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Introduction
Introduction
Welcome to Working with infidelity!
The aim of this 12-hour continuing professional development (CPD) course is to provide mental health professionals with knowledge of theory and research related to emotional and sexual affairs, enabling them to engage more effectively with clients who present with issues related to infidelity. The course involves lots of activities and will also ask you to consider your own personal responses to the topic. Those who successfully complete the course will be issued with a digital badge and statement of participation which they can use as evidence of their completion of the course.
This course was written by Dr Naomi Moller and Dr Andreas Vossler, Senior Lecturers in Psychology at the OU.
Continue to Content of this course.
Content of this course
This course is structured in topics, each covering different themes:
| Topics | Content |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Presents the course structure and learning outcomes and considers personal and professional hopes and expectations for the course. |
| Topic 1 Reflecting on the meanings of affairs | Infidelity is a value-laden word culturally and (potentially) personally. In this section you will consider what this could mean for learning about and working with infidelity. You will also learn what research says about how common infidelity is. |
| Topic 2 Defining infidelity | This section focuses on the varied ways that researchers have defined infidelity. You will also consider what research says about how people in general, people with personal experience of infidelity, and counsellors and psychotherapists define the issue. You will also be supported to further consider how you yourself understand infidelity and what these understandings imply for how you might work with clients. |
| Topic 3 Understanding infidelity | In this section you will discover what a broad swathe of academic theory and research says about infidelity and monogamy. You will also consider research on how practitioners think about infidelity, what factors predict infidelity and what the unique characteristics of online affairs are. |
| Topic 4 Working with infidelity | This section focuses on unpacking the steps in working effectively and confidently with infidelity in therapy practice, covering topics such as assessment of infidelity, how to create a safe space, unpacking meanings of affairs and what working with the aftermath of affair means. |
| Topic 5 Conclusion | The final section draws together the learning of the course through a focus on best practice recommendations for working with infidelity. |
| Additional material | The course material concludes with:
|
Course learning outcomes
The course aims to deliver the following learning outcomes:
Awareness of the cultural context of infidelity and the prevalence/frequency of infidelity in therapeutic practice.
Sound knowledge and understanding of different definitions/classifications of infidelity and the possible variations in how individuals may think and feel about infidelity.
Understanding of different theoretical explanations of infidelity and how infidelity can affect relationship partners.
Knowledge and understanding of relevant practical issues and steps of working effectively with infidelity.
Critical reflection of practitioners' own values and experiences and their potential impact on working with infidelity.
Tip: you may also want to consider what your personal goals are for this course.
Activity 1 Personal learning goals
In the box below, spend at least five minutes writing about what you are hoping to gain from this course, both personally and professionally.
For example, this might include learning more about particular aspects of working with infidelity in counselling and psychotherapy and/or it might include feeling more confident about working with infidelity in your therapeutic practice.
Discussion
Infidelity is seen as one of the most difficult areas that couple counsellors/therapists work with (Reibstein, 2013), yet research also suggests that this is a topic that they also feel ill-equipped to respond to (Whisman et al., 1997).
Confidentiality
When you respond to an in-text activity or write in a text box in the course, the system records your answer but does not share this with anyone else. Only you can see your responses. You can download your free-text answers from the activity boxes using the menu item ‘Answers – download your answers for the documents on this course’. This menu item appears after you have saved your first text box response and refreshed the screen.
For quizzes and questionnaires set up in the course, the system records your responses to questions and your grade, this information is available to you and the course managers but is not visible to anyone else.
If you would prefer not to use the text boxes to write your thoughts or reflections, you can still do this by writing these in a notebook. The purpose of the activities is to check your understanding of the learning, they are not part of the completion criteria for the course.
Completing the course
Completing the course is straightforward! You have to:
- read all of the pages of the course
- score 70% or more in the end-of-course quiz
- complete the evaluation at the end of the course
For each quiz question, you can have more than one attempt (except true or false type questions where you usually only get one attempt). If you’re not successful in getting 70% in the end-of-course quiz the first time, after 24 hours you can attempt it again and come back as many times as you like.
Passing the quiz entitles you to a digital badge and statement of participation.
Badges are a means of digitally recognising certain skills and achievements acquired through informal study. They are a useful means of demonstrating participation and recognising informal learning.
The statement of participation will allow you to evidence this piece of continuing professional development to others, eg, employers or professional bodies.
Next continue to Session 1 Reflecting on the meaning of affairs.