A trauma-responsive group for betrayed partners—offering clarity, connection, and evidence-based specialized DST Minwalla-Model care, coordinated with Chris Jones’ international “From Harm to Healing” groups.
Betrayed Partners Group
You Deserve a Healing Journey That’s Just for You
This isn’t just group therapy—it’s 16 weeks of specialized trauma treatment with a cohort of fellow survivors, and evidence-based tools you’ll use for life. When you join this group, you’re choosing:
- Your truth over confusion
- Your healing over codependency labels
- Your future over staying stuck in betrayal fog
Why Parallel support?
As your partner confronts the realities of deceptive sexuality in Chris Jones’ or other DSTT-based groups, your trauma, reality, and healing must be centered.
This group was designed so you can…
• Learn what happened to you (not what’s “wrong” with you)
• Stabilize and metabolize your truth at your own pace
• Stop feeling alone and invalidated
• Ask the hard questions about safety, justice, and what’s next
What is Deceptive Sexuality Trauma (DST)?
DST is a multi-layered psychological injury, recognized in Dr. Minwalla’s and Chris Jones’ models, caused by the long-term impact of secrets, compulsive behavior, integrity abuse, and coordinated deception in intimate relationships.
You may have experienced:
• Confusion, gaslighting, chronic anxiety (“Am I crazy?”)
• The “secret sexual basement” (hidden digital/sexual/relational life)
• Attachment injury, loss of self-trust, and relational isolation
• PTSD-like symptoms: triggers, nightmares, emotional shutdown
This group was designed so you can…
• Learn what happened to you (not what’s “wrong” with you)
• Stabilize and metabolize your truth at your own pace
• Stop feeling alone and invalidated
• Ask the hard questions about safety, justice, and what’s next
What is Deceptive Sexuality Trauma (DST)?
DST is a multi-layered psychological injury, recognized in Dr. Minwalla’s and Chris Jones’ models, caused by the long-term impact of secrets, compulsive behavior, integrity abuse, and coordinated deception in intimate relationships.
You may have experienced:
• Confusion, gaslighting, chronic anxiety (“Am I crazy?”)
• The “secret sexual basement” (hidden digital/sexual/relational life)
• Attachment injury, loss of self-trust, and relational isolation
• PTSD-like symptoms: triggers, nightmares, emotional shutdown
Stage 1 Group Details:
Our group provides validation, psychoeducation, and actionable tools for YOU—the injured partner.
• Duration: 16 weeks, cohort-based progression (with workbook and resources)
• Day: Thursdays
Time:
• 11:00 AM Pacific (PT) / 2:00 PM Eastern (ET)
• 7:00 PM UK (GMT) / 8:00 PM Spain (CET)
• Format: Secure, closed Zoom group; limited to 8 for safety and depth
• Start Date: February 5, 2026 (aligned with Stage 1 Betrayer/Chris Jones group launches)
• Facilitator: Michellene Burke, DSTT/Minwalla-trained, clinical trauma & partner support expert. As a seasoned facilitator and group leader, Michellene is trauma-informed, partner-sensitive, and has led Betrayed Partners Groups, Betrayers Groups, and a Couples Community for couples healing from betrayal trauma.
• Duration: 16 weeks, cohort-based progression (with workbook and resources)
• Day: Thursdays
Time:
• 11:00 AM Pacific (PT) / 2:00 PM Eastern (ET)
• 7:00 PM UK (GMT) / 8:00 PM Spain (CET)
• Format: Secure, closed Zoom group; limited to 8 for safety and depth
• Start Date: February 5, 2026 (aligned with Stage 1 Betrayer/Chris Jones group launches)
• Facilitator: Michellene Burke, DSTT/Minwalla-trained, clinical trauma & partner support expert. As a seasoned facilitator and group leader, Michellene is trauma-informed, partner-sensitive, and has led Betrayed Partners Groups, Betrayers Groups, and a Couples Community for couples healing from betrayal trauma.
Healing is not linear, and you don’t have to do it alone.
