Extramarital sexual crisis: common themes and therapy implications.

The extramarital crisis situation is defined and six common themes presented. These distinguishing features: cognitive and emotional turmoil, unresolved relationship issues, defensiveness, pressures related to the extramarital partner(s), search for an interpretive framework, and decisions about the future, are elaborated in terms of existing literature in the field of extramarital sex. The six themes constitute a general profile from which therapists can formulate specific client assessments. Therapy implications are dealt with for each theme and collectively represent an approach to extramarital crises and a summarization of existing clinical strategies. Some research data is presented as further verification of the six-theme framework.