Before The Jealousy Workbook and The Polyamory Breakup Book, Kathy Labriola gave us Love in Abundance (2010). It’s less of a workbook and more of a counselling-informed guide that pulls together her years of experience supporting poly and open relationship clients. Where her later books dive deep into specific crises, this one takes a broad look at the emotional terrain of polyamory.

What It’s About

Labriola approaches polyamory through a therapist’s lens, highlighting the emotional challenges that often derail otherwise loving relationships. She covers:

• Jealousy and insecurity. Framed not as failures but as signals of unmet needs.
• Time and energy management. The practical and emotional strain of trying to “do it all.”
• Boundaries and agreements. How to create structures that support, rather than suffocate, multiple loves.
• Conflict navigation. Real-life case studies and client stories illustrate common pitfalls and recovery strategies.

The title is deliberate: love is abundant, but managing it requires emotional skills many of us were never taught.

Strengths

• Grounded in experience. Labriola’s decades of counselling poly clients give the book a strong, real-world feel.
• Wide-ranging. Covers many emotional themes instead of focusing on one issue.
• Approachable tone. Clear, non-academic, and filled with relatable stories.

Weaknesses

• Dated in places. Published in 2010, some language around gender and sexual health feels older compared to today’s discourse.
• Less structured than her later books. You can see the seeds of Jealousy Workbook here, but it’s not as methodical.
• Not for beginners. It assumes readers already know they’re poly and want to dig into the emotional work.

Why It Still Matters

Love in Abundance occupies an important space in the poly bookshelf: somewhere between lofty manifestos (The Ethical Slut) and trauma-informed psychology (Polysecure). It’s for people who are already living non-monogamously and hitting the rough patches that come with abundance: not “how do I start this?” but “how do I sustain it without losing myself or hurting the people I love?”

For many, this book was their first taste of poly-specific emotional support, and it still stands as a foundational, if slightly dated, resource for navigating the messy, beautiful reality of multiple loves.

Related reading

These pieces continue the same thread around books and resource reviews.

• Opening Up – Tristan Taormino
• It’s Called Polyamory – Tamara Pincus & Rebecca Hiles
• The Smart Girl’s Guide to Polyamory – Dedeker Winston