Exploring the Split-Attraction Model
A guided exploration of the different ways we experience connection, from the romantic and sexual to the platonic, sensual, and beyond.
Explore your own landscape of connection or bring this workshop to your organization.
For Organizations: Bring Untangling Attraction to your LGBTQ+ center, support group, or campus community. This workshop gives participants the language and frameworks to explore the full landscape of how they experience connection — on their own terms.
For You: Curious about the Split-Attraction Model or want space to map your own landscape of connection? The Untangling Attraction workbook walks you through the same guided explorations we use in the live workshop — at your own pace, in your own space.
Overview
Organizations serving questioning individuals and LGBTQ+ communities often encounter people struggling to understand their own attractions. This workshop provides a safe, structured space for that exploration. Participants learn the Split-Attraction Model and a vocabulary for different attraction types, complete private worksheets mapping their own relational dynamics, and explore identity labels as optional tools for self-understanding. Through guided reflection and small-group processing, participants gain clarity about their own patterns and leave with deeper validation and community connection—supporting your organization’s mission of holistic care.
Format
Facilitator-led and reflective, combining brief instruction with deep personal reflection, small-group discussion, and exploratory label identification. Designed for groups of 3-20 participants. All materials provided.
Core philosophy
This workshop provides language and frameworks for the complex experience of human attraction—recognizing that many people struggle to understand themselves with the limited vocabulary society provides. We believe that self-knowledge is a foundation of wellbeing, and that organizations can play a vital role in offering the tools for that discovery.
Target audience
LGBTQ+ and questioning staff, volunteers, or community members curious about the nuances of attraction. Ideal for organizations offering identity exploration programming, support groups, or educational series.
Duration
2 hours
Sample activity
Mapping My Attractions Participants privately complete a personal attraction map using the Split-Attraction Model as a guide — noting where they experience romantic, sexual, sensual, platonic, and aesthetic attraction separately, and reflecting on where those overlap or diverge. Small groups then discuss (only what feels comfortable to share) what it was like to separate these strands — not to arrive at a label, but to simply be aware.