Violations of agreed and implicit sexual and emotional boundaries in couple relationships – some thoughts arising from Levine's ‘A clinical perspective on couple infidelity’

Disclosures by patients related to infidelity produce a variety of reactions in clinicians, and can also lead to ethical and other clinical dilemmas. These need to be appropriately managed in order to offer effective help to couples or individuals in such situations. Having an understanding of the diversity and complexity of current couple relationship arrangements can help the clinician to manage these reactions and think clearly through any clinical dilemmas. It is also necessary to have a clear theoretical basis for understanding infidelity and making therapeutic interventions around this issue.