Meet Rachel Anne Kieran, Psyd | Psychologist, Private Practice Owner, Book Nerd

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rachel Anne Kieran, Psyd and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rachel Anne, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I am not inherently a big risk taker – I’m willing to admit that anxiety plays a big role in my life. So leaving full time employment to devote time to private practice was a big risk. And then deciding to leave even my part time teaching role to devote more time was scary. Suddenly it was all on me – not only whether I got a paycheck or not, but as I expanded, whether other people got paid or not. Honestly, I hesitated many times before I grew the practice to the place it is now.

What is most helpful in parsing risk for me is knowing what my values are, and acting in ways that are meaningful to me (and which bring me joy). As a therapist, this is an idea that I talk to people about all the time, encouraging them to think about their own unique ways of making meaning in the world, examining how their lives are (or are not) in alignment with this, and making changes as needed. Doing this as an entrepreneur is not always easy, because the most immediate worry is often how to stay afloat, but I found that if I make decisions that are meaningful and values-aligned for me, I get more excited about the work that I’m doing.

So, when you read the values for our practice, they definitely read a lot like my own personal values, that’s no coincidence. But because continuing professional education is something that I find meaningful and important, as well as a value for my business, I get excited about making time for that, rather than feeling like I “have to.” It also means that if I spend hours preparing a workshop to market to people, and then no one shows up? Well, at least I didn’t hate the time spent creating it, even if the risk of investing those resources didn’t pay off!

Education shows up in how I deal with risk too. My late grandfather taught me that “if you can read, you can do anything,” because he believed that you could LEARN anything. Sometimes things seem riskier just because we don’t know how to do them yet, so I try to make time to learn what I need to know before taking these risks – it helps my anxiety, and lets my neuroqueer self hyperfocus on things when I need to!

What should our readers know about your business?
My therapy practice, StorieBrook Therapy & Consulting, LLC specializes in sexual, gender & relational diversity, neurodiverse-affirming, inclusive and intersectional care. For many people, the phrase “sexual, gender & relational diversity” is not something they have heard before. To us, this is a recognition that humans experience biology, gender, sexual desire, sexual attraction, and relationship desire across many spectra. And that we all make choices about how we are (or are not) safe to express these aspects of our identity. We also recognize that for people whose identity is different from that demanded by their cultural group (for example, in the US, people who are LGBTQIQA+, consensually non-monogamous (CNM), kinky, etc) these may be difficult choices.

Our mission is to provide a range of services which recognize that these are expansive categories, intersecting with other identities and requiring bespoke collaboration between clients and their clinicians. Our practice values include access, anti-racism, body liberation, collaboration, cultural humility, public & professional education, inclusion & affirmation, social justice, and trauma informed care.

What sets our practice apart from others is that we center the experiences of queer, kinky, CNM, and other clients. These clients may have been marginalized or subject to minority stress in the world. In the therapy space, these clients have often been hesitant to share their true identities, out of fear that therapists will pathologize their identities, or hold biases against these. There is research that “discrimination from service providers poses a substantial barrier to care [for these populations],” (Levine et al., 2018), and that despite increasing education, therapist bias here impacts therapeutic relationships significantly. I wanted clients to know without doubt that they would be safe coming into my office, that they would be able to share the important parts of their world – partners, families, etc – without judgement, and with the recognition that often these are part of their resilience.

I am proud of the fact that we provide services centering sexual, gender & relational minorities, and have had the safety and privilege to do so overtly, for 17 years. In the beginning, my private practice was tiny, just me, and just a few hours a week, so I wasn’t worried that I was working with a very specific population. In those days, there was one local clinician to whom I knew I could refer, that would not be pathologizing to CNM and kinky clients. Today, I have a list of many colleagues, locally and nationally, who are doing this work not only in the clinical area, but also doing research on queer identities, consensual-non monogamy, and consensual power-exchange/kink.

That research has found the same thing that I have observed in my work – that no one group is more (or less) pathological than any other. Being queer/kinky/CNM doesn’t make you mentally ill. We have research that confirms that, efforts to depathologize kinky sex in the DSM-5, and more and more clinicians openly offering services to a wonderfully diverse range of clients. The research has also confirmed what we already knew – that therapy best practices happen when a therapist “takes an affirming, non-judgmental stance,” and “is willing to gather information and educate themselves,” (Schechinger et al., 2018). I am so proud of my practice’s commitment to this fundamental tenet of psychotherapy, and happy to see more and more practices learning about meeting the needs of sexual, gender and relational minority clients.

Most of the work of our practice is to provide individual and relationship therapy, however we also work to share this knowledge with other clinicians and the public. I often provide workshops at public and community events, to help support the mental health of the communities that we serve, and reduce the stigma associated with seeking mental health services. I have also been able to spend increasing time educating providers who want to know more about these populations, and what competent provision of services in this area looks like. I have provided local and national trainings, and love getting to talk about this work with my colleagues.

One of our next goals is to launch our own Continuing Education offerings for providers, as well as workshops for the public, once we have completed work on our physical space. In our office we have a community space (the “Rainbow Room”) where we invite providers in adjunctive specialties to teach classes and workshops, like yoga, bellydance, and more. This space is also available for community members to use. We want to be a safe place, literally and figuratively, in a world where these may not be available.

