The experience of forgiveness in betrayed women

Infidelity is one of the major challenges faced by involved couples and couples therapists. Forgiveness is one of the strategies that help betrayed women to minimize infidelity`s destructive effects. However, forgiveness is a global concept but the factors that shape it are different from one culture to other cultures. So the current research explore these factors by reviewing the betrayed women`s lived experience of forgiveness. understanding and explaining the experience of forgiveness in betrayed women. This study was a qualitative one with the approach of phenomenology. Depth semi-structured interviews conducted with 10 people that forgive their partner`s infidelity and obtain 266.5 score and higher than in Enright forgiveness inventory. After the interview with the tenth person, the data was saturated and the sampling process stopped. The seven steps Colizzi `s method was used to analyze data. The results of initial coding were associated with the formation of 82 semantic units, which, according to their commonality, were categorized into 14 subsample. Finally, these 14 subthemes were classified in three main themes as factors that focus on individual, factors that focus on spouse, factors that focus on marital relationship and external factors. It seems that relatively new findings can be found in terms of cultural context