Most therapists working with GSRD clients have had little or no specialist training. This diploma changes that. Over one year, taught live online, you will develop the clinical knowledge, personal awareness and practical skills to work affirmatively with gender, sex and relationship-diverse clients, including those who are neurodivergent or carrying the effects of identity-based trauma. The programme launches in January 2027 and is open to qualified counsellors, psychotherapists and counselling psychologists.
Applications are strictly limited to 24 places per cohort. Given the high level of interest and specialist focus, we encourage early applications for the 2027 intake.
Developed by Pink Therapy Training, the organisation that shaped the recognition of GSRD, now embedded in BACP standards, this is a year-long programme for qualified counsellors, psychotherapists and counselling psychologists who want to work affirmatively with gender, sex and relationship-diverse clients.
GSRD clients are disproportionately represented in mental health services, yet most therapists receive little or no meaningful training to meet their needs. Neurodivergence is significantly more prevalent within GSRD communities, too, and mainstream training rarely addresses either, let alone both together.
Each module approaches these themes from a distinct angle. They run throughout all eight teaching days and the three-day course opening.
Led by Dr Agata Loewe-Kurilla and Dominic Davies | 15 – 17 January 2027
This module opens the diploma year. It sets up the group safely and gives participants space to explore their own gender, sex and relational identities through formative and personal work. Ground rules are trauma-informed throughout: choice, pacing, explicit permission to pass or step away.
Each module is a full teaching day (10:00–17:00), supported by monthly case study and supervision groups with a Clinical Tutor.
19 February 2027
What GSRD Therapy is, how it differs from mainstream approaches, and the conceptual frameworks underpinning the diploma: minority stress, the 4 Rs of trauma-informed practice, and neurodiversity as an intersecting axis.
19 March 2027
The therapist's own GSRD and neurodivergent identities, social location and internalised oppression. Introduces overlapping roles and self-disclosure that are applied in later modules.
16 April 2027
Putting Modules 1 and 2 into practice at the point of assessment. How to build GSRD, trauma and neurodiversity lenses into routine clinical thinking using the 5 Ps framework.
14 May 2027
Trans, non-binary and gender-expansive lives. Navigating gender clinics, primary care and mental health systems. Medical and institutional trauma specific to trans and non-binary people.
11 June 2027
Contemporary sexology applied to GSRD communities: kink and BDSM, fetish, chemsex, sex work and hook-up cultures. Distinguishing consensual sexual diversity from harm, and working with shame and trauma in sexual scripts.
9 July 2027
Consensual Non-Monogamy (CNM), polyamory, relationship anarchy, chosen family and queer kinship systems. Collective and systemic dimensions: community trauma, activist burnout and overlapping networks.
13 August 2027
The practical skills day. Applies frameworks from Modules 1–6 to technique: what you actually do differently in the room with GSRD and neurodivergent clients.
10 September 2027
The integration module. Brings together ethical, sustainability and self-disclosure threads from across the year. What it means to be of the community, not just working with it.
Three pieces of assessed work are completed across the diploma year.
All of our faculty are clinicians working at the forefront of GSRD practice, across counselling, psychotherapy, clinical sexology, clinical psychology and traumatology. They bring international experience and genuine specialist depth; many have published in this area. We will have a team of around fifteen staff working on this programme under the guidance of our leadership team:
With only 24 places available for the 2027 intake, we encourage early applications. Please click the button below to complete your application form. A £500 non-refundable deposit is payable when you submit your application to cover the administration costs associated with assessing applications. If your application is successful, the deposit will be deducted from your total course fees.
Course fee: £3,800 inclusive of £500 non-refundable deposit. Instalments available.
Limited bursary places are subject to passing the selection interview.
The GSRD Diploma Bursary supports applicants who face barriers to accessing the training. It recognises four distinct forms of disadvantage and contribution: financial hardship, lived experience of GSRD communities, structural inequality and professional vision. Applications are assessed transparently against these four criteria, with a maximum of 7 points available. The four highest-scoring applicants receive a bursary place. If you need a bursary, we will ask you to complete a form if you are offered a place, after your interview.
If you have any questions about the course, please email training@pinktherapy.org.
Not ready for a year-long commitment? Our Online Training courses offer flexible, self-study alternatives. Or head back to Therapist CPD to see everything on offer.
Ready to Apply?
One-year, live online diploma
Taught by specialist GSRD faculty
Bursaries available