What You Get
• Weekly 90-min meetings: Trauma-informed structure, focused emotional safety, with grounding and closure every session
• Personal guidance & group psychoeducation: Metabolizing betrayal, discovery trauma, and relational justice
• Somatic regulation: Nervous system and body-based safety tools, processing trauma responses
• Written and creative exercises: Grieving, boundary setting, trauma mapping, understanding triggers
• Your timeline and choices: No pressure to reconcile, stay/leave, or meet “relationship goals”—this is about you
• Workbook: Take-home reflection, self-care planning, and a mapped archive of truth
• Resources: Glossary, FAQs, digital downloads, and referrals
• Personal guidance & group psychoeducation: Metabolizing betrayal, discovery trauma, and relational justice
• Somatic regulation: Nervous system and body-based safety tools, processing trauma responses
• Written and creative exercises: Grieving, boundary setting, trauma mapping, understanding triggers
• Your timeline and choices: No pressure to reconcile, stay/leave, or meet “relationship goals”—this is about you
• Workbook: Take-home reflection, self-care planning, and a mapped archive of truth
• Resources: Glossary, FAQs, digital downloads, and referrals
Common Partner Questions (“Is this for me?”)
• Do I have to stay with my partner, or work on the relationship?
No. Your healing does not depend on their participation, sobriety, or “success.” All relationship outcomes are honored.
• Does my betrayer partner need to join Chris Jones’ group at the same time? Ideal but not necessary. Parallel journeys can help, though all betrayed partners welcome.
• Is this a “codependency curriculum”? No. This program will NEVER suggest your trauma is caused by your own flaws or participation.
• I’ve tried therapy or couples work before—how is this different? This work is trauma-centered, not relationship or symptom-centered. Your reality, injuries, and AVT (abuse-victimization-trauma) are the focus—not fixing coupleship or managing “addiction" / being a co-addict in response to the betrayer.
• Is this confidential? 100%. Group norms require safety, privacy, and no outside sharing.
No. Your healing does not depend on their participation, sobriety, or “success.” All relationship outcomes are honored.
• Does my betrayer partner need to join Chris Jones’ group at the same time? Ideal but not necessary. Parallel journeys can help, though all betrayed partners welcome.
• Is this a “codependency curriculum”? No. This program will NEVER suggest your trauma is caused by your own flaws or participation.
• I’ve tried therapy or couples work before—how is this different? This work is trauma-centered, not relationship or symptom-centered. Your reality, injuries, and AVT (abuse-victimization-trauma) are the focus—not fixing coupleship or managing “addiction" / being a co-addict in response to the betrayer.
• Is this confidential? 100%. Group norms require safety, privacy, and no outside sharing.
The Structure & Flow
• Weeks 1-2: Naming the Elephant
Discovering your “hospital rooms”—an exercise in naming each injury, loss, and truth.
• Weeks 3-6: Stabilization & The Body
Skills for your nervous system and emotional grounding. Working through hypervigilance and shame.
• Weeks 7-10: Timeline Work
Discovery trauma timelines, reality-ego fragmentation, mourning lost years, owning your narrative.
• Weeks 11-12: Metabolizing Grief & Injustice
Slow anger, meaning-making, understanding social/contextual blame
• Weeks 13-14: Assertion & Boundaries
What do you want? Safety planning, value mapping, real transparent shared reality.
• Weeks 15-16: Integration & Vision
Clarity about your next steps, grieving, processing, growing, and healing
16 weeks, cohort-based progression (with workbook & resources)
Discovering your “hospital rooms”—an exercise in naming each injury, loss, and truth.
• Weeks 3-6: Stabilization & The Body
Skills for your nervous system and emotional grounding. Working through hypervigilance and shame.
• Weeks 7-10: Timeline Work
Discovery trauma timelines, reality-ego fragmentation, mourning lost years, owning your narrative.
• Weeks 11-12: Metabolizing Grief & Injustice
Slow anger, meaning-making, understanding social/contextual blame
• Weeks 13-14: Assertion & Boundaries
What do you want? Safety planning, value mapping, real transparent shared reality.
• Weeks 15-16: Integration & Vision
Clarity about your next steps, grieving, processing, growing, and healing
16 weeks, cohort-based progression (with workbook & resources)
Clarity, strategy, and healing
The journey you didn't choose
You never imagined you’d be here—facing the reality of a secret sexual basement, discovery trauma timelines, or reality-ego fragmentation. But here you are. Breathing. Surviving. And ready to do more than just cope. This isn’t couples therapy. This isn’t codependency work. This is trauma treatment—specialized, evidence-based, and designed specifically for partners of those in recovery from deceptive sexuality.
