Couples and Relationship Counseling in Nashville and Across Tennessee
For Queer, Polyamorous, Kinky, and Non-Traditional Relationships
Relationships can become strained around communication, trust, sex, parenting, money, changing identities, uneven responsibilities, or decisions about what the relationship will look like next.
More about the relationships we support
Sometimes everyone cares deeply and the same conflict keeps happening anyway. Sometimes the expectations were never clearly discussed. Sometimes an agreement that once worked no longer does. You may be opening a relationship, closing one, reorganizing a polycule, separating while co-parenting, or trying to understand whether there is still a future you want to build together.
You should not have to spend half of therapy explaining that polyamory is not infidelity, that kink is not inherently harmful, or that a relationship can matter even when it does not resemble a conventional couple.
Our therapists work with the relationship in front of them rather than measuring it against a predetermined model.
- Online relationship therapy throughout Tennessee
- In-person therapy in Nashville Depending on therapist availability
Room for your relationship
Your relationship does not have to fit a standard script.
Most of us inherit ideas about what a legitimate relationship is supposed to look like.
Where those expectations come from
We are taught who counts as a partner, what commitment should involve, how sex should work, which relationships deserve privacy or public recognition, and whether separation means failure.
Those expectations are often shaped by religion, gender roles, legal recognition, race, class, disability, and the need for material security.
Relationship therapy can make room for a different conversation.
What are we actually consenting to?
Where does power sit?
Whose needs keep being postponed?
Do our agreements still feel chosen?
Or are we afraid of what happens if we say no?
Swipe or scroll through the four questions
What we work toward
Helping the people in your relationship build something more honest, workable, and accountable.
What you’re navigating
What might bring you to relationship therapy
You may be looking for support with one concern or several that overlap. Open a topic to explore what feels familiar.
Conflict, distance & trust
- Recurring conflict that never seems fully resolved
- Feeling distant, resentful, lonely, or emotionally shut out
- Rebuilding trust after secrecy, betrayal, or a broken agreement
- Repairing harm without rushing toward forgiveness
Polyamory & changing agreements
- Opening an existing relationship
- Closing or restructuring a relationship
- Jealousy, comparison, insecurity, or fear of being replaced
- Negotiating agreements across a polycule
- Metamour relationships and shared community
Sex, intimacy & boundaries
- Different needs around sex, affection, touch, or intimacy
- Kink, BDSM, power exchange, or changing boundaries
Identity, culture & belonging
- Navigating a gender transition within a relationship
- Cultural, racial, religious, or immigration-related differences
- Family rejection or a lack of legal recognition
Capacity, care & shared resources
- Neurodivergent differences in communication, memory, sensory needs, or conflict
- Chronic illness, disability, caregiving, or fluctuating capacity
- Time, attention, money, housing, or care being distributed unevenly
Parenting & what comes next
- Parenting across multiple households
- Co-parenting during or after a separation
- Blended families, chosen family, or unclear family roles
- Deciding whether to stay together, separate, or relate differently
You do not need to wait until the relationship is close to ending.
Therapy can also help when something is changing and you want to approach it with more care than the models you inherited.
Relationships in context
Relationship problems do not happen outside the world.
Communication matters, but communication is rarely the whole story.
Household labor What may be shaping it
A conflict about household labor may also involve gender, disability, employment, or who has been expected to care for everyone else.
Being publicly out What may be shaping it
A disagreement about being publicly out may carry different consequences depending on race, immigration status, family dependence, work, or physical safety.
Time together What may be shaping it
A partner asking for more time may be competing with parenting, multiple jobs, chronic illness, or a nervous system already running on very little.
Therapy becomes less useful when every problem is reduced to a communication technique.
How we hold the bigger picture
We look at what is happening between people and at the conditions surrounding them.
That means taking these parts of your life seriously:
Our approach
How we approach relationship counseling
Six principles that shape how we work with your relationship.
We do not treat the relationship structure as the problem
Monogamy, polyamory, open relationships, relationship anarchy, celibate partnerships, kink, and other consensual forms of relating can all hold care, conflict, joy, mess, and contradiction.
More about this principle
Your therapist will not assume that closing a relationship is the solution to polyamorous conflict or that becoming more sexually conventional is the solution to discomfort around kink.
We focus on how people are treating one another within the structure they have chosen.
Consent is more than getting a yes
Consent can be shaped by housing, money, immigration status, disability, childcare, employment, social isolation, or fear of losing the relationship.
More about this principle
We can talk about what makes a choice feel genuinely available. This includes the ability to ask questions, change your mind, renegotiate an agreement, pause, or say no without being punished, abandoned, or shamed.
Power belongs in the conversation
Every relationship has power in it. Pretending otherwise usually protects the person with more of it.
More about this principle
Therapy may examine who controls money, housing, information, transportation, community access, or decisions about children. We can also look at whose feelings set the emotional temperature of the relationship and who has learned to become smaller to keep things calm.
Naming power does not automatically make one person the villain. It makes the relationship easier to see clearly.
Agreements should be living conversations
An agreement made under pressure, confusion, or very different circumstances may need to be revisited.
