Course Page -
Best Practices in Presenting CE for Mental Health Professionals

Additional Information

• • Target audience

    • This course is intended for psychologists, counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and other mental health and related professionals. 

  • Recommended Prerequisite - none

  • Full description

This workshop prepares presenters — new and experienced alike — to design and deliver continuing education that meets and exceeds requirements for mental health professionals from psychologists to social workers. Participants will trace the full lifecycle of a CE workshop: 

• where the governing standards come from (APA's Standards and Criteria for Approval of Sponsors of CE, Georgia licensing rules, additional standards bodies including ACA, NASW, and NBCC etc); 

• how to build an evidence-based curriculum with clearly stated, measurable learning objectives; 

• how to disclose AI use and conflicts of interest transparently; 

• how to infuse ethics and diversity throughout content rather than treating them as isolated topics; 

• how to design and deliver genuinely accessible materials; 

• and how to navigate StorieTree's specific proposal requirements, compensation model, and live-delivery logistics (including Zoom and captioning). 

each of which is discussed with direct, applied examples. This workshop falls under Category D1.3: its focus is the professional practice of designing and delivering continuing education, not the application of an assessment or intervention method.

Empirical / Theoretical Basis

Claims about CE effectiveness and pedagogy draw on systematic reviews of continuing professional development in health professions education (Al-Omary et al., 2024; Phillips et al., 2019); claims about accessible/universal design and accommodations draw on a systematic review and meta-analysis of universal design for learning (Almeqdad et al., 2023) and a mixed-methods study of academic accommodations and universal design (Edwards et al., 2022); claims about ethics-infusion pedagogy draw on a review of ethics instruction in psychology curricula (Ruiz, Warchal, & You, 2020); and claims about diversity and critical consciousness draw on Mosley et al. (2021). All other content — category/level definitions, disclosure requirements, proposal mechanics — is drawn directly from APA's Standards and Criteria for Approval of Sponsors of CE and StorieTree's own published policies, not from independent empirical claims.

Utility

Content is directly applicable to any clinician preparing a StorieTree proposal, regardless of discipline or experience level, and is most useful in the weeks before drafting a proposal or slide deck. It is not a substitute for reading the full text of APA's Standards and Criteria for Approval of Sponsors of CE or StorieTree's individual policy pages, which remain the controlling documents.

Limitations

Most of the underlying research on CE effectiveness, spaced learning, and UDL comes from medical and general health-professions education rather than psychology-specific or mental-health CE specifically; StorieTree's application of these findings to psychosocial CE is an extrapolation, not a direct replication. Similarly, the literature on diversity- and ethics-infusion pedagogy is drawn primarily from graduate training contexts rather than short-form continuing education. Presenters should treat the pedagogical guidance here as best-practice adaptation, not as CE-specific controlled evidence.

Risks

Common risk: a presenter who skips the infusion or disclosure steps outlined here may submit a proposal that StorieTree's Program Director and Program Administrator send back for revision, delaying approval. Severe risk: failing to disclose a genuine conflict of interest, undisclosed AI use, or a misrepresented category/level is an intellectual-honesty and disclosure violation under both APA standards and StorieTree policy, and could affect a presenter's standing with StorieTree or, in serious cases, implicate a licensee's own ethical obligations to their board. This workshop exists specifically to help presenters avoid both.

• • Presenter 

    • Dr. Rachel Anne Kieran (she/her/dr) is a licensed psychologist and Co-Founder and Program Director of StorieTree Professional Education, where she leads the development of affirming, culturally-responsive continuing education for psychologists and other mental health professionals. She is also the founder of  StorieBrook Therapy & Consulting, LLC. Dr. Kieran previously served as President and Continuing Education Chair of the Georgia Psychological Association, where she worked closely with APA's Standards and Criteria for Approval of Sponsors of Continuing Education. Drawing on years of experience presenting, reviewing, and approving CE programming — as well as her own experience being under-compensated as a presenter early in her career — she built StorieTree's presenter model around equity-based pricing, transparent compensation, and practitioners as presenters. Dr. Kieran is committed to helping fellow clinicians present confidently, accessibly, and in full compliance with the standards that govern their profession. Across her roles as therapist, educator, and author, Dr. Kieran is committed to the belief that affirming care is a right, not a privilege.

  • Learning objectives

    • After completing this workshop, participants will be able to:

      • Identify the components StorieTree requires in every workshop proposal

      • Develop presentation materials and handouts that meet accessibility standards. 

      • Apply diversity and ethics infusion requirements to your own content

      • Describe how presenter compensation and equity pricing work at StorieTree

      • Identify what disclosure of conflicts of interest and AI use requires

  • Instruction level - Introductory 

    • (includes new research in an area generally covered in doctoral education, topics not always covered in doctoral programs and more in-depth exploration than is given in most doctoral programs).

  • Agenda / structure

    • • Welcome, Financial/AI Disclosure, Agenda & Learning Objectives

        • ~10 minutes

      • Purpose & Foundations of E

        • Why CE exists, and where the standards that govern it come from

        • ~15 minutes

      • Standards, the Golden Thread, AI & Intellectual Honesty

        • How every piece of a workshop connects- and what transparency requires

        • ~25 miutes

      • Best Practices In Content Development & Accessibility

        • Evidence, diversity and ethics infusion, and universal design

        • ~ 55 minutes

      • Ethics, Disclosure& the StorieTree Proposal Process

        • What you submit, and what happens after you do

        • ~ 45 minutes

      • Compensation, Delivery & Wrap-Up

        • How you’re paid, how to run the room (and the Zoom) and your best practices summary

        • ~ 30 minutes
          
          

  • CE information

    • • This program is pending approval for CE by the Georgia Psychological Association.  

        • Acceptance of continuing education credit is determined by individual licensing boards. 

          • The Georgia State Board of Examiners of Psychologists accepts GPA-approved CEs for license renewal under Area III for renewal of their licensees. For information on the board requirements in other states, please consult your state licensing rules.

          • The Georgia Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and Marriage & Family Therapists accepts GPA-approved CEs for license renewal as related hours for renewal of their licensees (Rule 135-9-.01(2)(f)(1)).  For information on the board requirements in other states, please consult your state licensing rules.  

  • Pricing & accessibility notes

    • Standard Price - $75

    • For more information on equity pricing for accessibility, please read the StorieTree Pricing & Equity Policy

    • For more information on StorieTree's ongoing accessibility efforts, please visit our Accessibility page.  

  • Cancellation/refunds - please see the StorieTree Attendance, Participation & Refunds Policy

  • Disclosures - please read the StorieTree Disclosure Policies for more information