Explore how queer chosen family supports healing from trauma. Learn how therapy strengthens boundaries, trust, and resilience in LGBTQIA+ communities.

Polycules in therapy require more than couples models with extra chairs. This guide equips therapists with evidence-based tools for mapping networks, navigating boundaries, repairing conflicts, and supporting complex non-monogamous relationship systems with skill and care.

Explore how polyamory as liberation empowers queer, trans, and non-binary communities to resist oppressive systems, reclaim cultural roots, and create expansive, justice-centered ways of loving.

Trauma-informed care in non-monogamy isn't "regular trauma work plus extra partners." It's a deeply intentional practice that integrates safety, consent, and cultural humility with the real-world complexity of polycules, metamours, co-parents, and chosen family. Research and lived experience both show that with the right scaffolding, non-monogamy can support healing instead of re-enacting old wounds.

The research is clear: the majority of people in non-monogamous (NM) relationships are receiving inadequate, and often harmful mental health care. With approximately 4-5% of Americans currently engaged in NM relationships and 21% of Americans having participated in a non-monogamous relationship at some point in their life,  the time for change is now.

The monogamy-superiority myth is a pervasive assumption that monogamous relationships are inherently more stable, intimate, or emotionally safe. However, the 2025 meta-analysis by Anderson et al. analyzed 35 studies with over 24,000 participants and found no significant differences in relationship satisfaction or sexual satisfaction between monogamous and non-monogamous individuals.

By Sarah Wolfer, LICSW | Founder, Courageous You Therapy Adolescence is a formative time for identity development, and that includes...

Finding a therapist who truly gets non-monogamy shouldn’t feel like a high-stakes scavenger hunt. But for many polyamorous and open folks, that’s exactly what it is. Too often, therapy becomes the place where you end up explaining your relationship style instead of receiving support for what brought you in. It can be exhausting, invalidating, and even harmful. The good news? You can take control of the search.

I’m thrilled to announce an upcoming training uniquely crafted for therapists who are ready to elevate their practice—deepening their knowledge, challenging biases, and becoming powerful allies for non-monogamous clients seeking affirmation, understanding, and healing.