What This Group Is NOT
❌ Couples therapy
❌ Codependency treatment
❌ “It takes two to tango” blame
❌ Premature forgiveness or reconciliation pressure
❌ Generic betrayal support without DST-specific education
What This Group IS
✅ Partner-sensitive, trauma-informed, abuse-acknowledging care
✅ Grounded in the Minwalla DSTT Model
✅ Led by a fully DSTT-trained professional (Michellene Burke)
✅ A space to name, witness, and metabolize your AVT-existing reality
✅ Evidence-based somatic, cognitive, and relational interventions
✅ Coordinated with Chris Jones’ betrayer groups for systemic alignment
What This Group Is NOT
❌ Couples therapy
❌ Codependency treatment
❌ “It takes two to tango” blame
❌ Premature forgiveness or reconciliation pressure
❌ Generic betrayal support without DST-specific education
What This Group IS
✅ Partner-sensitive, trauma-informed, abuse-acknowledging care
✅ Grounded in the Minwalla DSTT Model
✅ Led by a fully DSTT-trained professional (Michellene Burke)
✅ A space to name, witness, and metabolize your AVT-existing reality
✅ Evidence-based somatic, cognitive, and relational interventions
✅ Coordinated with Chris Jones’ betrayer groups for systemic alignment
Get Started: Clarity Call - Let’s talk. This is a safe, confidential space to share your story, ask questions, and see if this group feels right for where you are now.
To join the 16-Week Group -
Option 1: Pay in Full - $1,190 USD (one simple payment and your spot is secured)
Option 2: Spread It Out $330 every 4 weeks (4 payments = $1,320 USD). Payments at weeks 1, 5, 9, and 13.
Why It Matters
This group isn’t therapy-as-usual. It’s 16 weeks of being seen, held, and guided through the hardest thing you’ve ever faced—by someone who knows this work deeply and a group of partners walking the same path.
You’re choosing:
Your shared reality over gaslighting
Your healing over being told to “get over it”
Your worth over settling for crumbs and confusion
To join the 16-Week Group -
Option 1: Pay in Full - $1,190 USD (one simple payment and your spot is secured)
Option 2: Spread It Out $330 every 4 weeks (4 payments = $1,320 USD). Payments at weeks 1, 5, 9, and 13.
Why It Matters
This group isn’t therapy-as-usual. It’s 16 weeks of being seen, held, and guided through the hardest thing you’ve ever faced—by someone who knows this work deeply and a group of partners walking the same path.
You’re choosing:
Your shared reality over gaslighting
Your healing over being told to “get over it”
Your worth over settling for crumbs and confusion
How to Get Started:
Next steps & the investment
Grief That No One Sees
Your grief is multilayered:
Mourning the loss of your old life
the illusions of safety, honesty, and love you once believed in.
Grieving lost potential futures
the life and family you once imagined but now seem impossible.
Feeling the loss of community
friends and family who may drift away, unable to understand your changed reality.
Mourning the loss of identity
the person you thought you were, fractured beneath the weight of betrayal.
This ambiguous, layered grief can feel relentless and incomprehensible, resisting closure because the betrayal remains ongoing or obscured. It deserves compassion, recognition, and sacred space for healing.
Mourning the loss of your old life
the illusions of safety, honesty, and love you once believed in.
Grieving lost potential futures
the life and family you once imagined but now seem impossible.
Feeling the loss of community
friends and family who may drift away, unable to understand your changed reality.
Mourning the loss of identity
the person you thought you were, fractured beneath the weight of betrayal.
This ambiguous, layered grief can feel relentless and incomprehensible, resisting closure because the betrayal remains ongoing or obscured. It deserves compassion, recognition, and sacred space for healing.
Why Trust This Process?
Unlike generic support, our group is shaped by best practices from Chris Jones, Dr. Minwalla, and APSATS, and also refined by the lived experience of hundreds of survivors. We reject victim-blaming, codependency labels, and “forgive and move on” pressure.
You get trauma-informed, partner-sensitive, and globally aware clinical facilitation—plus a group that “gets it.”
Join an international cohort of courageous partners walking the same path—across time zones, across outcomes, and unified in seeking truth and restoration.
You get trauma-informed, partner-sensitive, and globally aware clinical facilitation—plus a group that “gets it.”
Join an international cohort of courageous partners walking the same path—across time zones, across outcomes, and unified in seeking truth and restoration.
Meet your Facilitator
Drawing on deep clinical expertise, specialized training in the DSTT model, and an integrative somatic approach, I offer care that goes beyond traditional betrayal trauma approaches by:
· Holding radical validation for your experience without blame or pathologizing you.
