Midwest Love Fest 2024 Workshops

A common pitfall many nonmogamous persons face is how to say "no" to requests made by their partners in nonmonogamy. Requests made by partners to cancel plans with other partners, requests to grant access to text exchanges or other correspondence with other partners, requests to break up with other partners or to limit how they interact with other partners, for example. Often, people will say "yes" to things they don't truly wish to do in an attempt to keep the peace, because they are afraid to lose someone important to them if they say no, or because they don't know how to say "no, I'm unwilling to do that". In this workshop, Evita Lavitaloca Sawyers will demonstrate a process she developed for helping people gain the tools to compassionately say "no" to their partners in a way that honors their own autonomy and also provide care for the parts of their partners that are making those requests because, deep down, they are struggling with the fear that they are going to lose their partner and trying to regain a sense of security in the relationship.