Niki D
Working with Clients in Open and Polyamorous Relationships:
a series of key themes to help deepen your understanding and confidence
online via zoom direct from London across
4 Monday evenings: 9, 16 & 23 FEB and 2 MAR 2026
Introduction
An online series of four 2-hour workshops that invite therapists and counsellors to explore key themes that frequently arise when working with relationship-diverse clients. Each workshop will combine theory, reflection and discussion, supporting you to develop an informed, attuned, and reflexive practice. Our presenter, Niki D, is an educator in this space, is acquainted with Australian therapeutic practice and presents here on a regular basis. There will be a good deal of active participation and interaction in all 4 workshops, including in large and small breakout rooms with facilitated discussion on specific points. Niki currently works with a couple of Australian clients via zoom and will cite examples from an Australian clinical context. Additionally, participants will use examples from their own practice when they are contributing to discussions and the experiential components of the series. The objective is for participants to leave with the capacity to assess how the presented themes can be integrated into their own practice and to create a personal reflective space in which to determine that.
Overview of each Workshop
9 FEB 2026
Mismatched Expectations and Pacing
Many clients in open and polyamorous relationships hold differing assumptions and expectations about relational openness, emotional commitment and ways of introducing change. Our work with clients can help them:
- Explore their lived experience of differing relationship structures
- Attend to the way societal norms about “ideal relationships” influence and affect them
- Negotiate boundaries, clarify expectations and manage the pace of their relationship changes in ways that honour each person’s wishes and capacities
- Utilise phenomenological listening to identify each person’s subjective experience of pace, commitment and autonomy, validating differences without judgment
16 FEB 2026
Jealousy, Insecurity, Possessiveness & Compersion
Open and polyamorous relationships bring rich and often complex connections that challenge mononormative assumptions. Therapists are tasked to support their clients in exploring jealousy and insecurity without shame; to also understand possessiveness and cultivate compersion (non-possessive joy in a partner’s other relationships) while recognising the complexity and variance of these feelings. We can support our clients through:
- Developing our clients’ reflective awareness as they attend to their emotional responses using Jessica Ferns’ model of jealousy
- Attending to our clients’ embodied emotional experiences and supporting ways of responding to these
- Examining how mononormative social conditioning shapes internalised expectations around exclusivity, ownership and entitlement
23 FEB 2026
Coming Out as Non-Monogamous
- Holding an intersectional awareness that can help them recognise the power dynamics and societal pressures that affect their safety and self-expression
- Facilitating them to work out the language to use, how to negotiate limitations and cope with reactions from family, friends or workplaces
- Reframing ‘coming out’ as ‘inviting in’ both to deepen connections and to place the focus on the people or systems that are threatened by relationship difference
2 MARCH 2026
Endings, Transitions & De-escalations
Relationships in open and polyamorous contexts can evolve, shift or end in complex ways. We are tasked with assisting clients in open and polyamorous relationships through transitions, managing grief, negotiating ongoing connections and navigating new relationships and sexual experiences. We can:
- Explore how clients perceive endings in non-monogamous contexts
- Examine relational expectations and social norms around breakups and transitions, to understand how to work with clients ending one relationship whilst in other relationships
- Facilitate meaning-making as clients navigate loss, change and evolving relational identities while honouring both individual and collective needs if they are in a polycule
You can expect to gain:
- A deeper awareness of the experiences and challenges faced by clients in open and polyamorous relationships
- Greater confidence in navigating complex relational dynamics and ethical questions
- An introduction to critical phenomenology – an approach that integrates phenomenology with critical theory to explore how power, culture and social norms shape lived experience
- Space to reflect on your own positioning and assumptions in working with relationship diversity
THE DETAILS
Working with Open and Polyamorous Relationships
Dates: Monday evenings as detailed above: 9, 16, 23 FEB & 2 MAR 2026
Time: 7.00pm to 9.00pm (AEDT) each session
Location: online via zoom
Cost: $150 per session
Cost: $400 for package of 4
CPD Hours: 2 per session, 8 for package of 4
About Niki
Niki D is an experienced existential psychotherapist, supervisor and relationship therapist, with 35 years’ practice across private, statutory and voluntary sectors. She specialises in working with GSRD clients (gender, sexual and relationship diverse) and facilitates both in-person supervision and therapy groups. She has worked as a visiting lecturer and tutor on counselling and psychotherapy courses and currently delivers an online course on relationship diversity for Pink Therapy. She holds an MA in Existential Psychotherapy alongside advanced training in GSRD therapy and somatic trauma work. As co-director of Opening Up CPD, she provides specialist training for therapists supporting clients in open and polyamorous relationships. She also contributes chapters on GSRD themes to therapy handbooks, combining professional insight with practical guidance.
Websites:
www.rainbowrelationships.com
https://openingupcpd.com
