Question
I’ve been married for six months now. My girlfriend (now wife) checked on my phone a couple of times when we were dating and saw conversations between me and some other ladies I was talking to behind her back. She didn’t like what she saw.
There were also a couple of times this happened after we were married.
Since then, she’s not trusted me and keeps checking my phone. She’s not comfortable with my female contacts at all. Even when I’m on phone doing something else, she gets suspicious. This has greatly affected our marriage. Please share any suggestions.
Answer
The first thing you can do to help you wife heal is to stop having inappropriate and personal conversations with other women behind her back. If you continue to have these conversations, you are acting like a single guy and aren’t really interested in a committed relationship. Are you ready to turn fully and completely to your wife so you can build a secure marriage with her?
If you want to do the difficult work of restoring trust with your wife, then you need to make sure you have ended every other relationship so these don’t become the place you run when things get difficult with your marriage.
Rebuilding trust can be a lonely experience for you as you wait for your wife to feel safe with you again. You will need to be prepared for times of uncertainty while you wait for her to put her life back in your hands. If you are keeping the line open to willing and available female friends who will take your side, soothe your pain, and comfort you, then you will never repair the broken bond between you and your wife.
Do not call your inappropriate female contacts and have one final conversation so you can have some closure. If you do that, you’re caring more about their comfort than you do about your wife’s comfort and safety. Take their numbers out of your phone and cut off all contact. This will show your wife how serious you are about turning to her and rebuilding trust.
The next thing you need to do is give your wife permission to be untrusting and suspicious. You have lied to her, hidden information from her, and deceived her. She has every right to not believe you.
If you become defensive and expect her to trust you just because you said you are trustworthy isn’t only unfair, it’s cruel. Your defensiveness will make her feel crazy because there is a part of her that wants to trust you, but there is another part of her that can’t trust you.
You can give her permission by saying things like, “you have every right to be worried about whom I’m talking to.” You can also give her all passwords to your phone, email accounts, and any other devices you’ve used to deceive her. Do everything you can to reassure her that you will be as transparent as possible so she doesn’t have to worry about your faithfulness. Trust is earned; it’s not something you’re entitled to just because you’re married.
Do everything you can to help her feel secure. Go out of your way to let her know where you’ll be, when you’ll return, and who you talk to during the day. This may seem controlling on her part, but you have to understand why she’s acting this way.
You controlled her reality by keeping her in the dark. Now, she’s trying to figure out what’s really true. Do everything you can to let her see your reality. This sets up conditions where she’s better able to heal and begin trusting again.
Any form of defensiveness or hiding on your part will derail the delicate trust-building process.
Stay connected!
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Geoff Steurer is a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice in St. George, Utah. He specializes in working with couples in all stages of their relationships. The opinions stated in this article are solely his and not those of St. George News.
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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.
where does ol’ Geoff get these questions??? Anyway, this dude is cheatin’ on his wife. I can tell
Ha ha ha ha ha LOL what an idiot pssssssst…….. Delete
Stop cheating on your wife dude. Just stop. If she were me, i would have dumped you as soon as i found out you were cheating. IF i had given you another chance you’d be old news if you did it again. There is only two reasons she is still with you 1.) She loves you or 2.) She’s desperate. I suggest you stop cheating and hope its more the former than the latter becauase otherwise it wont last. Turn over your phone and honor her or get a divorce her so she can look for someone who will. 🙂
What would make you think he would marry you in the first place…… Ha ha ha ha ha ha LOL..!
I still wonder if Geoff had to watch a whole lot of porn to become a specialist in porn addiction…
Makes me laugh when he turns it on her as if she has a problem “how can I help her…” Get divorced buddy…help her by divorcing her, you’re a cheater and I’m with funbag on this.. you’re still cheati’n on her!
What part of “Forsaking all others” do you not get dude?? You’re acting like SHE’S the one with the problem for not trusting you, even though you openly admitted to having inappropriate conversations with other women. Let me ask you a question, would you be comfortable with your wife having male contacts, after catching her having inappropriate conversations with said men? Put yourself in her shoes. You’re the one with the problem, not her.
My wife has full, unfiltered, unconditional access to my phone, my email, my ipad, my facebook password, etc. And I her’s. Do we snoop around each others’ phones, no, because neither one of us is dumb enough to go behind each others’ backs and talk to people of the opposite sex that one of us may not be comfortable with. It’s not my phone, or her phone, it’s OUR phones. It’s OUR ipad.
You should NEVER talk with a friend of the opposite sex that your spouse is uncomfortable with. Dude get a grip. You’re not fit to be married.
why r u commentin on old news? …