 6-step
process defined on page 86.
Once you accept the fact that the affair is your fault
(the cheater), you will follow Dr. Gunzburg’s method 1. 1. Understand your partner’s pain by verbally
for asking for forgiveness. It might be that your explaining it to them. In this explanation, you
partner will not be able to forgive you. Forgiveness should include information about exactly how
is not critical to moving on with your relationship. you created that pain. (See examples on page 87.)
But you need to ask for it, regardless of your partner’s 2. Tell your partner that you accept responsibility for
response, so they know that you know the damage the pain you caused.
you have caused to them, to your commitment as a 3. Once the injured person accepts the cheater’s
couple, and to your own character. explanation of the pain the cheater caused, the
Beginning on page 85 you will begin to work through cheater should make separate statements taking
the process of understanding your partner’s pain. responsibility for the specific actions that caused
Once this occurs, a heartfelt apology will become the the pain. (Read Margaret’s experience during this
next step. step on page 89.)
Step 11: Create a Heartfelt Apology 4. Look inside yourself, and find the part of you
that truly doesn’t want to be the kind of person
The best way to ask for forgiveness is to create a
you have been. Commit to change. While you are
heartfelt apology. When you come to terms with the
making these changes, explain your experience
fact that the affair is your fault and you see that what
and your efforts to your partner.
you have done is wrong, it is time to apologize for it.
Don’t apologize because the program recommends it. 5. Make a statement about your commitment to the
Phase III: N
egotiating a Renewed Relationship –
Understanding How to Rebuild and Sustain a
New, Trust-filled Partnership
O
nce you learn how to talk to one another again, it is time to actually start rebuilding your
marriage. In this last phase of the book, Dr. Gunzburg will teach you how to renegotiate
your relationship
This means carving out the time you need to spend with your partner, becoming totally
transparent so he or she can fully trust you, and ultimately, writing a relationship contract that
will ensure not only that the infidelity will never happen again but that your relationship will be
better than ever.
As I mentioned earlier, this process will take time and some dedication. But isn’t saving your
relationship worth that investment?
Step 16: Rebuild Trust The best way to rebuild trust in the areas that
need work is through transparency. The cheater is
One of the things that is lost in a relationship that
particularly responsible for the work that needs to be
has been through an affair is trust, and it is one of the
done in this area, but you should keep in mind that
things most people are concerned about getting back.
transparency is a two-way street. Become completely
Trust can be rebuilt, but it takes time.
transparent with one another, and over time, trust will
What surprises many people is the fact that trust start to flourish in your relationship once more.
takes more than one form. Trust isn’t a black or white
Beginning on page 128, Dr. Gunzburg, will give you
issue the way most people think it is. You might be
instructions for rebuilding the trust by utilizing the
surprised to find that there are areas in which you
transparency method. Following the transparency
actually trust your partner right now.
method is one of the fastest ways to rebuild trust.
The five forms of trust are:
Step 17: Develop Stability
• Fidelity
People love stability. This doesn’t mean that they
• Physical Safety want all spontaneity to disappear. Spontaneity is an
• Financial Security important part of a relationship. But it does mean
they want to know that they are safe and that they
• Emotional Predictability
can count on certain aspects of their life (like their
• Truthfulness partner) to be consistent. Stability is an important part