Getting Polywise: an Intimate Conversation about Modern Relationships with Jessica Fern and David Cooley (Polysecure & Polywise)

A rare chance to talk with Jessica Fern & David Cooley in an intimate setting.

The Modern Family Institute (MoFI) and the Bonobo Network invite you to an intimate evening of community connection and conversation with psychotherapist Jessica Fern (Polysecure) and Restorative Justice expert David Cooley, co-authors of the newly released Polywise.

This event is a fundraiser for Modern Family Institute with a recommended ticket price of $55, and we encourage you to purchase a ticket at the highest price point that works for your financial landscape. Advance registration is required, and space is limited, so get your tickets soon!

Evening Schedule:

7:00 - 7:30: Light bites, music, drinks, and book signing

7:30 - 7:40: Kickoff with Modern Family Institute co-founders Dr. Heath Schechinger and Dr. Lily Lamboy

7:40 - 8:30: “Ask Us Anything” with Jessica Fern and David Cooley. Submit your question in advance here! 

8:30 - 9:30: Auction, music, and opportunities for small-group connection with our guest speakers

*All ticket sales will go directly to the Institute and help advance MoFI's mission to ensure a safer, more inclusive society for all families and relationships to flourish. This ticket purchase is not a tax-deductible donation. If you’d like your ticket purchase to be a tax-deductible donation, please use the organization's donation site and write "May 14th event" as your comment.

Can you help us make this event a smashing success by volunteering or donating a item/service/experience for our silent auction? Contributions can be anything from a coaching session to a signed book. You'll be helping raise money to fuel the push for polyamorous and other diverse family configurations protections in the workplace and non-discrimination in more cities nationwide! Volunteer or contribute to the auction here.

About Modern Family Institute:

Families and relationships come in all shapes and sizes. Yet our laws, built environment, and cultural norms were established to support a monogamous nuclear family structure that does not reflect the needs of families and relationships today, As a result, families and relationships that don’t center two married adults often face significant infrastructural, legal, and financial hurdles, as well as stigma and discrimination.

The Modern Family Institute seeks to bring about a world where families and relationships are defined by their function, not their form.

Our vision is to improve relational, mental, and physical wellbeing by ensuring everyone has access to resources and systems of care supporting their unique family and relationship structures. Our research drives systemic changes in legal, financial, housing, and social systems through supporting media representation, policy reform, and clinical practices that create robust ecosystem of care.

About Jessica Fern

Jessica Fern is a Psychotherapist, Coach, and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional. Jessica is the author of Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma, and NonMonomgamy, The Polyseucre Workbook: Healing Your Attachment and Creating Security in Loving Relationships, and Polywise: A Deeper Dive Into Navigating Open Relationships. In her international private practice, Jessica works with individuals, couples, and people in multiple-partner relationships who no longer want to be limited by their reactive patterns, cultural conditioning, insecure attachment styles, and past traumas, helping them to embody new possibilities in life and love. Learn more at JessicaFern.com. 

About David Cooley

David Cooley is a professional Restorative Justice facilitator, diversity and privilege awareness trainer, and bilingual cultural broker. He is the creator of the Restorative Relationship Conversations model, a process that transforms interpersonal conflict into deeper connection, intimacy and repair. In his private practice, David specializes in working with non-monogamous and LGBTQ partnerships, incorporating a variety of modalities including trauma-informed care, attachment theory, somatic practices, narrative theory, and mindfulness-based techniques.