Consent is Every Step: Revisioning Sexual, Gender & Relationship Diversity with Rachel Anne Kieran, Psy.D. (09 Oct 2026)

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 19:00:00 GMT

You are invited!

SBCPA Presents:

Consent is Every Step: Revisioning Sexual, Gender & Relationship Diversity

Presenter: Rachel Anne Kieran, Psy.D.

Dr. Rachel Anne Kieran (Psy.D.) is a psychologist, writer, educator, and founder of StorieBrook Therapy & Consulting, LLC. Her practice is rooted in justice, community, and cultural humility, with clinical expertise in sexuality, gender, relationship diversity (including kink and consensual non-monogamy), neurodivergence, fat and disability justice, and support for people from non-majority spiritual and pagan traditions.

Dr. Kieran emphasizes accessible, collaborative, and identity-affirming care. Her practice offers sliding-scale services and a welcoming, trauma-aware community space. Through StorieTree Professional Education, she develops continuing education programs for mental health and allied professionals, focusing on intersectionality and reducing systemic barriers to care.

Her current projects include a book on finding and creating mental healthcare for non-majority spiritualities and research on “rainbow sheep” identities—people who have never fully fit within mainstream or countercultural communities. Across her work, Dr. Kieran advocates for affirming care as a fundamental right rather than a privilege.

Course Outline

1.   Setting the Stage (10 minutes)
2.    Definitions and Norms (25 Minutes)
3.    Identity and Socialization (25 minutes)
4.   Science Overview (15 minutes)
5. Ethics and Practice (20 minutes)

Topic:
How do your default clinical assumptions about "normal" show up in your intake forms, your language, and your case conceptualizations — before you've said a word? This session offers a fast-moving, practice-relevant introduction to sexual, gender, and relational diversity: what exists, how common it is, and why clinical competence starts with consent. Leave with a new framework, a few surprises, and more questions than you arrived with.

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe at least three examples of consent as a foundational principle across sexual, relational, and therapeutic contexts.
2. List at least two critiques of the role of cultural norms in shaping therapist assumptions about “normal” sex and relationships.
3. Identify at least three examples of diversity as population-level variation rather than clinical exception or risk.
4. List at least three ways sexual, gender, and relational diversity differ from pathologizing or norm-based assumptions commonly used in clinical practice.
5. Utilize inclusive, non-assumptive language to describe at least three behaviors when discussing sex, gender, and relationships with clients.

Continuing Education:

CPA is co-sponsoring with Santa Barbara County Psychological Association (SBCPA). The California Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CPA maintains responsibility for this program and its contents.
Important Notice:

Those who attend the workshop will receive (1.5) continuing education credits. Please note that APA CE rules require that we give credit only to those who attend the entire workshop. Those arriving more than 15 minutes after the start time or leaving before the workshop is completed will not receive CE credits.

Please Note: This salon will be held via Zoom.

SBCPA upcoming events

Consent is Every Step: Revisioning Sexual, Gender & Relationship Diversity with Rachel Anne Kieran, Psy.D. (09 Oct 2026)