With a focus to helping couples fix and improve their relationships, marriage counsellors are often involved in identifying and helping couples overcome such challenges as the affairs offered by Ashley Madison. To hear that the site was hacked gives everyone cause for pause. There is no shortage to the fallout.
Foreign spy agencies are having a field day storing the data for future espionage and black mail, an anonymous group of members have banded together to sue Avid Life for failing in the one all important area of ensuring their privacy, scammers and extortionists are putting the data to good use to make a quick buck right now and sadly a few people have committed suicide: most recently a pastor in the US.
What are the great majority of Ashley Madison members doing:
- Feigning innocence?
- Blaming their wayward friends for signing them up?
- Buying flowers and apologizing profusely?
Your guess is as good as mine, but it may be safe to say that most people are handling these matters privately, as indeed would be most wise.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, it’s time to apologize, regain trust and improve the relationship to better than it was before the affair. A qualified marriage counsellor can help. Only humans have affairs and for anyone exposed it’s important to:
- Confront the situation as a private matter
- Don’t get stuck in a blame or shame or judgment game
- Don’t jump off a bridge
- Get the right help to heal from the betrayal and
- Improve the relationship you are in
If anything, the hacking of Ashley Madison will provide it’s 32million members an opportunity. Confront what has not been working and build the relationship with your spouse you have always wanted or let go graciously.