More about this principle
We help people talk about expectations directly, including expectations around time, sex, safer sex practices, disclosure, privacy, dating, caregiving, finances, parenting, and contact with other partners.
The work is not to create so many rules that uncertainty disappears. It is to build enough trust and communication that change can be discussed before it turns into secrecy or resentment.
Conflict does not have to become a trial
Many people enter relationship therapy expecting the therapist to decide who is right.
More about this principle
We will not flatten every conflict into “both sides,” especially when there has been coercion, manipulation, or harm. We also will not use therapy as a courtroom where everyone assembles evidence against one another.
The work is to understand what happened, name its impact, and determine what accountability or repair would require.
Success is not automatically staying together
Some relationships continue. Some change form. Some end.
More about this principle
A separation can still be thoughtful. Co-parents can build a more workable relationship after romance ends. Partners may discover that they want different structures. People within a polycule may need to renegotiate how they are connected.
Therapy can help you make those decisions with more information and less pressure. Staying together is not the only acceptable outcome.
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Swipe or scroll to explore. With the panels focused, use the left and right arrow keys.
Connection, choice & care
Therapy for polyamorous and non-monogamous relationships
It can raise questions about time, hierarchy, privacy, disclosure, community, safer sex, caregiving, housing, and whose relationships receive recognition. Conflict may arise when people use the same words but mean different things by commitment, partnership, or responsibility.
Explore what you may be navigating:
Opening, changing & making agreements
- A mismatch in the desire for non-monogamy
- Opening a previously monogamous relationship
- New relationship energy and shifting attention
- Agreements that feel controlling, unclear, or impossible to maintain
Hierarchy, trust & connected relationships
- Hierarchy between primary and non-primary partners
- Feeling disposable within a polycule
- Metamour conflict
- Privacy versus secrecy
- Breakups that affect several connected relationships
Daily life, care & recognition
- Dating while parenting or cohabiting
- A lack of family, workplace, or legal recognition
- The practical limits of time, money, energy, and care
We will not reduce every difficulty to jealousy or assume that polyamory should work the same way for everyone.
The structure still needs to be examined for honesty, consent, power, and sustainability.
Pleasure, trust & choice
Kink-aware and sex-positive relationship therapy
Kink may be part of how you experience pleasure, intimacy, identity, creativity, trust, or connection. It may also bring up questions about boundaries, shame, trauma, desire, power, disclosure, or differences between fantasy and what feels right in practice.
Therapy may help with:
Consent, boundaries & power
- Negotiating scenes, roles, and boundaries
- Repair after a boundary or agreement was crossed
- Power exchange outside of scenes
- Distinguishing consensual power exchange from coercion
Desire, disclosure & intimacy
- Changes in desire or sexual interests
- Different levels of interest in kink
- Disclosure to partners
Shame, access & pleasure
- Shame connected to religion, family, gender, or sexuality
- Disability, chronic pain, sensory needs, or body changes
- Reconnecting with pleasure after trauma
A therapist may ask direct questions about consent, safety, and impact.
That is different from treating kink itself as a problem.
Co-parenting & shared care
Co-parenting does not require continuing the romantic relationship
A romantic relationship can end while the work of parenting continues.
Co-parent therapy may help separated partners, divorced parents, queer families, blended families, and other caregiving arrangements communicate more clearly without asking children to carry messages or manage adult conflict.
Explore the areas where you may want support:
Everyday care & households
- Parenting across two or more households
- Different expectations, routines, or discipline styles
- Money and the distribution of caregiving labor
- Creating agreements that reflect current circumstances
Identity, family & change
- Decisions about school, healthcare, religion, or identity
- Introducing new partners
- Supporting a queer, trans, or neurodivergent child
- Extended family boundaries
Communication & repair
- Repairing communication after a difficult separation
- Protecting children from adult conflict
The aim is not to recreate the relationship that ended. It is to build a way of coordinating care that does not require children to become negotiators, witnesses, or emotional support for the adults around them.
People behind the care
Meet our relationship therapists
Different relationships need different kinds of support. You may want someone who understands polyamory and kink, can work across cultural or language differences, or has experience with queerness, neurodivergence, disability, trauma, and non-traditional family structures.
English + Spanish
Dani Neiderhiser
MA she/her
Bilingual LGBTQ+ Therapist
For partners navigating different languages, cultural expectations, religious backgrounds, or questions about gender and sexuality.
Online throughout Tennessee
In person in Nashville
More about Dani
Dani works in English and Spanish with people navigating identity, culture, religion, body image, shame, and the experience of moving between communities.
She may be a good fit for partners whose relationship is shaped by different languages, cultural expectations, conservative religious backgrounds, migration, or questions about gender and sexuality. Her approach makes room for difficult conversations without treating shame as a useful tool for change.
- Areas of focus
- LGBTQ+ identities, Hispanic and Latina/o/e communities, religious trauma, body image, eating concerns, sex-positive care, and life between cultures
Polyamory + kink
Urielle Samis
LCSW she/her
Founder, LGBTQ+ & Trauma Therapist
For relationships shaped by trauma, attachment, queerness or neurodivergence, including polyamory and BDSM.
