How to Rebuild Trust in a Relationship: 20 Tips from Therapists

What Breaks Trust In a Relationship?

Most people view trust as the key factor in a healthy relationship. It’s required for vulnerability, building connections, and maintaining a sense of safety. Healthy relationships are built on integrity, or doing what you say you will do. When this is not honored, the safety, confidence, and support of a secure relationship is destroyed, and trust is broken, at least temporarily.

Trust issues in a relationship can be caused by the following:

• Not following through on a promise
• Not taking responsibility for inexcusable behavior
• Withholding love and/or affection
• Lack of physical intimacy
• Being emotionally unavailable
• Addictive behaviors (i.e., drugs, alcohol, pornography, gambling)¹
• Infidelity (both sexual and nonsexual emotional affairs)
• Being directly criticized or your partner speaking harshly about you behind your back
• Hitting an emotional “raw spot”²

Signs of Lack of Trust In a Relationship

Recognizing the signs of a lack of trust in a relationship is crucial for addressing and resolving issues before they become deeply entrenched. A lack of trust is more than just cheating or lying, it can involve controlling behaviors, hiding things, or withdrawing emotionally or physically from your partner.

Megan Harrison, LMFT shares several signs of a lack of trust in a relationship:¹¹

• They constantly check up on you or try to control your behavior: This can be a sign that they don’t trust you and are worried that you’ll do something to hurt them. Lack of trust can be damaging to a relationship as it can lead to jealousy, insecurity, and resentment. If you’re not able to trust your partner, it may be time to reconsider the relationship.
• They accuse you of being unfaithful or hiding things from them: This can be a sign that they don’t trust you to be honest with them, or that they don’t feel confident in your relationship. Either way, it’s important to try to address the issue if you want to maintain a healthy and trusting relationship.
• They withdraw from you emotionally or physically: They may suddenly stop confiding in you about their thoughts and feelings, or they may start spending more time alone. This can be difficult to deal with because it can feel like they are shutting you out. If your partner is withdrawing from you, it’s important to try to talk to them about what’s going on. It could be that they’re feeling overwhelmed and need some space, or there could be something else going on that they’re not ready to talk about yet.
• They refuse to communicate openly and honestly with you: If your partner refuses to communicate openly and honestly with you, it’s a major red flag that they don’t trust you. This lack of communication can lead to all sorts of problems in the relationship, from jealousy and possessiveness to outright cheating.
• They are always suspicious of your motives and actions: This can be incredibly frustrating and make it feel like you’re constantly walking on eggshells. If you’re not sure why your partner doesn’t trust you, it’s important to have an open and honest conversation about it. It could be that they have been hurt in the past and are struggling to let go of that pain. Or, there may be something specific that you’ve done that has made them lose faith in you.

20 Ways to Rebuild Trust In a Relationship

The good news is that even after a devastating betrayal like cheating, trust can be rebuilt.⁵ Not only that, betrayal is often the catalyst for reviving a relationship that was in serious trouble long before the betrayal occurred. Healing is a journey, but when two people are deeply committed to understanding, making amends, and recommitting, magic can happen.

Here are 20 ways to rebuild trust in a relationship:

1. Make a Commitment

Both partners need to feel the relationship is worth fighting for and commit 100% to doing the work involved in healing after a betrayal.

2. Both Partners Take Responsibility

Commitment from the betrayer means proving to your partner that you are truly sorry and willing to work on earning back trust, no matter what it takes. Commitment from the betrayed involves active listening to the betrayer as well as exploring any of their own behaviors that may have contributed to distress in the relationship prior to the betrayal.⁵

3. Refine Your Communication Style

Asking your wife, husband, partner, girlfriend, or boyfriend open-ended questions is a great way to increase emotional closeness and rebuild trust. It fosters intimate dialogue since these questions can’t be answered with a simple “Yes” or “No.” How you choose to communicate grievances is what matters. Learning how to self-soothe can allow both the speaker and the listener to withstand the tension to process the betrayal.

4. Accept Repair Attempts

When working towards repairing trust within the relationship, it is important to keep an open mind to the attempts being made. Being open to the partner’s attempts can look like acknowledging their genuine efforts in a positive way and expressing appreciation for their commitment to change.  Giving them the opportunity to make these attempts allows them to show that their actions align with their words, gradually building back the trust.

5. Set a Time to Talk About the Betrayal

It’s important to set a daily time (15-20 minutes) to talk about the betrayal; otherwise, it may be a 24/7 discussion. This allows each partner to prepare for a productive discussion as well as gain control of any emotions that may arise unexpectedly. Evaluate progress weekly to know when to decrease the frequency of the meetings.

6. Set Time for a Non-Negotiable Weekly Marriage Meeting

A weekly marriage meeting is a great ritual to strengthen a partnership. This is a dedicated time to be honest and communicate about key issues in the relationship. Good topics to discuss include appreciation, things that did/did not go well over the course of the week (in a non-critical and non-defensive way), chores, finances, external commitments, date nights, etc.

7. Redefine New Marriage Rules

Having self-imposed rules can help the betrayed partner to feel a sense of control while rebuilding trust. Self-imposed rules are freeing since they are non-negotiable and developed together. These can involve setting healthy relationship boundaries and daily check-ins to limit problems from escalating.

8. Create a Culture of Appreciation

Couples who find ways to express appreciation for each other often have a greater chance at repairing broken trust. This is about sharing a “we-ness” or togetherness verses a separateness.⁸

Glorifying the struggle means expressing pride that you’ve survived major hardships in your relationship. Actively talking about your commitment to one another vs. questioning whether you made the right choice is instrumental in rebuilding trust.⁸

9. Stop All Contact With the Affair Partner

If there is still contact with the affair partner, recovery will be greatly delayed. This means ending all physical, emotional, and verbal intimacy. If the affair partner is a co-worker, the contact must be strictly business.⁴

10. Share Any Necessary or Unplanned Encounters With the Affair Partner

Create an environment of full transparency if unavoidable contact with the affair partner has to be made. This comes along with a willingness to openly answer any questions your partner may have.

