This book explores the unique group of elders, ages fifty-five and older, who practice some form of consensual nonmonogamy. It covers both the joys and challenges of multiple relationships for elders and explores how their relationships develop and evolve. Polyamorous elders have the complexities of juggling multiple relationships, as well as navigating all the issues of aging: managing medical conditions and disabilities (their own and/or their partners’); assuming caregiving responsibilities for aging relatives; grieving the deaths of parents, siblings, and partners; retiring from careers and starting new lives; and potentially moving into some form of senior living. Drawing from her extensive clinical and personal experience working with this population, Kathy Labriola provides anecdotes from polyamorous elders’ lives, including the constellation of relationships surrounding each individual, couple, or triad. This guide will help health care and mental health clinicians, researchers, and professionals, as well as polyamorous elders and their loved ones, better understand the concerns and diverse lifestyles of this population to better represent and support them.

This groundbreaking resource presents a wealth of findings and perspectives previously unseen in the LGBT literature. Its focus on psychological, sociopolitical and care delivery issues affecting LGBT elders reveals both the nuanced interplay between diverse sources of identity and multiple sources of stigma and discrimination. Specific chapters highlight challenges and resiliencies impacting subpopulations (e.g., racial groups, veterans, immigrants), examine employment and advocacy issues, discuss later-life concerns in context and offer guidelines for relevant, ethical practice. Contributors represent a wide range of fields from psychiatry and gerontology to public health and public policy, reflecting the scope and needs of this diverse and complex population. Among the topics in the Handbook: Family relationships of older LGBT adults. The intersection of identities: race, age, sexuality and care network. Bisexuality: an invisible community among LGBT elders. Implications of the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. No money, no work and you're old. Disabilities among LGBT elders: responses of medicine, public health, rehabilitation and social work. Handbook of LGBT Elders is an essential reference for mental health professionals, psychologists and social workers who work with the LGBT community and the elderly, as well as researchers interested in the LGBT community and aging.

From the initial stages of trying to agree who can do what with whom, through advanced issues such as coping with logistics and seeking compersion, every relationship sooner or later confronts jealousy – and some relationships do not survive the confrontation. Between these covers you will find forty-two exercises with supporting text, developed by a professional relationship counselor and refined by hundreds of clients trying to find their own paths through jealousy. They range from basic (Exercise Two, Clarify Your Relationship Orientation) through challenging (Exercise Thirty-Four, Imagine Looking Through Their Eyes and Being In Their Shoes). All can be done solo, with a partner, or under the supervision of a helping professional, and all can be done before a problem emerges or in the throes of a jealousy crisis. Along the way, you will find solutions to the issues that bedevil even the most happily open relationships.

Beyond the basics of polyamory lies a complex web of negotiations, agreements, pitfalls and rewards. Kathy Labriola, a relationships counselor who has worked for many years with singles, couples and groups in polyamorous and open relationships, sets forth some of the realities of alternative lifestyles: dealing with some of the common relationship-disrupters, managing jealousy, choosing compatible partners, combining BDSM with polyamory, distinguishing between sex addiction and polyamory, and much more.

This book provides an analysis of the meaning of safety and security across the contexts of community and public life, throughout the life span, and within a therapeutic framework, examining threats and the strategies for coping with them. The book starts in Part I with a discussion of general safety and security concepts in the socio-cultural context. Part II of the book details the role of a sense of security in psychological assistance, psychotherapy and supervision, while Part III centres on safety and security at different life stages. Drawing on the tenets of modern attachment theory and trauma theory, chapter authors address questions of safety, danger, and protection for both individuals and groups, across a variety of fields of knowledge and expertise. Themes such as loneliness, play and exploration, evil and forgiveness, health and death, and spirituality and healing are discussed as practice examples, learning points, and tips. A wide range of health and social care professional practitioners will find this book useful in exploring social, interpersonal, and psychological aspects of safety and security.

Labriola uses real life examples and expert insight as a counselor and nurse. From how to handle jealousy to the practicalities of managing money and time with multiple partners, this book includes tips and insights from the polyamory community.

What is compersion? Is it the “opposite” of jealousy, as it is usually believed? Is it an emotion or a behavior? What causes it to arise and bloom? Can we “learn” compersion or invite more of it into our lives? Based on her seminal research with consensually non-monogamous (CNM) individuals, Dr. Marie Thouin unravels these questions and more in the first-ever book to offer a comprehensive model of compersion and a practical road map to cultivating it. Each chapter features compelling stories from real CNM people, making this a captivating and highly applicable read. In addition, Thouin addresses the broader social context, explaining how understanding compersion is a groundbreaking step toward a world that supports relational diversity and freedom. By disrupting the idea that jealousy is the only valid response to intimacy beyond monogamy, the existence and practice of compersion builds the foundation for a completely new paradigm of loving relationships. This book and its conclusions have profound implications for many fields of study and practice including psychology, sexuality studies, philosophy and ethics, and law. Indispensable for CNM individuals, therapists, counselors, and scholars, this book is also invaluable for anyone curious to learn about positive empathy, intentional relationships, and radical love.

Beyond the basics of polyamory lies a complex web of negotiations, agreements, pitfalls and rewards. Kathy Labriola, a relationships counselor who has worked for many years with singles, couples and groups in polyamorous and open relationships, sets forth some of the realities of alternative lifestyles: dealing with some of the common relationship-disrupters, managing jealousy, choosing compatible partners, combining BDSM with polyamory, distinguishing between sex addiction and polyamory, and much more.

Love is not one-size-fits-all, yet often people assume that healthy, serious relationships all must follow the same basic path. The -Relationship Escalator- is society's bundle of customs for intimate relationships: monogamy, living together, marriage and more, ideally until death do you part. Beyond this, it might not be obvious what your options are. This book will help you: - Discover less common relationship options that might suit you. - Understand why and how people have unconventional relationships. - Empower you to negotiate about how your relationships work. - Overcome the fear that loving differently means you're doing it wrong. - Make the world a friendlier, safer place for more paths to love. Featuring real stories and insights from hundreds of people, -Stepping Off the Relationship Escalator- explores consensual nonmonogamy, love without living together, deep connections that pause and resume, and much more. The first in a series of research-based books, this introduction to relationship diversity is both accessible and surprising. LEARN MORE OR ORDER SIGNED COPIES: OffEscalator.com

Do you look back at your sex ed classes and wonder WTF?! Are you a parent looking at your kid’s curriculum and asking the same question? Sex Education 101 is less of a how-to of sex education and more of a why. Why does abstinence-only sex ed receive so much federal funding? Why do instructors show gross images of STIs to scare students? And the answers, believe it or not, have a lot to do with folklore. Folklore—informally transmitted traditional culture—has a lot to say about sex. And it is often people’s first point of contact with information and messages about sex. Folklore encompasses urban legends, moral panics, and rumors, which influenced early U.S. policies around sex, and also includes jokes, raunchy folk songs, and beliefs and slang about menstruation or STIs. And thus, folklore shapes sex ed classrooms and school sex ed policies. This book is a series of essays for anyone interested in folklore about sex, the history of sex education, and how we keep repeating history from 100 years ago in our approaches today. Whether you are a scholar of books or a scholar of life (or both), you’ll find something satisfying between the sheets of Sex Education 101.