A Therapist’s Guide to Consensual Nonmonogamy: Polyamory, Swinging, and Open Marriage

by Rhea Orion

Consensual nonmonogamy (CNM) means that all partners in a relationship consent to expanded monogamy or polyamory. Clinicians are on the front line in providing support for the estimated millions pioneering these modern relationships. This first available guide for therapists provides answers to prevalent What is the difference between expanded monogamy and polyamory? Is CNM healthy and safe? Why would someone choose the complexities of multiple partners? What about the welfare of children? Through illustrative case studies from research and clinical practice, therapists will learn to assist clients with CNM agreements, jealousy, sex, time, family issues, and much more.  A Therapist's Guide to Consensual Nonmonogamy  serves as a step forward toward expanding standard clinical training and helps inform therapists who wish to serve the CNM population.

Genres: Polyamory, Relationships, Psychology, Nonfiction

169 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 5, 2018

Reviews

[A.J. Halliday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rhea Orion does a great job at laying out the foundational knowledge on this subject in her book. A great deal of the information that she puts forward is backed by scientific research which, in my opinion, is where the bulk of the value of this book is derived. The topics of focus in each chapter do a good job in flagging the field for likely challenges experienced by those living or embarking upon a life including CNM. She puts forward some great strategies to tackle each challenge effectively.

The case studies are somewhat useful but nevertheless illustrative examples involving real people. I'm not sure they lend a necessary element to the entire text or serve more as filler for an otherwise short read.

This book would lend well to psychotherapists working in the relational therapy space who do not have much exposure and understanding on this topic. Having wrote some academic essays on this subject at the graduate level already, there were sections of the book that I didn't really learn much from. What was most valuable to me were the cited research and a "pre-drawn framework" for what to go over when helping people who are living this lifestyle.

[Valery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for people who want to get neutral overview of non-monogamy.
Lots of books I was stumbling upon when trying to research this topic were overly enthusiastic and looked more like a teenage protest (real book names: “F*ck monogamy”, “An ethical’s slut guide”) rather than something reasonable. This book is written by a professional and it helps to understand the real picture, real challenges people face with practicing CNM.

[Llewe Louie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s Honest/Commendable

(personal assessment):
suspect the exposures/risks far outweighs the perceived advantages for all interested parties.

My personal sense is the guide is an honest component (but incomplete) of the continuous human narrative.

CNM-another headache I can definitely do without (again, my personal sense of relationships generally).

[Rodrigo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book for an independent study I did in undergrad and it helped open my mind towards unconventional relationship styles. Very interesting read and highly recommend to anyone interested in learning about consensual non monogamy.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Very educational and a great resource for working with poly clients.

[Bethy Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good introduction to terminology and options.

[Andrew Leung · Rating 5 out of 5]

provided some great vocab and relationships for understanding the fundamentals of poly relationships

[julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read...as a counselor it helps with explaining to those outside of the lifstyle...

The book had great insight and examples to work,from...also when dealing with children giving great examples of how to explain it to them...