THE PBT® INSTITUTE PRESENTS

The State of Betrayal

What 73,500 People Revealed About Betrayal, Recovery, and Why Most Approaches Don't Work.

What if everything you thought you knew about healing from betrayal was incomplete?

For years, people who have been through betrayal have been told the same things.

Forgive and move on. Give it time. Focus on the good. Be grateful.

And yet — 93% of the 73,500 people in our research database say they want to move forward and don't know how. The median commitment to healing is 10 out of 10.

The problem is not willingness. The problem is the absence of a research-backed path designed specifically for betrayal.

That path exists. And this report is where it begins.

Here is a small portion of what the research found:
  1. 1
    Nearly 100% of respondents experience measurable symptoms —
    physical, mental, and emotional — following betrayal. Most never connect them to the betrayal itself.
  2. 2
    73% of people who've been through betrayal cannot focus or concentrate.
    These are not emotional reactions. They are cognitive impairments — with direct consequences for work, parenting, and daily functioning.
  3. 3
    91% are hesitant to trust again.
    75% are actively preventing deep relationships out of fear of being hurt again.
  4. 4
    Nearly 30% have already tried multiple approaches — therapy, books, podcasts — and are still not through it.
    Not because they haven't tried hard enough. Because betrayal requires something specific that most approaches weren't designed to provide.
  5. 5
    The median commitment to healing is 10 out of 10.
    These are not people who gave up. They are people who have been trying with everything they have — and missing the right map.
The full report covers:

The complete physical, mental, and emotional symptom data
— and what it means

Who is betraying whom
— and which relationships produce the highest
PBS® burden

Why conventional approaches often aren't enough — and what the research says actually works

The Five Stages of Betrayal Recovery™ — a universal pathway validated across 100,000+ people

Implications for
individuals, practitioners, organizations, and healthcare systems

Dr. Debi Silber's
interpretation of the findings — what 73,500 people taught us

This report is for you if you are:

Healing from betrayal and wanting to finally understand what's happening to you — and why you haven't been able to simply move on.

A coach, therapist, or practitioner who works with people whose struggles may be rooted in unresolved betrayal.

An HR leader or organizational decision-maker who wants to understand the measurable business cost of broken trust.

A journalist or researcher looking for access to the most comprehensive betrayal research dataset in existence.

Access the report

Choose the option that fits you:

Download the Executive Summary

Free + No email required +
For media, press, and journalists

Access the Full Report

Free with email +
For individuals healing and practitioners

Corporate & Organizational Access

$297 · Full report + organizational brief +
30-minute debrief call

Dr. Debi Silber, PhD, is the founder of The PBT® Institute and the world's leading expert in betrayal recovery. Through doctoral research spanning 100,000+ participants across 50+ countries — the largest betrayal recovery research database in existence — she identified Post Betrayal Syndrome® and The Five Stages of Betrayal Recovery™, a universal pathway to healing validated across cultures and continents.

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