The recent and long overdue admission by John Edwards to fathering a baby with mistress Rielle Hunter has certainly come at a high price, especially in light of his lack of integrity, honesty, and humility about his infidelity. While I do believe that we can repair many issues in our marriages (including affairs), this can only be accomplished if the culpable party is truly honest. The pain and damage Edwards has inflicted upon his older...

Let’s face it –Tiger is not just a husband who is in a challenged marriage, but he is a serial cheater. Dr. Michelle Golland: In my practice where I see couples dealing with infidelity, they fall into two categories. 1) An infidelity as a symptom of a marriage in distress. 2) Serial cheating, where the issues involve a marriage in distress and the serial cheater’s deeper emotional problems including sexual addiction and an...

I recently counseled a couple that had been stuck in anger and resentment. I had encouraged them to do something fun together. The wife rolled her eyes, and the husband turned away from her. They reluctantly agreed to do dance lessons. The next week they came into my office with the funniest story about the dance class and the other partners they had to dance with. We were all laughing so hard as they each described the funny events of the...

Some women sleep with married men because they most likely have been “mean girls” for a long time. These mean-girl man-stealers do not understand the bond of true sisterhood, and may have trouble with establishing or sustaining authentic female relationships because it is probably hard to find a nice girlfriend who would support their home-wrecking ways. Such a woman may not have ever gotten enough attention from her father, and...

I see many couples struggling with how to deal with money, what money means to each of them, and simply how to communicate about cash. The root issue around money can often be power: who holds the power, and who is getting what they want and need in the marriage and who is not. Money can also bring up issues of trust and fear. Money is emotional, and money has value beyond just the currency, but it also relates to our history and how our...

Tiger doesn’t have to be benched forever. He can come back into the game, and even back into a healthy marriage with Elin. Will it take work? Yes. Will it be painful? Yes. Will he have to face issues he never wanted to look at in himself or in his wife? Yes. If he rises to this challenge in his marriage, will his kids be better for it? Yes. Will he and Elin be better people and better partners for it? For sure! We are surprised, but we...