Online throughout Tennessee
More about Urielle
Urielle works with adults and couples, including people in polyamorous relationships and BDSM communities. Her work may be especially useful when relationship conflict is connected to trauma, attachment, queer or trans identity, neurodivergence, intergenerational experiences, or major life transitions.
She brings warmth and directness into the room, with space for humor alongside deeper work. Rather than treating protective responses as character flaws, Urielle helps people understand what those responses have been trying to do and whether they still fit the relationship now.
- Approaches
- EMDR, IFS-informed therapy, attachment-focused work, somatic therapy, and DBT-informed care
Sliding-scale options
Troy Morrow
MSSW he/him
Queer, Black & Neurodivergent Therapist
For couples and non-monogamous partners exploring how different brains, bodies, identities and capacities shape their relationship.
Online throughout Tennessee
More about Troy
Troy works with couples and people practicing ethical non-monogamy. His areas of focus include ADHD, autism, queer and trans identities, racial marginalization, chronic illness, disability, trauma, and relationship concerns.
He may be a good fit for people who want to understand how different brains, bodies, identities, and capacities affect a relationship. Troy’s work centers honesty, agency, values, and the possibility of relating without asking anyone to work against who they are.
- Approaches
- Narrative, cognitive, mindfulness-based, somatic, expressive, and exploratory therapy, with EMDR training
- Cost options
- Deep sliding-scale options. Ask about current openings.
A little clarity before you begin
Frequently asked questions
Open what’s on your mind. You’re welcome to ask us more.
Who can come
Do we have to be married to attend relationship therapy?
No. Relationship therapy is available to people in many forms of connection, including dating partners, spouses, co-parents, polyamorous partners, people in open relationships, and people deciding whether or how to continue a relationship.
Can more than two people attend?
Possibly. The appropriate setup depends on the relationship, the concerns being addressed, therapist availability, and who needs to be part of the conversation. Contact Healing Umbrella to discuss your relationship structure and what kind of support you are seeking.
Can we attend therapy as co-parents even if we are no longer a couple?
Yes. Co-parent therapy can focus on communication, boundaries, decision-making, transitions between households, and reducing the ways children become pulled into adult conflict.
Is online relationship therapy available outside Nashville?
Yes. Online therapy is available when all participating clients are physically located in Tennessee during the session. In-person availability in Nashville depends on the therapist.
How we work
Will our therapist ask us to become monogamous?
No. Consensual non-monogamy is not treated as a symptom or a failure to commit. Your therapist may help you examine agreements, consent, trust, power, and whether the current structure is workable for everyone involved.
Is kink going to be treated as a trauma response?
Kink is not automatically viewed as a symptom, diagnosis, or evidence of trauma. If trauma is part of your experience, it can be discussed without assuming that it explains or invalidates your sexuality.
Your therapist will remain attentive to consent, boundaries, safety, and impact in any relationship or sexual structure.
Will the therapist take sides?
A relationship therapist is not there to choose a winner. They are also not required to pretend that every behavior has had an equal impact.
Your therapist may interrupt harmful patterns, ask direct questions about power, or hold someone accountable for an agreement they broke. That accountability serves the work rather than one person’s victory.
Do we have to want to stay together?
No. You may be trying to repair the relationship, decide whether to continue it, separate with greater care, or build a different kind of connection.
The therapist will not decide the outcome for you.
Starting with clarity
What if one person is unsure about therapy?
That is common. The first conversation can include what each person wants, what they are worried therapy might become, and whether the therapist feels like a workable fit.
Therapy tends to be more useful when each person can participate honestly, even if their goals are not identical at the beginning.
How does confidentiality work in relationship therapy?
Your therapist will explain their policies around confidentiality, individual communication, and information shared outside joint sessions before the work begins.
Ask directly about any “no secrets” policy and what happens if one person contacts the therapist privately. These expectations should be clear rather than discovered in the middle of a conflict.
What if there is abuse, coercion, or fear in the relationship?
Joint relationship therapy is not always appropriate when someone is experiencing violence, coercive control, retaliation, or fear of what will happen after a session.
Tell the therapist privately if you are concerned about your safety. They can help determine whether joint sessions are appropriate and discuss other forms of support. If you are in immediate danger, contact emergency services or a trusted local crisis resource.
Do you accept insurance?
Therapy services at Healing Umbrella are self-pay. Depending on your plan and the service provided, you may be eligible for out-of-network reimbursement. The practice can help file claims when your plan offers this benefit.
Lower-cost options may also be available through sliding-scale spaces or therapists under supervision. Contact the practice to explore current rates and availability.
Explore rates & financial assistanceA next step, at your pace
There is more than one way to build a relationship.
Your relationship does not need to become more conventional to become more caring.
What might you want to make room for?
You may need clearer agreements. More honest conversations about power. A different way of moving through conflict. Space to decide whether repair is possible. A co-parenting relationship that asks less of your children. A structure that reflects the people you are now rather than the promises you made under different conditions.
We can help you look at what is happening without deciding in advance what your relationship should become.
- Online throughout Tennessee
- In person in Nashville Depending on therapist availability