In the beginning I had 1-2 clients, and a huge office that I didn’t need. That was a blunder. Over time I shifted to renting other people’s office’s part time, which was a much better fit, and then eventually found one that better suited me and my clients. Then came pandemic! I had been venturing gingerly into the realm of telepsychology, and thank goodness, because it was probably easier to ride the tidal wave that happened when, in 2020, almost all mental health services abruptly had to switch to virtual. Since then, a lot of clients have found that it is more accessible to them to meet virtually. For some this is an access issue – chronic pain makes driving difficult, or spoons are just too low to take on the tasks of BOTH getting to the office AND doing therapy in a day. For others, it’s a time issue – they can take an hour out of their workday to have therapy, but not the time on either side that it would take to get to the office. Some people feel more comfortable being vulnerable and doing the hard therapy work in their own space. Others find it easier to get some time away and feel that safety in our office. Being able to give them a choice is wonderful, so I have kept an in-person office available, though I still see about 70% of my clients virtually.

In 2021 I made the decision to expand the practice, mostly because there were two incredible humans I knew who had just completed their graduate training, who wanted to specialize in the same area, and who wanted to help me make big things happen. Since then, we have expanded again, taking on a graduate student trainee the next year, as well as 2 more clinicians. And in the coming months we will add another psychologist. The diversity of experience and training of our clinicians (two social workers, one counselor, two psychologists) allows us to provide a range of skills and perspectives, while all sharing the practice values, and sharing a focus on serving our populations. We also center our own identities in how we work together, identifying the practice as “diverse & disability led” in recognition of our many intersecting identities around gender, sexuality, relationships, chronic pain, brain style, etc.

Expanding the practice has allowed us to create access to therapy for more people. We provide therapy services on a sliding-fee scale, with 90% of our clients receiving some discount on our services, and 3 out of 4 of our clients paying less than half our standard rate. Our goal is to continue expanding this ability and be able to partner with some of our referring agencies, like the Giving Kitchen and Pineapple Support Network, to get services to even more people.

Our current focus is creating a permanent home for the practice. Since 2023 we have been renting a converted house in Marietta that we love, and we have the opportunity to purchase this property. This is a great fit for our practice as it has space we need without being too much, but also room for us to create community. We have already created a community room in which we host yoga and bellydance classes, film screenings, board game days, etc. We have plans to renovate part of the space to include a more accessible 2nd entrance, and an outdoor room with space for even larger community gatherings. Our dreams of doing yoga on the screened-in, accessible porch, while listening to the fountain and the windchimes will hopefully be realized by the end of this year.

To help make that happen we are running an fundraising campaign, which will help support not only a permanent office location, but also access to lower cost services for clients who otherwise might not have access to care. For more information, people can visit www.bit.ly/storiebrooksavingthrow

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’d definitely head to Krog St. Market for lunch – though it can take a long time to decide what to get, we might have to eat there several times. You can’t beat Fred’s Meat & Bread for the garlic fries, but the Naan sandwich just across the aisle from them is incredible. Decisions are so hard (but for sure get Jeni’s ide cream for dessert!)

One of my favorite places for lunch and a long indoor walk is the Dekalb International Farmer’s Market – I love to get lost in the spices. But we would be in that area because we would be taking a day long pottery class at Mudfire! Always so much fun, and I love learning something new. Also buying pottery!

We would have to take in a Broadway show at the Fox – always fun for an evening. And after the show, Bantam Pub will still be open for dinner and drinks

Some of my favorite explorations take place on my e-bike, so it would be time to hit the trails. The Silver Comet is obviously the longest, and the people watching there is also lots of fun. But for cycling, the further out you start, the less crowded it is, so you can pedal along and enjoy the cool corridor of sun-dappled shade.

One of my biggest loves is books, so bookstores would be a must. Hours of wandering in the stacks at The Book Nook in Decatur is a great way to spend time. Pro-tip – stop at Chocolatte Coffee first and get the Vanilla Chai to take with you!
Also, The Sweet Read in Woodstock is another lovely used book store, with a coffee shop and bakery inside. A wonderful way to sit, read, or have a long chat with friends.

Marietta square is also worth a visit, the Australian Bakery is delicious. Also, you can get food to go, maybe before heading into town for a picnic & concert at Chastain Park Amphitheater (heaven is any night that the Indigo Girls play there!).

Have to get some craft time in, check out the yarn stores The Craftivist, and the incredible Eat, Sleep, Knit out in Dallas.

Finally, closest to home in Woodstock, we have to play some pinball at The Blue Ghost Arcade, and grab some Partners Pizza. Also don’t forget trivia at Sidelines on 92 on Wednesday night. And riding along the Noonday Creek trail after taking the dogs to the nearby dog park.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There have been a series of people along the way who believed in me in really incredible ways, All of them were teachers in some form. So to every teacher I have ever had, from Ms. Ann when I was in kindergarten, through Dean Sharon Baiocco at Jacksonville University, and Dr. Kim Gorgens at the University of Denver, I will always thank them.

Clinical training as a psychologist has another kind of teacher in the supervisors who teach us the art and science of therapy. I had so many that were incredible, but Dr. Virginia Bell-Pringle gets the thanks for my beginning a private practice. Her mentorship, and encouragement to be authentic to my values and passions (and to balance this with self-care), are what set me on this path.

The other main contributors to the success of my practice are the communities I serve. I was fortunate enough to get connected to members of sexual, gender and relationship minority groups in Atlanta early, and upon learning that mine was an affirming practice, and a safe place for them to be authentic about their lives without being pathologized, they began referring people to me. If Ginny laid the foundation, then the queer, polyamorous and kink communities built the house, and I can never thank them enough for giving me that trust.

Website: https://www.storiebrook.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/storiebrooktx/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/storiebrook/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/storiebrooktx/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@StorieBrookTx404

Other: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/affirming-community-in-a-permanent-home

Image Credits
All images – Rachel Anne Kieran, PsyD