Carlton, Melbourne · Telehealth Australia-wide · Six days a week
(+61) 0480 706 922 (SMS ok)
Polyamory, ENM & open relationship counselling — Melbourne & telehealth
Opening up a relationship for practical reasons, working through a mismatch when one partner's polyamory is simply who they are, or bringing a whole polycule into the room — this is ordinary work here, not a special accommodation. The therapy starts from what's actually going on between you, not from a crash course in what ethical non-monogamy is.
To be clear: you don't need to be non-monogamous to work with us. Plenty of our relationship therapy clients are monogamous — this page just speaks directly to poly, ENM, and multi-partner work specifically.
Most couples who come to us about opening up aren't asking permission. They're stuck on the details: who you tell, what counts as a date, whether a sleepover is fine on a work night, what happens when one of you has three matches in a week and the other has none. The details are where the hurt tends to happen, so that's where we start.
Already open and it's gone sideways? Also common. Someone met a person they really like, and the agreement you wrote six months ago doesn't cover it. Therapy here isn't about ruling on whether opening up was a mistake. It's about working out what each of you needs now, and renegotiating from there.
Polyamory adds relationships, and every one of them has its own history. A hinge trying to keep two partners happy ends up with a shared calendar that feels like a battleground. A nesting partner watches new relationship energy light someone up and quietly wonders what that says about them. A metamour gets blamed for what is really an unfinished conversation between the original pair.
So who comes to therapy depends on where the knot is. Sometimes it's one person on their own, working out what they want before they take it to a partner. Sometimes it's a pair. Occasionally it's everyone. If you're the hinge, our article on the challenges of being a hinge in a polyamorous dynamic is a good place to start.
Sessions for three or more people run 75 min ($410), because splitting an hour between four people leaves everyone short-changed. Two-person sessions run 65 min ($355). Telehealth suits polycules spread across suburbs or states. Nobody has to cross town at 6pm to make it.
Not everyone has to come to every session. A common shape is a few sessions with the whole polycule, some with one particular pair, and the occasional individual session when someone needs to get clear on something before they say it in front of everyone. Your therapist will work that out with you rather than decide it for you.
For three-person relationships specifically, see our page on throuple therapy.
Plenty of therapists in Melbourne will say they're ENM-friendly, and sometimes that mostly means they won't be rude about it. Here it means your therapist already knows the language (compersion, kitchen-table, parallel, relationship anarchy) and doesn't assume the structure is the cause of the problem. Most of us were handed a monogamous blueprint and never asked whether it fit. A therapist working from mononormativity will keep steering back to it without noticing. You don't need to educate your therapist to get good therapy.
To be clear, that doesn't mean pretending the structure never matters. Sometimes the problem really is an agreement that no longer fits, or one person who said yes to something they never wanted. A good ENM therapist can say that out loud without it becoming a verdict on non-monogamy itself.
Our default framework for couples and polycules is Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT). It looks past the argument on the surface, the missed text or the cancelled date, to the attachment fear underneath it. That fear usually sounds something like "do I still matter to you?" EFT doesn't assume a particular relationship structure, so it works the same whether there's one relationship in the room or six. More in what is Emotion-Focused Therapy?
We see clients in person at our Carlton office, a short tram ride from the Melbourne CBD, and online anywhere in Australia.
Non-monogamy and multi-partner therapy are close to the reason Unison exists, not a service bolted onto a mainstream practice afterward. Our clinicians have sat with enough polycules, metamour dynamics, and "is this a phase or who I am" conversations that none of it needs pre-explaining.
Our relationship therapy page covers couples work more broadly, including separation and co-parenting.
No. Some people start on their own, some bring one partner, and some bring the whole polycule. Who attends can change as things move. Sessions for three or more people run 75 min.
Sessions for two people are $355 (65 min), and sessions for three or more are $410 (75 min). There is a $20 surcharge for in-person sessions at Carlton and none for telehealth. A concession rate of $215 applies to sessions for two people and $370 for three or more, though the wait for concession spots is longer. Medicare rebates don't apply to relationship therapy.
No. Before is often the easiest time. Agreements, disclosure, and what each of you is hoping for are much simpler to work out before a new partner's feelings are in the mix too.
No. We see clients in person at our Carlton office and by telehealth anywhere in Australia, which suits polycules who live in different suburbs or states.
Counsellor & Sex Therapist · she/her
Natasha is a registered psychotherapist with a Master's in Counselling and specialised clinical training in sex therapy. She offers inclusive sex therapy, multicultural counselling, and sex-positive, relationship-diverse care.
Counsellor & Mental Health Nurse · she/her
Nash is a South African-born, Melbourne-based therapist who works with couples and individuals, with relationships as her main focus — communication, repair, and staying connected through conflict and change, including for people in polyamorous and non-monogamous partnerships. She draws on more than 20 years as an AHPRA-registered psychiatric nurse, including a long history facilitating group therapy, and a Master of Holistic Counselling, bringing that clinical grounding into somatic work and nervous system regulation.
Founder, Psychotherapist · she/her
Meg is the founder and lead psychotherapist for Unison. For over a decade, she has integrated clinical psychotherapy with creative art therapies and systemic relationship models, with a special focus on non-typical relationship structures.
Start with a free 15-minute fit call — a real conversation with a therapist, not a sales pitch. If it isn’t the right fit, we’ll say so and point you somewhere better.