Healthy Polyamorous Relationships Part 1: Understanding Boundaries
I’ve seen a lot of unhappiness and confusion in relationships when people disagree on what each person owes to the other. It’s unfortunate to see how badly a relationship can struggle when partners clash over expectations and personal boundaries. When couples, trouples, or polycules of any configuration in my office are in conflict over one thing or another, I often find myself explaining the importance of healthy individual boundaries.
Shortly into this topic, one of the clients is sure to object and ask, “But in a relationship, aren’t there some things we have a right to expect from the other person?” And while I usually answer yes, sometimes there are healthy expectations and others that are not so healthy. The challenge becomes explaining what is healthy and what is not, and why.
In working to clarify my thoughts on this, and researching available information, I’ve learned that there is very little good, clear information out there on what are healthy individual boundaries in a relationship and even less available information for poly relationships.
One of the good sources I have found is Mark Manson’s article The Guide to Strong Boundaries. In his article, he says that good boundaries mean “taking responsibility for your actions and emotions while NOT taking responsibility for the actions and emotions of others.” He also talks about how good, strong boundaries are essential for a clear personal identity and healthy self-esteem.
Though there has been controversy regarding the book More Than Two: A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory, there is still useful information in it. In Chapter 9, titled Boundaries, the authors state that “poor personal boundaries can be damaging to the self.” They also state that “If we make others responsible for our own emotions, we introduce coercion into the relationship, and coercion erodes consent.”
But what does this really mean?
If being in a relationship with poor personal boundaries introduces coercion and erodes consent, then it becomes clear that that relationship is neither healthy nor sustainable. Additionally, allowing ourselves to be in that situation without defending our boundaries or without putting a stop to that coercion can be very damaging to our sense of self.
Therefore, I believe it is VERY important that we learn what we have a right to, what we are responsible for, what our boundaries are, and how to defend them.
I believe healthy boundaries begin with personal rights. This is not an exhaustive list, but rather what seems to me to be important for negotiating healthy relationships.
Each person has the right to:
Full bodily and sexual autonomy
To be safe from physical, mental, and emotional violence or the threat of violence
To have access to adequate food, water, air, and sleep
To the privacy of their thoughts and personal space
To determine their own interests and values
To decide how they want to spend their time and energy
To decide with whom they wish to be friends and whom they love
To be spoken to respectfully and treated with dignity
To express themselves, as long as while doing so, they speak to others respectfully and treat others with dignity
To control and protect their possessions, livelihood, money, and assets
To consent (or not consent) to be in a physical space, to interact, to have sex, and to engage in relationships
To withdraw those consents at any time
Right to the information needed with which to engage in INFORMED consent provided in a timely, clear, and honest manner
To quote More Than Two, “The key with boundaries is that you always set them around those things that are yours: your body, your mind, your emotions, your time, [and] intimacy with you.” Essentially, with personal rights come responsibilities. We have to take responsibility for providing the things in the above list to others when we engage in relationships with them. This is the heart of ETHICAL interactions and, ultimately, healthy relationships.
But there are other responsibilities, too:
We are responsible for knowing ourselves. Knowing what we want, who we are, what we need, and where we want our lives to go. This includes knowing what is important to us and what we will not, or should not, compromise on in order to engage in a relationship.
We are responsible for developing the emotion regulation skills* to be able to hear our partners express themselves, even if the truth is difficult or painful to hear. And, to have the skills to accept their truth, even if it means we will have to give up something we want.
We are responsible for developing the courage to provide honest, timely, clear information when it is relative to their ability to give informed consent, even if we believe or fear our partner will withdraw their informed consent if we do.
And, it is our responsibility to know our rights and identify our boundaries and defend them. It is our responsibility to whom we allow into our lives and what behaviors we accept from others, and it is our responsibility to shape our lives by pursuing the things we want and actively rejecting the things we don’t want.**
The concept of personal rights helps clarify the concept of boundaries. In Part 2, I’ll explain what we mean when we say, “You are responsible for your own emotions and actions,” and why “making someone else responsible for your emotions introduces coercion into a relationship.”
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*Emotion Regulation skills allow us to calm ourselves in difficult or upsetting situations so that we can continue to speak respectfully, treat others with dignity, and refrain from violating their personal rights. This may involve taking deep breaths, taking a cool-down break from a discussion, and more. (I will be writing more on this topic in the future.)
**This does not absolve controlling people from blame. When people are manipulative or controlling, especially if they are threatening or bullying in their controlling behaviors, they are perpetrating a form of violence, and they are morally and ethically wrong.