That is a good question, but sadly I don't have an answer. I kind of think that when a therapist suggests that one should do something; that is helpful if they also present possible ways of doing that. Hard for me to understand how one can be helpful in suggesting a "should do" without offering some "how to" advice. Perhaps I am wrong though. I am often wrong about things.

Sometimes it can be possible to consider options by doing some kind of thought experiment where one imagines oneself in a worse case scenario. I would guess that one of the worst case scenarios of being "locked into" a situation would be to be actually locked in, for example, a person say who is in prison.

How would a person, say who is in solitary confinement explore an alternate sexuality? Fantasy is one way. Reading books would be another. There are whole literatures devoted to various sexualities: novels, short stories, biographies and other non-fiction works. Letter writing. People in prison often seem to have intense erotic relationships by corresponding with others through the mail system. These are all ways that people who are deprived of physical erotic relationships are able to explore their sexuality.

I would guess it might also have to do with how one defines "cheating." People don't agree on what this word means. Where is the line between cheating and not cheating? If one has a kind of ethics of "treat others as one would have others treat oneself if one were is the same situation" that would kind of narrow the definition of cheating.

Perhaps it would be helpful to ask your therapist what precisely she meant by the words: "maybe [you] should find ways of exploring this without compromising [your] current relationship." Maybe your therapist could elaborate on that. What do you think?

Hopefully others here . . . others with more knowledge, experience, insight and deep understanding will see your post today or in the days to come and respond to it with more helpful words than my poor words.

I certainly went through a time of life when I explored my sexuality. I was in a relationship at the time and as I remember I kind of took steps, baby steps in my exploration. So my heart goes out to you.

It cannot be easy to be in your shoes and I hope you find ways to discover more about your needs and how to fulfill them effectively and honorably at the same time, although that is so difficult to achieve.

So sorry I don't really know how to be helpful to you. Sometimes one wants to be helpful to someone and just doesn't know how. I sure hope you find something helpful, truly helpful. You deserve a good life where you can have some peace of mind and some joy of living!