10.20 // Polyamory & Open Relationships // Hampshire College -

Polyamory & Open Relationships: Designing & Sustaining

Hampshire College // October 20th, 2016 // 6:30-8:30 // at the Hampshire College Center for Feminisms // Free & Open to Hampshire Students and 5-College Students

Workshop Description: Despite its most prevalent stereotype, non-monogamy is not all sex, sex, sex, but is actually mostly talk, talk, talk. Unlike monogamy, open relationships rarely come with a list of pre-

Polyamory & Open Relationships // Wheaton College // November 2015

determined rules, so we need to make our own. But how?

This workshop offers a guide through this very terrain, introducing participants to the many different forms of non-monogamy (polyamory, open relationships, monogamish relationships, polyfidelity, clopen relationships, etc) and helping participants create their own map through the rocky landscape that is designing a sustainable, non-monogamous relationship tailored to fit all partners involved.

Tackling common challenges unique to non-monogamy such as managing jealousy, creating solid relationship agreements, and determining if non-monogamy is right for you, this workshop serves as the perfect introductory course for non-monogamists or a useful tune-up for the in-the-thick-of-it pros.

This workshop focuses on partnered non-monogamy styles as these are the most commonly practiced by folks new to non-monogamy however all are welcome as the skills learned in the workshop are easily applied to other styles of non-monogamy as well.

Participants should bring a pen and notebook as each participant will walk away with a customized collection of worksheets & reflections to get them started on and/or help continue on the journey through non-monogamy.

About the Presenter:

Yana Tallon-Hicks is a pleasure-positive sex writer and educator who’s been stumbling her way through polyamorous, monogamous, open, and clopen relationships for over a decade.

Yana is a Hampshire College graduate (’08) and currently studies Marriage & Family Therapy at Antioch University on her path to becoming a sex therapist. She practices couples and relationship counseling at Couples Center of the Pioneer Valley as their MFT graduate student intern for reduced, sliding scale fees where she sees couples and individuals across the spectrum of identity, sexuality & relationships.

Her sex writings have appeared in both national and local publications and can be found most regularly in her weekly sex column, The V-Spot, on the back page of the Valley Advocate.

Testimonials

“Thank you! It is so important to create spaces for people to initiate their own learning and exploration of potentially scary topics (and you did so in such an open, endearing & light way!”

“Your workshop gave [my partner & I] openings and direction for some really great conversations last night and moving forward. Deeply grateful, not only for the info, but your ‘style’. It’s so permissive and invitational. Your modeling always helps me find my own permission to move beyond my limits and assumptions with more freedom and curiosity. You really helped me understand a more helpful framework to navigate my emotions in relationship to exploring poly”.

– Polyamory & Open Relationships // Easthampton Co.Lab // February 2016

“Wheaton Sexual Health Advocacy Group loved having Yana come and do her Polyamory 101 Workshop with our community. She was so inclusive in the content of her workshop and her language. We look forward to inviting her back to Wheaton in the future to experience more of the workshops and talks she has to offer”

– Wheaton College // November 2015