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Dr. Marisol G. Westberg

Psychotherapist

Navigating Non-Monogamy – A Sex Therapist’s Guide 1 CE

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$29.00
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Working With Non-Monogamy in Sex Therapy

Learn effective interventions when working with non-monogamy in sex therapy.

People tend to take a moral stance on open relationships thinking that monogamy is the best and most natural type of relationship.  My stance is that it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you are aware of why you are doing it and whether or not it works for you.  This goes for both monogamy and non-monogamy.  Often people choose one or the other because it’s what has been done before or because it’s what people are doing now.  Either way, choosing something just because other people are doing it without deeper exploration, can sometimes backfire.  What I have learned about open relationships in my practice:

  • It is difficult because it is still not the norm and there is a lack of modeling.  There are plenty of books but it is difficult to find other people that are like you doing non-monogamy.
  • It is difficult because you find yourself forced into secrecy because other people knowing could cause you to lose social power or cause your children to lose social power.
  • It can be complicated if one person wants it and is dragging the other person into it.
  • It can liberate a monogamous relationship from having to be everything to the other person, especially when it comes to sex.
  • It gets rid of the problem that one person wants sex and the other does not without ending the relationship.
  • It forces people to look at their fears like rejection, abandonment, not being special, being good enough, etc.  
  • It helps couples create a new relationship that addresses the couple’s particular history, needs, and desires.
  • It can sometimes be defined as ethical when it is truly not.
  • It can sometimes be the way a person tries to get out of a relationship without having to take the risk of telling someone that you don’t want to be in a relationship anymore or of losing the good things in a relationship.

In this course you will learn the following:

  1. Principles of non-monogamy
  2. How wounding creates barriers to non-monogamy
  3. Bibliotherapy for non-monogamy
  4. The role of fear in non-monogamy
  5. Interventions to change barriers such as wounding and fear.
  6. Case example from my practice