After a period of consultation and reflection, and responding to demands for a live-taught programme, we are pleased to announce our new one-year online Diploma programme
Advanced Training in Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity (GSRD) Therapy
A deep dive into GSRD Therapy
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 common within GSRD communities as well — and mainstream training rarely covers either, let alone both together. This diploma addresses that gap.
Developed by Pink Therapy — the organisation that shaped GSRD therapy as a modality — this is a year-long programme for qualified counsellors, psychotherapists, and counselling psychologists who regularly work with gender-, sex-, and relationship-diverse clients.
The curriculum goes beyond basic awareness. Through eight monthly modules, small group consultations, and an initial three-day comprehensive experiential induction, you will develop real clinical skills: formulating with GSRD clients, working trauma-informed, understanding minority stress, and navigating the realities of being a visible therapist within your own communities.
Graduates consistently report that the diploma makes them better therapists with all their clients, not only GSRD ones.
Fees: £3,650
Format: Entirely online
Duration: One year, starting early 2027
Limited Bursaries available for disadvantaged groups who may be underrepresented in the counselling field
Register your interest here
What people say about our Diploma course
I was trained as a psychotherapist and sex therapist but felt I lacked specific competences to work efficiently with GSRD clients.
The diploma gave me exactly what I was looking for. It should definitely be part of every mental health professional’s background.
The Diploma in Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity Therapy programme is the first course that I have found to fully address the therapeutic needs of the GSRD community in both a reflective and comprehensive way.
Drawing on experts from the field, it covers the current ever-changing issues within this area whilst also providing an insight into the unique mental health challenges that face the GSRD community.
The most resounding aspect of the course for me is the gap it fills that exists for GSRD and ally practitioners in the form of a supportive therapeutic network of practitioners.
Long after the course has been completed, I know that this crucial, non-judgemental, reflective learning environment will stay with me in the form of GSRD practitioners that are both colleagues and friends.
For me, it has brought sexuality and gender into my work and practice, providing me with the confidence and knowledge to help educate others.
The Diploma in Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity Therapy programme provided a framework and pathway in which to better support my Rainbow clients with their internal conflicts enabling them to hold and honour their respective identities.
The modules have added specialist knowledge to my counselling kete (basket) of resources in which one of my clients has conveyed: “It’s really good to be able to talk to someone who knows this stuff (GSRD) which helps me feel like you get me…”
I cannot speak highly enough about how the one year Diploma in Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity Therapy programme has supported my ongoing personal and professional development in Counselling therapy. It is a challenging course and, given the much needed support for our Rainbow clients, well worth it!
As a therapist who has worked within GSRD communities for some time, a part of me wondered if I would gain enough from this, and whether it would be worth the time and cost commitment.
I found the residential week incredibly affirming of myself as a counsellor in these settings; I was challenged, and I learned things that I did not know about, and I came away for the first time with a strong sense of community. This sense of community has continued with frequent conversations with those in my residential and my learning has continued also.
For me the residential was an incredibly valuable experience and I would welcome the chance to return for another residential on this course!
The part that I enjoyed the most in the Diploma in Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity Therapy programme was the Case Discussion Groups with my peers from different countries.
Not only did we share different clinical skills, perspectives, our own thoughts and feelings on each GSRD case, I’ve also gained insight into how culture plays a vital part in each GSRD individual.
I am very grateful that I could share what I experienced and learned in this course to other GSRD-friendly counsellors in Hong Kong.
I love teaching on this training because of the conversations I am privileged to have with practitioners coming from all over the world!
Despite our different geographical locations, we can come together to discuss how to best serve historically marginalized populations with expansive and diverse gender, sexual, relational and erotic orientations, identities and experiences.
As someone who has lived as an immigrant in two different countries and with a range of non-binary and liminal identities and experiences, I particularly appreciate this aspect of the training. Every webinar I teach is a delight and an opportunity to share what I know as well as to learn from insightful and passionate practitioners.
The Diploma in Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity Therapy programme is the most innovative of its kind in the world.
It takes the pathology and stigma out of how people ‘do’ sex, and teaches clinicians what’s missing from compassionate conversations about sex, pleasure and GSRD relationships.
I am thrilled to contribute my somatic clinical expertise as part of this program.
I embarked on the diploma because I wanted training where I could bring my whole self. It has made me a better therapist with all my clients, not only the GSRD ones.
The personal development combined with the academic learning has been a deep dive, compared to feeling that I was so often paddling in the shallows.
The Diploma in Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity Therapy programme was significantly richer in content than I had expected when I signed up. It has been challenging, rewarding and transformational for me personally and professionally.
The resources, expertise, module topics, structure and progressiveness affirmed and deepened my personal experiences and bolstered my professional practice.
From the very first module, I noticed the knowledge being useful and welcome in client sessions. Gender identities, and the Gender and Sexuality Conflicts modules, in particular, have deepened the awareness, education and support I can offer my clients in their journey to becoming whole. Highly recommended!
Pink Therapy’s given me an eye-opening and systematic view in therapy related to diverse sexuality, gender, and relationship, which is internationally absent in the current psychological education curriculum.
Instructors in the program are all experienced practitioners with a profound theory base.
[Not to mention, my excellent cohort from various countries have broadened my understanding of psychology and counselling under different country contexts]
INTERNATIONALITY
I have got involved in Pink Therapy courses to share my experience but also to find a supportive field of international connections with people who – like me – are deeply interested in gender, sexuality, sex and relationships issues.
I have learnt that we see and understand these issues differently in different parts of the globe. Those differences arouse a myriad of thoughts and feelings in me. Pink Therapy is a beautiful container for all of that.