POLY AND ENM COUNSELING
RELATIONSHIPS BEYOND THE DEFAULT
Therapy that helps you and your partners navigate polyamory, open relationships, and non-traditional love with clarity and trust.
Therapy that helps you and your partners navigate polyamory, open relationships, and non-traditional love with clarity and trust.
Therapy that helps you and your partners navigate love with clarity and trust.
FOR RELATIONSHIPS THAT DON’T FIT THE MOLD
Polyamory and Ethical Non-momogamy aren’t problems to solve, they’re ways of loving and living that deserve real support. Whether you’re exploring new dynamics, juggling overlapping desires, or owning your sexual joy, I offer therapy that meets you where you are.
Most therapists still treat polyamory like a problem to solve, or they bury you in basic “communication tips” you already googled. That’s not me. Queer Talk Therapy is built for people who want more than tolerance: you want fluency. You want someone who already understands compersion, NRE, relationship anarchy, and the reality that love and sex don’t have to follow one script.
I bring nearly two decades of clinical grit, cultural fluency, and irreverent humor to help you move past shame, jealousy spirals, or the exhaustion of managing multiple relationships without support. This isn’t about judgment or lectures. It’s about real strategies you can actually use to deepen trust, reclaim joy, and navigate the complexity of ENM with confidence.
WHAT HAPPENS IN POLY COUNSELING?
We will skip the tired relationship tropes like “have you tried better communication?” Here, you’re getting a therapist who knows polyamory and ENM from the inside, who will call out the shame scripts you’ve carried too long, and help you carve out clarity you can actually use. I bring my full self, queer cultural fluency, and nearly twenty years of clinical grit to the table. Therapy here isn’t Poly 101. This is strategy, humor, and truth. You’ll leave sessions lighter not because you vented, but because you finally see what’s happening and what to do next.
WHY DO PEOPLE CHOOSE QUEER TALK THERAPY?
I work with folks who are navigating jealousy in open relationships, struggling to set boundaries in a polycule, or feeling the whiplash of trying to balance multiple loves without losing themselves. Some come in after a rupture, an agreement broken, trust shaken. Others are just starting to open up and feel overwhelmed by fear and excitement colliding at once.
What they have in common is wanting a therapist who won’t treat polyamory as the problem. My approach cuts through generic advice and goes straight to what works: language sharp enough to name your needs, tools to manage shame and comparison, and strategies that help you create the connections you actually want. Clients tell me it’s both grounding and liberating, and that’s the point.
WHO IS POLY/ENM THERAPY FOR?
This work is for people who are tired of cobbling together support from friends and online forums and want a space that’s both affirming and real. It’s for solo poly folks figuring out how to honor their independence, for seasoned ENM practitioners who keep tripping into jealousy spirals, and for anyone curious about opening up without losing themselves along the way. You don’t need to show up with a partner to do this work—this is about you.
Whether you’re kinky, vanilla, slutty, shy, or still finding your lane, therapy here makes room for all of it. The goal isn’t just to cope, it’s to thrive in the relationships you choose, on your terms, with confidence and joy.
WHO SHOWS UP FOR POLY & ENM THERAPY
Polyamory and ENM don’t just live in theory — they live in messy calendars, late-night conversations, and the tug between fear and freedom. The people who walk into my office aren’t archetypes, they’re patterns I see every week: the couple weighed down by rules, the partner lost in the shadows, the explorer craving more than one love, and the survivor daring to try again after heartbreak. Their stories show the grit and hope that bring clients here, and the clarity that comes when therapy finally speaks their language.
Sam wasn’t trying to follow someone else’s rules. He was trying to figure out his own. Dating felt like stumbling through a maze of labels and expectations. Every app profile promised freedom, but he often left unsure if he belonged. In therapy we treated identity as something to claim rather than prove. We explored his attraction patterns, built language for naming what he wanted, and practiced confidence in stating boundaries and desires. Slowly, Sam began to see that he didn’t need to shrink to fit someone else’s version of love. He could craft his own poly identity with clarity and pride.
Tasha was technically “in” the polycule but rarely felt seen. Plans were made without her, introductions skipped, her presence tucked into the margins. She bent over backwards to be accommodating, afraid to ask for more, until the resentment built. In therapy we named invisibility for what it was: erasure. We practiced small acts of self-claiming, voicing preferences, asking for recognition, saying no without apology. She stopped mistaking invisibility for generosity and began building relationships that honored her as more than a shadow.
Devon and Miguel loved each other but wanted room for other connections. They agreed to be “open,” but neither had a map. Devon worried every swipe or coffee date would trigger conflict. Miguel feared being replaced, and the silence between them grew heavy. In therapy we slowed the panic and turned “open” from a loophole into a practice. Together we built skills for naming needs, setting agreements that were flexible but real, and finding joy instead of threat in each other’s autonomy. What once felt like a crack in the foundation became a doorway to more honesty, more intimacy, and more choice.
Lena had tried ENM before, but what she got was cheating disguised as poly. Promises broken, secrets kept, heart wrecked. She wanted to believe in expansive love again, but every new connection felt like walking through a minefield. In therapy we honored the grief and anger instead of rushing past it. We separated betrayal from polyamory, built language for consent and repair, and created space for slow trust. What once felt like danger began to feel like possibility.
If you have a quick question about Queer Talk’s approach to LGBT therapy in Chicago, you can reach out a number of ways.
Troy Johnson, LCSW • Licensed Clinical Social Worker (ID, IL, KY, MA, PA, UT, VA) • MSW, University of Kentucky • Founder, Queer Talk Therapy
All sessions and chemistry calls are scheduled by availability only.
Week Days
If you are experiencing a crisis please call the Suicide Hotline at 988 or local Emergency Services at 911.