More Love Means More Grief: Navigating the Emotional Landscape of Loss in Polyamory explores grief as a direct and meaningful expression of love within polyamorous relationships. Because polyamory involves multiple, deeply significant attachments, many of which are socially marginalized or structurally unrecognized, experiences of loss are often intensified and compounded by disenfranchisement and relational invisibility. This presentation examines how dominant grief and loss theories apply to polyamorous contexts, with particular attention to de-centered relationships and the impact of stigma and marginalization on whose grief is acknowledged or silenced. Grounded in Grief Affirming Practice®, the presentation emphasizes the importance of turning toward painful emotions as a pathway to deeper relational honesty, ethical care, and self-understanding. Participants will be invited to reconsider grief not as something to be resolved, but as an ongoing relational process that deepens intimacy with others and with oneself.
CE Eligible
More Love Means More Grief
Navigating the Emotional Landscape of Loss in Polyamory
Friday, May 1st
3:30 pm
Room: Chandler
201
Key Takeaways
1.
Evaluate existing grief and loss theories for their applicability to polyamorous contexts, with particular attention to disenfranchised grief, marginalization, and de-centered polyamorous experiences that fall outside socially privileged or legally recognized relationships.
2.
Examine how social stigma, cultural norms, and systemic exclusion shape the recognition, expression, and support of grief within polyamorous relational networks.
3.
Apply trauma-informed, compassion-centered, and equity-oriented frameworks to support individuals and communities navigating loss in polyamorous contexts, while actively addressing the impacts of marginalization and relational invisibility.
Terri Waibel, MSW, LCSW, FT (she/her) is the founder and clinical director of Center for Compassion, a multi-provider private psychotherapy practice located in Chandler, Arizona dedicated to supporting the traumatically bereaved after the traumatic death of a beloved person. Center for Compassion is creating a more compassionate world so that no person has limited support for grief, trauma, or suffering. Terri is also the founder of the Southwest Institute for Grief and Trauma Studies, an education body that is closing the gap in grief education for helping professionals. She developed the innovative therapy practice approach, Grief Affirming Practice® and was selected as the 2025 Healthcare Innovator of the Year by Phoenix Business Journal, a 2025 Woman Achiever in Healthcare by the Arizona Capitol Times, and the 2023 Arizona Social Worker of the Year. In 2025 she was also given Special Recognition of Distinguished Service to the Social Work Profession after her testimony & advocacy efforts to pass SB1036, the Social Work Compact in the state of Arizona. Terri’s dedication to civic engagement and volunteerism extends to additional community organizations such as the MISS Foundation serving bereaved parents and families, the Selah Carefarm as an Emotional Wellness Advisor, & the Semicolon Society. Terri volunteers her time formally mentoring and training graduate students and new therapists in the field. Terri is simultaneously honored and heartbroken to be present with grievers and proud to call herself a grief activist. She devotes herself to this work in memory of her brother Brian and her beloved daughter, Kyndrid.