Three Years in…

What are we doing, and why are we doing it?

This week, we are celebrating three years since the launch of our premier online coaching program for betrayed partners, Braving Hope®: Become the Hero of Your Betrayal Story.

To learn more about the lives we have transformed and the courageous journey our clients have taken, check out the video below!

On this three-year anniversary, I want to take a moment to share with you the mission and vision that gets my team and me out of bed each morning energized and ready to serve.

To guide our purpose, we created what is called a BHAG – a BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL that we look at together each month and measure our progress toward. Here is our BHAG:

To change the way the treatment field and the culture understands and treats partner betrayal by launching a best-selling book, introducing a new treatment model, training 500 therapists and coaches and treating 800 individuals and couples recovering from betrayal by end of 2025.

They say that if your goal doesn’t make you equal parts scared and exhilarated it is not big enough! This goal does both and it also carries within it the strategy that we are using to create change.

We are purposefully touching the issue of partner betrayal every place we can – at the cultural level, the individual level, the couple level and the treatment provider level – all to accomplish the goal of transforming the way partner betrayal is understood and addressed as powerfully as possible.

Here is what that looks like:

• The Attachment-Focused Partner Betrayal Model™ has introduced a new attachment-based model for the treatment of partner betrayal.
• The Authentic Hope Blog, the Michelle Mays YouTube channel and our Hope After Betrayal Facebook group all provide free resources to betrayed partners around the world introducing them to this new model and way of thinking.
• The Braving Hope® Coaching Program brings this model directly to betrayed partners and transforms their understanding of betrayal trauma while building the skills, tools and beliefs needed to effectively heal.
• Our Braving Together Couples Mastermind bring this model directly to couples impacted by betrayal who are past the initial stages of recovery and need support moving into flourishing together.
• My new book The Betrayal Bind: How to Heal When the Person You Love the Most Hurts You the Worst introduces the model and treatment pathway to the wider culture and provides easy access to the latest thinking around the impacts of infidelity.
• In the next few months, we are launching the APB Model Training and Certification program for therapists and coaches to train providers in this new model and approach to healing.

This is the mission that animates my team and me each day as we work to serve each of you!

For me, this all started with my own story of betrayal many years ago. What became abundantly clear to me as I struggled to find support to heal was that the health professions did not understand the experience of adult sexual betrayal. In addition, they did not know how to effectively support and treat individuals experiencing complex partner betrayal trauma.

This experience lit a fire under me. As I moved into my career as a Licensed Professional Counselor, I focused on understanding relationships impacted by sexual betrayal and conceptualizing the experience in ways that open new pathways to treating and healing partner betrayal.

Fast forward to today and the incredible evolution that has happened in the treatment field is truly astounding. Betrayed partners now have many different programs, books, podcasts, and resources to turn to for support. There is more understanding about the experience of partner betrayal than ever before. And things are continuing to evolve and grow!

My team and I are at the leading edge of this transformation, and we are being as intentional as we can about how we help to advance the body of work and understanding around complex partner betrayal trauma.

While I am the face and voice of PartnerHope, there is NO WAY that any of this could happen without a team of people who are equally committed to our mission and vision and who work tirelessly to serve our clients in every way they can. Bruce Butler, Angela Cook, Melissa Howard, Shelby Deem, Kristen Smith, Tonia Manning, and Aaron Tempel all play vital roles in accomplishing our mission and I am grateful for each of them and their commitment.

I hope this gives you a snapshot into what we are doing and why we are so excited about doing it. I look forward to another exhilarating three years of growth, change and healing!