This workshop explores negotiation as an ongoing, collaborative practice in intentional and non-monogamous relationships — not conflict or compromise, but a skill for co-creating solutions that honor everyone's needs, capacities, and values. We'll build a shared understanding of ethical negotiation and how to shift from positional bargaining ("my way vs. your way") to principled, values-based collaboration.
Attendees will learn frameworks for negotiating agreements: distinguishing needs, wants, and preferences; articulating desires with clarity and care; saying and receiving "no" without shame, coercion, or collapse; and grounding agreements in consent, autonomy, and emotional safety. We'll also cover the value of revisiting agreements as relationships and circumstances evolve.
We'll address real-world complexities like co-habitation, co-parenting, caregiving, and shared resources — examining how power, dependency, timing, and capacity shape these negotiations, and how to navigate change with transparency and compassion rather than avoidance or resentment.
Attendees will leave with concrete tools for negotiating agreements, navigating shifting needs, and responding to change with flexibility and intention — supporting relationships that are resilient, consensual, and aligned with the evolving realities of the people in them.