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

This workshop examines client intake not as a single form or moment, but as an extended process that begins with the first point of contact and continues through established client status. It is designed for mental health professionals who already hold foundational knowledge of sexual, gender, and relationship diversity (SGRD)—including the range of sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, relationship structures, erotic interests and identities, and relationships to sexuality that characterize human diversity—and who are ready to examine how that knowledge does or does not translate into structural, process-level, and relational change.

Drawing on empirical research, ethical guidelines, and systems theory, the program explores how the full intake pathway functions as a series of early clinical interventions that shape therapeutic alliance, access to care, and client safety before therapy formally begins. This includes in-person and virtual interactions across the intake process—initial inquiries, scheduling contacts, screening calls, administrative interactions, and clinical intake sessions—and the staff at every level who participate in them. The central question of this workshop is not whether participants understand SGRD diversity, but whether their systems, processes, and unexamined assumptions are aligned with that understanding across the entire arc of early care.

A core premise of the workshop is that these early experiences are an access issue. For SGRD clients—particularly those with identities that remain stigmatized, pathologized, or simply invisible in mainstream healthcare—the fears and past experiences they bring to the intake process significantly shape whether they follow through with establishing care at all. A form that erases identity, a scheduling call that misgenders, or an admin interaction that signals unfamiliarity with relationship diversity can each function as a point of dropout, long before a clinician ever meets the client. Structural inclusion is therefore not a matter of administrative thoroughness; it is a matter of who gets to access care.

The workshop examines structural failure across the full breadth of SGRD, with explicit attention to clients with diverse sexual orientations (including bisexual, pansexual, queer, and asexual identities and experiences), gender identities and expressions (including nonbinary, genderqueer, and gender-nonconforming individuals), relationship structures (including consensual non-monogamy and polyamory), and erotic interests and identities (including kink, BDSM, and consensual power exchange). In each domain, participants will examine how “standard” intake categories and processes can unintentionally exclude, misrepresent, or marginalize clients—even when the clinician holds affirming attitudes and working knowledge of the population.

The program reviews findings from qualitative and quantitative research on clinician and system practices related to demographic data collection and early client contact, including the evolving landscape of SOGI data collection, the persistent invisibility of relationship and erotic diversity in standard intake frameworks, and the structural parallels across SGRD domains. Participants are guided to distinguish sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, relationship identity, and erotic identity in assessment contexts, and to examine how clinician and staff bias—including implicit bias held by self-identified affirming providers—can become embedded in structural defaults across the intake process.

Through case examples, guided reflection, and applied discussion, clinicians will explore best practices for creating intake pathways that not only reflect SGRD knowledge but are actively structured to reduce the distance between affirming values and affirming practice—from the first phone call to the established therapeutic relationship. The workshop concludes with an examination of ethical responsibilities related to informed consent, cultural humility, privacy, and staff training, with particular attention to the ways that structural defaults can perpetuate harm—and drive clients away from care—even in the absence of individual discriminatory intent. 

• • 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:

      • Identify ways the full intake pathway—including administrative contacts, screening interactions, and clinical intake sessions, across in-person and virtual modalities—can function as structural barriers or facilitators of equitable mental health care, including when the clinician holds affirming attitudes and foundational SGRD knowledge.

      • Describe how early intake experiences and the fears that accompany them affect SGRD clients’ willingness to follow through with establishing care, and why structural inclusion is an access issue.

      • Describe how sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, relationship diversity, asexuality and aromanticism, and kink and erotic identity are each distinctly impacted by common intake and assessment practices.

      • Differentiate sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, relationship identity, and erotic identity in clinical assessment contexts.

      • Recognize how clinician and staff bias—including implicit bias among affirming providers—can become embedded in structural defaults, intake design, and interpersonal interactions across the intake process.

      • Apply evidence-informed best practices to evaluate and revise intake pathways—including staff training, process design, and documentation—for greater SGRD inclusion across varied practice settings.

      • Identify ethical considerations related to confidentiality, informed consent, and staff access to demographic information in SGRD-inclusive intake systems.     
        
        

  • Agenda / structure

    • • From Consent to Structure: Why Intake Is a Systems Issue (~15 minutes)

      •  Intersectionality at the Point of Entry (~25 minutes)

      • SGRD as a Case Study in Structural Failure (~35 minutes)

      • What the Research Tells Us About Clinician & System Behavior (~25 minutes)

      • Best Practices Across Practice Contexts (~40 minutes)

      •  Ethics, Risk, and Responsibility at the Systems Level (~20 minutes)

      • Integration & Application (~20 minutes)
        
        

  • 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 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