Joseph W. James, Ph.D.
Psychologist
4400 East-West Highway
Suite 712
Bethesda, MD 20814
301.657.1144
Day, Evening and Weekend Appointments

Maryland Affair Recovery Center
Maryland Affair Recovery
email me
For many of us relationships serve as the very foundation of our lives. You build your home, your daily routine, your parenting and your very identity around your relationship. Relationships, even unhappy ones, give your life a sense of predictability and meaning.

Marital affairs rob you of that sense of certainty. All of a sudden, all that seemed true is thrown into question.

Does s/he really love me? 

How could s/he have betrayed my trust?

Did I really marry the person I thought I did?

Am I attractive enough?

Am I good in bed?

Is there something wrong with me?

Is there something wrong with him/her?

Should I leave? Should I kick him/her out?

Oh my god, what are we going to do about the kids?

I love you so much, how could you do this?

Are you going to leave me? I love you, you’re my whole life.

I hate you, get out now! 


And the emotions of the partner who had the marital affair are oftentimes just as confusing or conflicted.  Their feelings may lurch from guilt and fear to impatience with never knowing what type of mood their partner is going to be in to tremendous sadness to resentment and anger over constant questioning to wanting to run away with the marital affair partner to escape.


The Secret to Staying Together After a Marital Affair

The good news is that your feelings about the marital affair won’t last forever (hard as that might be to believe right now). The rollercoaster of emotions that both of you are on is just your minds way of trying to make sense of something so shocking.

In fact, the majority of couples who experience a marital affair remain together. The strongest predictor of success is what you say and how and when you say it. Research has shown that if you talk about the affair in the right way you are roughly 60% more likely to stay together than if you don’t talk or talk very little. 

I’ve spent 15 plus years studying and developing a systematic approach to help you recover from a marital affair in the right way. My program can help you to avoid all the pitfalls that have led others to divorce or stay in an unhappy marriage.



My marital affair recovery program can be broken down into 3 stages:

1)  Getting through the immediate shock and trauma of
the affair in ways that provide a foundation for healing

2)  Working together to understand the marital affair: what it was about,
what caused it and what you need to do to begin to rebuild your marriage.

3)  Rebuilding your marriage



Why Such a Strong Emphasis on Rebuilding the Marriage?

My immediate goal is to help you to recover from the affair, but the ultimate goal of my system is to help you recover your marriage.

Research has shown that the number one reason both men and women report themselves to have affairs is because of a loss of intimacy or connection in their marriage.  Despite everything you may have heard, most people don’t have affairs for sex but to regain that sense of closeness or connection with someone. 

You might be able to get over the shock of the affair, but unless you relearn how to trust and become intimate with each other you most likely will end up with a shell of a relationship, sharing the same roof but not the same lives.

Because of this, I have developed a step by step process based on scientific research and my 15 plus years of experience of working with couples in distress that will provide you with some very simple tools to help you to have the relationship you have always dreamed of.


My Marital Affair Recovery Program can help you:

Stop the roller coaster of emotions that occur when a marital affair is uncovered

Talk through the details of the affair without destroying your relationship

Stop the power struggle

Learn to communicate in ways you never have before

Discover what is missing in your relationship and how to get it

Learn to forgive

Restore trust

Restore love and connection in your marriage



Take some time and look around my site. It will help you to understand how my marital affair recovery program works, learn about the different types of affairs, recognize the signs that a partner may be having an affair and much more.

Please feel free to contact me at 301.657.1144 to schedule an appointment or to find out more about my practice.




Can Your Relationship Survive a Marital Affair?
Affair Recovery Articles