Additional Information

• • Target audience

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

  • Instruction level - Intermediate

    • It is expected that participants will have basic knowledge of the topic. Less than 25% of the presentation will review knowledge provided in an introductory workshop in this topic area. The remaining time will focus on advanced topics such as new research, specialty topics not typically covered in graduate education, or specific clinical applications. 

  • Recommended Prior Course 

    • Consent as Foundation - Understanding Sexual, Gender & Relationship Diversity

      • This course serves as a foundation for all the courses in this series on GSRD. 

    • If you have taken a course with Dr. Kieran from at any time, you may have most of the basics already.    

  • Full description

More than 1 in 5 Americans has engaged in a consensually non-monogamous (CNM) relationship — yet most mental health training programs offer little to no preparation for working with this population, and research consistently documents that CNM clients encounter mononormative assumptions, lack of knowledge, and even pathologizing responses in clinical settings. The gap between who is sitting in our offices and what we know how to do is wide — and it causes harm.

At the center of this workshop is a deceptively simple proposition: what defines a relationship is not who is sleeping with whom — it is the agreement between the people in it. When we start there, the entire landscape of relationship diversity becomes legible. Monogamy, polyamory, open relationships, relationship anarchy, and everything in between are not fundamentally different in kind — they are different expressions of the same underlying architecture: consent, communication, and clearly held (if sometimes implicit) agreements. This workshop asks clinicians to hold that frame and see what it reveals.

Beginning with consent and relationship agreements as foundational organizing principles — not merely standards for sexual behavior — this workshop maps the terrain of relational diversity: definitions and terminology across relationship structures, prevalence and demographics, historical and cross-cultural context, and CNM as a dimension of identity and orientation. The emphasis throughout is on recognition and understanding — what these relationships actually look like, how clients describe them, and what clinicians are likely to encounter in a room. Clinical examples ground the material at every step. Throughout, we return to the same through-line: it is the presence of genuine communication and consent — not the structure itself — that determines the health and integrity of any relationship.

Drawing on current empirical research — including work produced through the APA Division 44 Committee on Consensual Non-Monogamy, on which the presenter serves as Campaign Chair — this workshop gives clinicians an expanded vocabulary, a research-grounded understanding of what the science does and does not say, and enough familiarity with the landscape to recognize what they are hearing when clients bring it into the room. We close with an introduction to minority stress and clinical considerations — topics that will be explored in depth in subsequent workshops in the Foundations series.

• • Presenter 

    • Dr. Rachel Anne Kieran (Psy.D.) is a psychologist, writer, and educator, and the founder of StorieBrook Therapy & Consulting, LLC, an affirming therapy practice rooted in justice, community, and cultural humility. Her clinical work focuses on sexual, gender, and relational diversity (including kink and consensual non-monogamy), neurodiversity, fat and disability justice, and clients from non-majority spiritual and pagan paths.

Dr. Kieran’s practice model emphasizes accessible, bespoke collaboration with clients, including sliding-scale options and a community space designed to be welcoming, trauma-aware, and identity-affirming. Through StorieTree Professional Education, she creates continuing education programs for mental health and allied professionals that center ethics, intersectionality, and dismantling systemic barriers to care.

Her current writing projects include a book on finding and crafting mental healthcare for diverse spiritualities, and related work on “rainbow sheep” identities—those who never fully fit either mainstream or countercultural norms. 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:

      • Define consensual non-monogamy (CNM) and distinguish among the major forms of CNM relationship structures using current, affirming clinical terminology.

      • Identify the components of valid consent and describe how consent functions as the organizing principle of diverse relationship configurations.

      • Describe CNM as a potential dimension of relational and sexual identity, including the framework offered by Sexual Configurations Theory (van Anders, 2015).

      • Recognize mononormativity as a source of stigma and describe, at an introductory level, how the Minority Stress Model has been applied to CNM populations.

      • Identify clinical examples of diverse relationship structures and describe what these relationships commonly look like in practice, using accurate and affirming terminology.

      • Evaluate their own mononormative assumptions and their potential impact on clinical case conceptualization, assessment practices, and therapeutic alliance.   
        
        

  • Agenda / structure

    • • Block I — Consent as a Relational Framework  (45 min)

        • Defining consent: legal, ethical, and relational dimensions

        • The components of valid consent

        • Consent as organizing principle of relationships

        • Why consent-based frameworks

      • Block II — Mapping the Relationship Landscape  (60 min)

        • 'Relationship' — moving beyond the default dyad

        • The CNM umbrella

        • Terminology and glossary

        • Prevalence

        • Historical and cross-cultural context

        • Who practices CNM?

        • Group comarisons

      • Block III — CNM as Identity  (45 min)

        • The question of CNM as orientation, identity, or both

        • Sexual Configurations Theory

        • Parallels to LGBTQ+

        • Fluidity across the lifespan

        • Internalized CNM negativity — what it is and what it predicts

      • Block IV — Looking Ahead: Stigma, Minority Stress & Clinical Practice  (20 min)

        • Mononormativity as a source of stigma

        • Minority Stress as applied to CNM populations

        • What CNM clients report in clinical settings

        • Preview of upcoming workshops

      • Block V — Reflection, Questions & Next Steps  (10 min)

        • Participant reflection

        • Questions and discussion

        • Resources for continued learning

        • Overview of the series
          
          

  • CE information

    • • This is a live program. Full attendance is required to receive a certificate of completion. Certificates of completion will be issued following verified attendance.

      • This program has been submitted for approval (pending) 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.  

      • StorieTree Professional Education has submitted an application for APA Sponsor Approval and is currently in the review process. All StorieTree programs are developed in alignment with the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct and the APA Standards for Continuing Education Sponsors.
        
        

  • Pricing & accessibility notes

    • Standard Price - $90

    • 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