What is trust in a relationship?
Trust means that you believe your partner will be honest, loyal, reliable, and responsible. You feel safe with them because you know they have your best interests at heart. Trust makes it easier to share secrets, solve problems together, compromise, make decisions, explore new things, and open up to each other. Without trust, there can be no love. Betrayals destroy trust and relationships.
How does sexual trust mediate recovery after relational betrayal?
After an affair or breach of trust, people might feel scared about being hurt again, angry, embarrassed, resentful, insecure, guilty, confused, ashamed, sad, anxious, depressed, etc. The most common reaction is to push your partner away emotionally or physically until forgiveness occurs. This is called "avoidance coping". Some people try to rebuild trust slowly, but some avoid sex completely for years due to fear and guilt.
Refusing sex leads to further feelings of isolation, frustration, disappointment, and resentment.
If both partners are willing to talk about their needs and fears openly, work through the issues, and establish boundaries, they may be able to overcome their past trauma. They might start by discussing what happened and why it was hurtful. Then they can set rules for future behavior, such as not lying or hiding anything from one another. If someone cheated before, they should apologize sincerely and commit to staying faithful now. If someone was hurt, they must learn to trust again and accept that they will always worry a bit.
They need to show each other affection, patience, respect, intimacy, sensuality, kindness, honesty, humor, and vulnerability.
Sexual healing involves touch, massage, breathwork, mindfulness, relaxation, exercise, communication, and self-care. It means accepting and embracing body language, nonverbal cues, touches, and looks between partners. It means sharing fantasies, emotions, desires, and thoughts during sex. It means being patient, gentle, caring, responsive, open, playful, passionate, tender, sensitive, adventurous, experimental, etc. It means asking questions like: What do you want? How do I make you feel? Are you happy with this? Is there something else we could try?
With time and effort, couples can rebuild sexual and relational trust. This requires both people's cooperation, support, love, compassion, and understanding. They must listen carefully, communicate clearly, resolve conflicts peacefully, share feelings honestly, and prioritize each other's needs above all else.
How does sexual trust mediate recovery after relational betrayal, infidelity, or trauma?
Trust is an essential component of any romantic relationship. It involves both partners having faith that they can rely on each other emotionally and physically. When one partner violates this trust, it can be devastating and cause significant pain and distress. Recovering from such betrayals or traumas requires time and effort but also depends on how strong the couple's commitment is to rebuilding their relationship.