11. Don’t Gossip About or Trash Talk Your Partner to Others

Gossiping and trash talking create an added layer of stress, especially when the goal is to work on your relationship. It can be tempting to vent or want to vent, but it boils down to knowing that what you focus on expands, so choose who you talk to and how you talk about your partner wisely.

12. Tell the True Story of the Betrayal

Telling the story of the affair isn’t easy for either partner, but it will give you and your partner an opportunity to understand what happened and why. It’s important that the injured partner doesn’t engage in a destructive process of interrogation and defensiveness, which never promotes healing, even if the answers are truthful. Instead, begin with addressing the simple facts.⁷

13. Create an Environment of Proactive Transparency

Our emotions can get in the way of telling the truth and hearing the truth. Transparency keeps everything out in the open to facilitate trust and stop overthinking in the relationship. Proactive transparency involves making the additional effort to highlight important things about the betrayal without waiting to be probed or asked. This builds trust and displays a readiness to be held accountable.⁸

14. Understand the Power of Vulnerability

In being vulnerable, you can create a level of emotional safety with your partner. It’s the primary way to strengthen a marital bond and keep love alive. It’s how you’ll be able to re-establish a secure emotional attachment and preserve intimacy in your marriage. This goes hand-in-hand with proactive transparency.

15. Evaluate Your Questions

In order to ask constructive questions, the betrayed partner needs to pause and consider. Good questions involve considering how your question will help to understand what happened and why it happened. The goal is to ask thoughtful questions that prompt constructive responses.⁹

Potential questions to ask yourself before asking your partner:

• Is the answer something I really need to know?
• Is the answer something that will help in my recovery?
• Is this question something that won’t be helpful?
• Will it fuel intrusive thoughts and triggers?

16. Evaluate Your Answers

The betrayer needs to answer any questions truthfully, but also with the lowest level of detail possible. The goal is to avoid any disturbing images the betrayed may have to deal with later on. Cheating has been associated with symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and betrayal trauma, so too many graphic details may put a burden on the healing process.

17. Take Time to Forgive

It takes time to truly understand why a betrayal took place, so cutting the healing process short will not allow for effective recovery to take place. In other words, avoidance is never a strategy for healing, nor is forgiving too soon. Building a secure attachment to your partner means taking as much time as possible to fully process and work on better coping strategies to rebuild the relationship.¹⁰

18. Seek Professional Help

Often, a couple is so overwhelmed that they don’t know where to begin. This is where a couples counselor can be instrumental. They can guide both the betrayed and the betrayer to ask and answer questions in a way that facilitates recovery. They can guide couples with structure and a plan of action to slow down the process of healing to a constructive pace.

19. Create a Plan

Work together to develop a plan to prevent further breaches of trust. Be open to identifying areas that may have created mistrust (withholding financial information, not sharing information in your daily living, spending too much time outside of the relationship, etc). Plan to increase friendship, create rituals of connection, and build a new relationship together.

20. Release the Anger

Feeling lied to or misled within a relationship can bring up intense feelings of anger. Anger is normal and natural during these circumstances and lets us know that a  boundary is being pushed and needs reinforcement. It’s important to express this anger and channel it in safe and appropriate ways. For instance, having open communication about when you’re feeling the anger and needing to step away, even if it feels like it is out of nowhere. Get angry at a pillow, scream in the closet, tear up some old paper or cardboard, do some angry cleaning or organizing, whatever feels right for you! Letting it build up can lead to outbursts and doing or saying things that may not align with your character.

How to Know When Rebuilding Trust Is Possible

There are signs to look for that tell you whether it might be possible to rebuild trust after it’s been lost. For example, both parties must be willing to work on the relationship and the primary goal should be to rebuild a sense of safety.

Rebuilding trust in a relationship is possible, but only if:

• The injured person is given time to make an informed decision about how to rebuild trust and proceed in the relationship
• They make a conscious decision to forgive
• They’re able to work the emotional muscle to not get into a destructive process of interrogation and defensiveness3
• Simple questions about the betrayal are answered so a more destructive image isn’t created and the pressure to know more is relieved
• Both parties want to work on the relationship
• The primary goal is to rebuild safety in the relationship
• One partner shares all unavoidable encounters with an affair partner4

How Therapy Can Help Rebuild Trust After Betrayal

Couples counseling is most effective when both partners are open to exploring the struggles in the relationship, the role each played to create a disconnect, and new ways to resolve conflict. It provides a neutral third party with a special skill set to help couples make well-informed decisions about whether it’s best to move forward together or apart.

Marriage counseling can help after infidelity by helping a couple decide how to rebuild trust and move forward after infidelity.Online marriage therapy can provide convenient scheduling for couples looking for help rebuilding trust. Regain Counseling is an affordable couples therapy option for those without insurance, while Talkspace may be a great choice if you have insurance.

Discernment counseling, on the other hand, is best for couples who need some clarity in deciding whether or not they want to continue to work on the relationship or end the relationship.

How Much Does Marriage Counseling Cost?

The cost of couples counseling varies from state-to-state, but typically falls in the range from $125-$200 per session. The cost of marriage counseling will depend on several factors including location, therapist qualifications, length of sessions and type of therapy (in-person or telehealth).

How to Choose the Right Marriage Counselor

An online therapist directory can help you choose the right marriage counselor, where you can sort them by specialty, cost, availability, and more. There are also intro videos and articles written by the therapists you’re considering working with. When you’ve found a good match, book an online appointment.