About Trust and Infidelity
Infidelity and Trust Repair Counseling in Santa Monica & Los Angeles
Discovering infidelity or any significant betrayal of trust is one of the most devastating experiences a relationship can face. The pain is real, the confusion is profound, and the question of whether the relationship can survive feels impossible to answer in the immediate aftermath.
Dr. Sally Hackman, PhD, MFT, offers compassionate, expert couples counseling for infidelity and trust repair in Santa Monica and Los Angeles. She has helped many couples navigate this devastating experience some choosing to rebuild the relationship, others choosing to part with more understanding and less ongoing pain.
How Infidelity and Trust Repair Therapy Works
Recovering from infidelity happens in stages, and rushing the process rarely works. Dr. Hackman’s approach typically moves through:
1. Stabilization: creating enough safety for both partners to talk about what happened without the conversation spiraling into further harm.
2. Understanding: exploring what led to the betrayal, including patterns in the relationship (and sometimes in each partner’s history) that made the relationship vulnerable.
3. Processing the impact: giving the betrayed partner space to be heard, and helping the partner who broke trust take real accountability without defensiveness.
4. Rebuilding or deciding: for couples who choose to stay together, building new patterns of transparency and connection. For couples who don’t, working toward an ending with less residual damage and more clarity.
Some couples know from the start they want to rebuild. Others aren’t sure and that uncertainty is welcome here. This work sometimes includes discernment counseling: short-term sessions focused specifically on helping a couple decide whether to work on the relationship or separate, before committing to longer-term therapy.
Key Points
A Path Through One of the Hardest Challenges.
Empowering Resilience
Whether you choose to rebuild or separate, therapy helps both partners understand what happened in the relationship and in each of themselves so that you can move forward with clarity rather than unresolved pain.
Healing Space
A safe, neutral space where both partners the one who was betrayed and the one who betrayed are held with compassion and honesty.
Transformative Support
Dr. Hackman helps couples explore the conditions that led to the breach, the impact it has had, and the work required to rebuild or to end the relationship with as much integrity and mutual respect as possible.
OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU
Your Relationship Matters.
Recovery from infidelity is possible but it requires honesty, commitment, and skilled guidance. Dr. Hackman brings both the clinical expertise and the human warmth needed to hold this difficult work.
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Years of Couples Work
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Serving Santa Monica Continuously
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Confidential — Always
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First Session Free If You Don't Return
FAQ
Common Questions
Yes — many couples not only survive infidelity but build a stronger relationship on the other side. It requires honesty, sustained commitment, and skilled therapeutic support. It is not easy, but it is possible.
No. Many couples come to therapy precisely because they don't know yet. Dr. Hackman creates space for that uncertainty and helps both partners explore what they feel and need before making life-altering decisions.
It depends on the situation. Some couples benefit from starting together; others need individual sessions first to stabilize before joint work begins. Dr. Hackman will help you figure out the right starting point.
Individual therapy can still be valuable, whether you're processing the betrayal on your own, deciding what you want, or hoping your partner will eventually join.
There's no fixed timeline it depends on the couple, the nature of the betrayal, and both partners' willingness to do the work. Many couples see meaningful progress over the course of several months of consistent work.