Betrayal Is a Public Health and Workplace Crisis. New Research of 73,500 People Finally Proves It -- and Provides the Path Through.

The median commitment to healing among 73,500 people studied is 10 out of 10. They are not giving up. They have never given up. They simply have never been given the right framework. Until today, that framework did not exist.

NEW YORK, June 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The PBT® (Post Betrayal Transformation®) Institute released The State of Betrayal Report — the most comprehensive research publication on betrayal and broken trust ever produced. The findings are impossible to ignore, and the implications reach every corner of human life: personal health, mental functioning, intimate relationships, workplace performance, and the clinical practices of coaches and therapists serving this population worldwide.

For the first time, research explains exactly what betrayal does to a person — and why so many people who are committed, resourceful, and genuinely trying cannot get through it.

The findings document what betrayal actually does to the human body, mind, relationships, and career — and the numbers are staggering:

• 94.7% are still being triggered years — sometimes decades — after the betrayal occurred. A song. A smell. A phrase. The full experience floods back instantly, not as a memory but as a reliving.
• 93.6% want to move forward and genuinely don't know how — despite a median commitment to healing of 10 out of 10
• 96.9% carry measurable physical symptoms — exhaustion that sleep doesn't fix, chronic pain, digestive issues, hormonal disruption, hair loss — and most have never once connected them to their betrayal. Neither have their doctors.
• 82% feel overwhelmed as their normal daily baseline — not on a hard day. Every day.
• 73% cannot focus. 68% cannot concentrate. 57% experience 9 or more cognitive symptoms simultaneously, every single day.
• 75% are actively keeping everyone at arm's length — friends, partners, colleagues — without realizing they're doing it
• 99.43% carry at least one emotional symptom — more than half are carrying 16 to 20 out of 20 simultaneously. Not grief, then anger, then healing. All of it. At once. Every day. This is why nothing has fully worked.
• 1 in 3 have already tried multiple approaches — therapy, books, podcasts, support groups — and are still unresolved. This is not a failure of effort. It is a failure of framework.

This is what walks into workplaces, therapy offices, doctor's offices, and homes around the world — every single day. Managers label it disengagement. HR schedules performance reviews. Doctors treat the fatigue, then the sleep, then the digestion, each in isolation, while the root cause goes untouched. Therapists apply frameworks designed for grief or general trauma to a wound that is fundamentally different. Nobody has had the research to name what they're actually seeing.

That changes today.

The report is grounded in three landmark discoveries that do not exist anywhere else in research literature:

• Betrayal is a categorically distinct type of trauma — because it was chosen by someone trusted, it shatters identity, safety, and the capacity to trust one's own perception in ways no grief or general trauma model was designed to reach.
• Post Betrayal Syndrome® (PBS®) is the specific, measurable cluster of physical, mental, and emotional symptoms that consistently follows betrayal, regardless of culture, demographics, or betrayal type. It is not a character flaw. It is not weakness. It is a documented cluster of symptoms — and for many of the 73,500 respondents, learning it had a name was the first time in years they felt fully seen.
• The Five Stages of Betrayal Recovery™ is a universal, research-validated pathway proving that healing from betrayal is not random, not a matter of time, and not a matter of willpower. It is entirely predictable — when the right stage-specific support is in place.

If you lead an organization, what you have been calling disengagement, burnout, and performance problems may finally have a name. 82% of people with unresolved symptoms of Post Betrayal Syndrome® cannot focus as a daily baseline. 73% cannot concentrate. Whether the betrayal was personal or institutional, the symptom profile is identical — and it does not stay home when your employees come to work. Most wellness programs, EAP resources, and resilience training were not built for this. The cost of that gap is documented in this report in terms that are impossible to dismiss.

If you are a coach, therapist, or practitioner — nearly 1 in 4 people who sought specialized therapy for betrayal are still unresolved. Not because therapy failed them. Because the clients sitting across from you right now, presenting with depression, anxiety, or treatment resistance, may not be failing to heal. The solutions being offered are likely not stage appropriate. The Five Stages of Betrayal Recovery™ is the leading research-validated framework built specifically for this population. The PBT® Certification is the only training in the world built around it.

If your commitment to healing is 10 out of 10 and you are still stuck — this report was built for you. Not because you need to try harder. Because you have been trying without a map that was built for what you are actually going through. That map now exists.

Access the report now: thepbtinstitute.com/state-of-betrayal-report

Executive Summary: no email required •
Full Report: free with email •
Corporate Tier: organizational brief + direct debrief with Dr. Silber

Dr. Debi Silber, PhD is the world's leading expert in betrayal recovery and the founder and CEO of The PBT® Institute — the world's leading organization devoted to betrayal recovery research, education, and transformation. Two-time TEDx speaker (2M+ combined views), two-time #1 international bestselling author, host of the top 1% globally ranked podcast From Betrayal to Breakthrough, and founder of National Forgiveness Day (September 1st). Featured on FOX, CBS, Forbes, and more.

Media contact: Camryn S. • [email protected]
Dr. Debi Silber • [email protected]
thepbtinstitute.com/state-of-betrayal-report

The site: https://thepbtinstitute.com/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@debisilber
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InspireEmpowerTransform
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debisilber/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debisilber/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/debisilber

SOURCE The PBT Institute