What Is Compersion?

Dr. Marie Thouin's book, What Is Compersion? is a monumental step in helping to rewrite the monogamous script that runs our modern world. Her research and perspectives about compersion challenge this very outdated programming, and, I believe, have the potential to shift all relationships in the best possible way. This is how we make real changes within ourselves, which inevitably will extend out into our world making it a more loving and compassionate place to be. --Carrie Jeroslow, best-selling author, relationship diversity advocate, and host of the Relationship Diversity Podcast I have been describing this book to anyone who will listen! Marie Thouin works with existing research, as well as her own to identify key elements of compersion and how to facilitate or discourage it within relationships! I haven't ever seen it laid out this clearly before--anyone working with CNM in their clinical practice needs to read this book. Clients come in wanting this information from clinicians and many simply don't have it. --Elizabeth Duke, PsyD One of the most difficult aspects of approaching consensual non-monogamy is unlearning notions of competition and ownership in relationships. Part of that difficulty is that we don't often have specific resources or models for success in that regard. Dr. Marie Thouin is tackling that head-on and it's a long time coming. --Kevin A. Patterson, M.Ed., author of Love's Not Color Blind Over the past three decades, psychotherapy has experienced an important corrective by integrating bodily experiences into its therapeutic approaches. What Is Compersion? by Marie Thouin serves as a critical resource for an evolutionary step in psychotherapy. Understanding compersion will not only equip therapists with new relationship models, but also guide their clients in interpersonal pedagogies of joy. --Joseph Kramer, PhD, somatic sex educator Dr. Marie Thouin illuminates the transformative and enriching power of compersion. Through relatable stories and deeply researched wisdom, her insightful exploration guides readers towards fostering trust, intimacy, and boundless love in all their relationships! --Joli Hamilton, PhD, MHC, CSE, founder of the Year of Opening; author of Project Relationship Marie Thouin gives readers a fresh take on how to understand the benefits and nuances of compersion within intimate relationships. More importantly, this book offers a road map and comprehensive model for how to use this knowledge to promote compersion within relationships that greatly benefit from it. --Ashley Ramos, MA, AMFT Marie Thouin has been at the vanguard of compersion research for a decade, and her book is destined to become a classic. What Is Compersion? boldly and compassionately presents both the first evidence-based model of compersion and a plethora of practical tools to cultivate this jealousy-transforming positive emotion in everyday life. Regardless of whether you lean toward monogamy or polyamory (or somewhere in-between), this groundbreaking book will assist you to achieve freer and more fulfilling intimate relationships--and to open your heart beyond what both culture and history have considered possible. --Jorge N. Ferrer, PhD, California Institute of Integral Studies; author of Love and Freedom: Transcending Monogamy and Polyamory This book breaks down the assumptions and stereotypes frequently levied against non-monogamous relationships and provides both an academic examination as well as a practical model for moving past them and into positive, mutually ethical dynamics of compersion and joy. --Jeanne Marie Kusina, interim director of The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning; Distinguished University Lecturer, The University of Toledo This book brings CNM lifestyle to the fore, and removes stigma, by illustrating through qualitative research the benefits and values of moving to compersion. She shows how emancipation from fear of threat, loss, and abandonment can be achieved through compersion in CNM relationships. --Shari Collins, University of Arizona This book labels and articulates the elusive, yet powerful, experience at the heart of polyamory: compersion. While the practical benefits of polyamory are obvious (e.g., more diverse sex, an intimate support network, sharing of material resources, more care-givers and role-models for children, etc.), compersion, the empathetic sharing in the joy of multiple partners, is the emotional glue and goal that unites poly-folk. Marie Thouin has given a name to this feeling and systematically explores its nature, practices, and implications. --Albert Spencer, communications director, Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy and assistant professor, Department of Philosophy, Portland State University