Nobody sits you down and teaches you how to love. Experience is the first and best teacher, and we learn about relationships by living them. But, if we’re looking for stable and secure connections that last a long time, it’s a good idea to educate yourself about what these relationships look like.
This is especially the case if you’re thinking about exploring non-monogamy. Experts in the space agree that individuals who have a comprehensive grasp of what they’re looking for in a relationship — and what they can expect from non-monogamy — tend to have the most positive experiences.
These non-monogamy experts lead the field with their online resources, books, podcasts, and other services. They give singles and couples interested in non-monogamy the professional and trusted information they need to have loving, secure, and authentic non-monogamous relationships.
Dr. Elisabeth Sheff
Dr. Elisabeth Sheff is an educational consultant, expert witness, and public speaker, and a leading expert voice in polyamory. Elisabeth holds a PhD in Sociology and is a pioneer in the academic study of polyamory. She’s published over 20 peer-reviewed articles and has taught at universities across the country. She recently developed The Bonding Project, a free quiz to help people understand if they want to bond one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many, or solo.
Elisabeth’s work focuses on polyamorous families and how to start the conversation about non-monogamy. Her first book, “The Polyamorists Next Door,” relays findings from 15 years of Elisabeth’s Polyamorous Families Study. The book explores how the landscape of America’s relationship and marriage scene has changed and how polyamorous people and their families fit into this landscape.
Laurie Ellington
Laurie Ellington is an open and polyamorous relationship coach, also known as the Poly-Coach. She helps singles and couples navigate polyamory and open relationships. After a series of unfulfilling and restrictive relationships, Laurie had the opportunity to explore polyamory with a person she felt an intense attraction to.
The experience was illuminating and empowering, and she decided to become a coach to help others find the same things out of non-monogamy. Laurie teaches her clients effective and authentic communication skills and helps them break through negative patterns.
More About Laurie
- Linkedin: Laurie Ellington
Joli Hamilton
Joli Hamilton is a relationship coach who helps clients explore relationships outside the confines of monogamy. Joli became a coach, educator, and expert in polyamory after discovering the joy of non-monogamy within her own life. She’s a certified sex educator with a Ph.D. in Jungian and archetypal psychology.
Joli’s past research areas include jealousy and compersion, the latter of which refers to the joy a person feels for someone else’s positive experience. She specializes in helping clients — singles and couples — make the transition into non-monogamy by using the collection of her personal experience and professional insights.
Paige Bond
Paige Bond is a relationship coach who works with individuals, couples, and polycules. Paige specializes in working with insecure people-pleasers who want to find confidence and fulfillment in their relationships and guides clients through every step of a secure exploration of non-monogamy.
Paige is trained as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and offers a variety of online materials in addition to coaching. She offers coaching programs that delve into overcoming jealousy, mitigating people-pleasing, and designing relationship dynamics.
Martha Kauppi
Martha Kauppi is a certified sex therapist, educator, and the founder of the Institute for Relational Intimacy. Martha has spent her career in sexual health, counseling, and education and continues to work directly with clients and train therapists.
Martha founded the Institute for Relational Intimacy to help people form stronger intimate connections with the people they care about. She works with diverse clients, including polyamorous and non-monogamous clients, and is the author of “Polyamory: A Clinical Toolkit for Therapists (and Their Clients).”
Effy Blue
Effy Blue is a relationship coach who helps her clients find the right relationship path. Effy tried to engage with the conventional relationship model but found that relationships felt scary and overwhelming. She dedicated herself to her career and, 10 years later, discovered NYC’s sex-positive community. Feeling like she had found her home, she delved into various topics on non-monogamy.
Effy helps her clients sort through the complicated emotions and questions that come with non-monogamy. She can attend to the more technical aspects – like terminology and dynamic types – and the personal ones – like exploring why an individual may be experiencing jealousy. Beyond coaching, she offers workshops and events.
Dr. Heath Schechinger
Dr. Heath Schechinger is a licensed psychologist, researcher, and consultant. Heath currently serves as the Founding Co-Chair of the American Psychological Association Division 44 Committee on Consensual Non-Monogamy, which focuses on research and education about non-monogamous relationships.
As a therapist, Heath creates a supportive atmosphere where clients can deepen their understanding of their relationships and their desires for the future. While non-monogamy may be cast as fringe by our heteronormative culture, many Americans have engaged in a non-monogamous relationship. Heath’s work also fights to extend legal protections for polyamorous families and increase education around non-monogamy.
Kitty Chambliss
Kitty Chambliss is a relationship coach and educator who helps her clients connect with their most courageous selves. She is passionate about creating awareness and tolerance for alternative lifestyles. While she works with a diverse range of clients, her forte lies in helping non-monogamous individuals find joy in the experience while being free from discrimination and exclusion.
Kitty founded Loving Without Boundaries to provide non-monogamous people with the resources and support they need. Loving Without Boundaries offers toolkits, relationship workshops, live coaching, quizzes, a podcast, and more, all geared toward people functioning outside of monogamous relationships.
Shamyra Howard
Shamyra Howard is a licensed clinical social worker, sexologist, and therapist who helps people make impactful changes in their lives. She has a private practice serving the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, area and is the state’s first Black AASECT Certified Sex Therapist. She works with a spectrum of clients, including those struggling with mental health disorders and people who want to improve their relationships.
As a therapist, Shamyra is down to earth and supportive. She has experience working with polyamorous individuals, couples, and polycules, and is also well-versed in treatments and modalities for individuals who partake in BDSM and kink.
Rachel Wright
Rachel Wright is a relationship, sex, and mental health therapist who’s one of the freshest voices on modern relationships. Rachel is a licensed marriage and family therapist, educator, and relationship expert who has touched on nearly every topic a modern single or coupled person could desire.
Rachel’s approach to relationships centers on pleasure, honesty, and security. She helps her clients overcome negative experiences and authentically discover who they are and what they want from a relationship. Beyond therapy and coaching, Rachel offers workshops, a podcast, and a community support group.
Expert Resources Help People Navigate Non-Monogamy
Non-monogamy experts help individuals navigate polyamory and other forms of non-monogamous relationships with security and openness. All of these experts infuse personal and professional experiences into their approaches and offer resources for each step of the journey.
Any relationship – monogamous or not – benefits from support. Whether you’re looking for books, articles, blogs, podcasts, or even coaching, these experts offer it all, and with a common goal: to help you step into the enjoyment of secure and fulfilling non-monogamous relationships.