· Integrating somatic healing to address trauma embodied beyond the mind.
· Honoring your full intersectional identity—cultural, spiritual, faith-based, LGBTQ+, and more.
· Supporting you whether you’re preparing to leave, healing post-separation, or rebuilding within the relationship.
· Providing guidance for safety, boundary-setting, and navigating complex emotional terrain.
· Recognizing and treating treatment-induced trauma often overlooked elsewhere.
· Holding radical validation for your experience without blame or pathologizing you.
· Integrating somatic healing to address trauma embodied beyond the mind.
· Honoring your full intersectional identity—cultural, spiritual, faith-based, LGBTQ+, and more.
· Supporting you whether you’re preparing to leave, healing post-separation, or rebuilding within the relationship.
· Providing guidance for safety, boundary-setting, and navigating complex emotional terrain.
· Recognizing and treating treatment-induced trauma often overlooked elsewhere.
I walk fiercely with you, helping rewire survival patterns, restore self-trust, and rebuild authentic connection. Your unique story, voice, and power shape your healing journey here.
Why reach out to me? Why reach out to me?
Healing is not about returning to what was—it’s about creating something entirely new. Together, we navigate the complex terrain from the chaos of betrayal trauma toward clarity, resilience, and growth.
You will learn to trust your intuition again, confidently identify red and green flags, reclaim your body and identity, and build meaningful relationships based on respect and authenticity.
You will learn to trust your intuition again, confidently identify red and green flags, reclaim your body and identity, and build meaningful relationships based on respect and authenticity.
Moving From Surviving to Living Fully
Long-Term Healing and Thriving:
You may feel hesitant or scared to reach out, worried about being dismissed or retraumatized. But here awaits radical compassion, deep expertise, and unwavering support. When your partner is in Chris Jones’ Stage 1 betrayer group at From Harm to Healing, you deserve parallel, partner-focused support.
Benefits of concurrent groups:
• Both partners metabolize truth simultaneously in safe, separate spaces
• Reduces “competing trauma” dynamics at home
• Creates shared language and framework (DSTT Model)
• Honors each person’s distinct injury experience
Who This Group Is For
✔ Partners of individuals in recovery from compulsive sexual behavior, sex addiction, or deceptive sexuality
✔ Those experiencing PTSD-like symptoms after discovery/disclosure
✔ Partners whose reality has been gaslit and manipulated
✔ Those seeking DSTT-informed care (not codependency models)
You do NOT need to:
• Be in couples therapy
• Forgive or reconcile
• Identify as “in recovery” yourself
You ARE:
• A victim-survivor of abuse-victimization-trauma (AVT)
• Entitled to truth, safety, and healing on your terms
• Deserving of partner-sensitive, trauma-informed care
Benefits of concurrent groups:
• Both partners metabolize truth simultaneously in safe, separate spaces
• Reduces “competing trauma” dynamics at home
• Creates shared language and framework (DSTT Model)
• Honors each person’s distinct injury experience
Who This Group Is For
✔ Partners of individuals in recovery from compulsive sexual behavior, sex addiction, or deceptive sexuality
✔ Those experiencing PTSD-like symptoms after discovery/disclosure
✔ Partners whose reality has been gaslit and manipulated
✔ Those seeking DSTT-informed care (not codependency models)
You do NOT need to:
• Be in couples therapy
• Forgive or reconcile
• Identify as “in recovery” yourself
You ARE:
• A victim-survivor of abuse-victimization-trauma (AVT)
• Entitled to truth, safety, and healing on your terms
• Deserving of partner-sensitive, trauma-informed care
Take the First Step Toward Healing
“Michellene's group saved my sanity. I finally had language for what happened to me—it wasn’t codependency, it was covert-phase integrity abuse.” — A.M.
“Michellene helped me understand my discovery trauma timeline. Seeing it all laid out—the car crashes, the integrity abuse at each one—I finally stopped blaming myself.” — L.T.
“The ‘eating the elephant’ metaphor changed everything. I wasn’t crazy for needing time. I was metabolizing 15 years of deception.” — K.R.
“Michellene helped me understand my discovery trauma timeline. Seeing it all laid out—the car crashes, the integrity abuse at each one—I finally stopped blaming myself.” — L.T.
“The ‘eating the elephant’ metaphor changed everything. I wasn’t crazy for needing time. I was metabolizing 15 years of deception.” — K.R.
