Rebuilding Trust: Guided Therapy Techniques and Activities to Restore Love, Trust, and Intimacy in Your Relationship

by Morgan Johnson, Gina Senarighi (Foreword)

Repair, heal, and restore your relationship with evidence-based therapy skills, techniques, and activities from a respected trust-recovery specialist.

Of all the ways relationships fall apart, betrayal can rock us to the core. And yet, for couples or partners who want to stay together and do the work, healing is possible. The old relationships that no longer serve us can be dismantled and reassembled into deeper, stronger, more satisfying bonds than we ever imagined.

Rebuilding Trust

• A guided approach to healing after betrayal whether from sexual infidelity and emotional affairs or hidden addictions and patterns of disrespect
• Step-by-step exercises and skill-building activities to help partners work together as they restore trust in themselves and each other
• Trusted therapy-based strategies and techniques from Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), Imago Relationship Therapy, and other evidence-based approaches
• Journaling prompts, conversation starters, and sample scripts to facilitate emotional processing and relational healing
• An inclusive, nonjudgmental view of relationship dynamics , making this book appropriate for couples and relationships of all types

Genres: Psychology, Self Help, Marriage, Relationships

208 pages, Paperback

Published October 11, 2022

Reviews

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, Zietgeist, for the advance reading copy.

This guidebook for relationships provide some of the updated techniques for guided therapy and activities to regain trust and intimacy.

I feel we need this book in our digitally connected yet realistically disconnected world, especially for our relationships to work when it has gained that level in the relationship where we feel we have known the other person enough and it has reached a certain point we feel there's no more exciting things with them.

There's some important parts focusing on healing after betrayal, activities to do together, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy and some other such trusted therapy techniques, journaling prompts and conversation skills to take up, and a deep dive discussion on relationship dynamics.

There's no way to say all these techniques will work out for every couple. However, I feel there's no harm in knowing and trying out the techniques. There's no harm in trying to save a relationship. Better than living with regrets in the end.

[Spades DeLuca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like this book could be very beneficial to those dealing with betrayal trauma... But don't let this be your one and only resource.

This book does give you a sort of handhold to walk this very painful path, but it also makes you sort of face up to the truths of the matter. I feel like it had some slight gaslighting/victim-blaming, but it was more a societal thing and was definitely NOT intentional. That was a relief as I would hate to have felt like Morgan was intentionally shaming someone for having their trust broken.
The journal prompts, exercises, and other strategies are absolutely wonderful. I seriously suggest everyone implementing those into their routine, whether they are working to rebuild trust that was broken or just setting up a better foundation for their future.

I would definitely recommend getting this book as well as 2 others that I feel would work hand in hand to create a lasting impact. Additional resources would be "Transcending PISD" by Dennis Ortman and "Intimate Deception" by Sheri Keffer. With these 3 books in hand, I feel like actual recovery might truly be possible for once.

[MookNana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an incredibly helpful practical resource. There are so many books of relationship advice, both to grow and repair relationships, but this is one of the few that actually tells you what to DO instead of just introducing concepts to ponder. There are dozens of exercises and thought activities for couples to do, together and apart, to help rebuild their relationship after a betrayal. Tools and techniques from many evidence-based therapies are included and there is special focus on how to manage biological/mental processes like stress response, trauma triggering, etc.

The author is very carefully non-judgmental, both about the actual betrayal (termed as a Relationship Norm Violation (RNV) to be more inclusive to other issues like financial infidelity, abandonment, etc.) and the partners grappling with it. This is written for people who have already decided they at least want to try to salvage their relationship, so discernment really isn't a goal. There is a lot to learn here and I am absolutely convinced that couples who work through this with sincere effort will build a much stronger, healthier relationship.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

[Michael Silverman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a combination of advice primarily developed over the last 5 decades by significant clinician-researchers (e.g., Gottsman & Gottsman, Johnson, Doherty), and from this standpoint, her wisdom is solid. Other components of the book appear at times to be self-developed, modifications of others' work, and anecdotal as opposed to empirically verified - which, for me, is always a red flag when it comes to patient work. However, determining which is which depends on your formal understanding of the literature. Notably, while direct referencing within the text is not provided, the index in the back of the book is excellent.

The author has considerable knowledge of the field, and writing a prescriptive book like this is not easy - I know, I tried.

This is an excellent primer on the rebuilding trust component of recovery after an affair. However, research would suggest there are steps couples must take that precede this. If you're picking up a book like this, you will likely need personal and professional assistance to go along with it.

[Renata · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is well structured with many instructions with questions for conversations and journaling exercises. I wished some simulated examples from partners in real life.

Thanks🙏 #netgaley and #morganjohnson