Workshops and Presentations

I believe in having fun while learning. There’s nothing better than going to a conference session or talk and finding it far more pleasant than you expected going in! People tend to recall information learned more easily and are more willing to act on it, too.

grayson laughs facing someone in front of the camera

While this is a list of prepared workshops and presentations, I am happy to tailor-make something to suit what you’re looking for. Please contact me for rates and availability.

Current Offerings

Disability in the Workplace and Beyond
This presentation can be tailored to primarily disabled audiences, abled audiences, or a mix of both. We’ll discuss cover myths and misconceptions, proper language to use around disability, how ableism works in our world along with other systems of oppression, and what not to say or do with the disability community.
You can view one version of this talk on YouTube, thanks to Thomas Jefferson University.

Neurodiversity & Sex – For Muggles!
Using examples inspired by the beloved book series Harry Potter, Kirsten Schultz – a neurodiverse sex educator – will guide people through the neurodiverse and neurodivergent world. Attendees will apparate into a brief history of the movement, learn how neurodiversity can affect sexual health and expression, and how best to support neurodiverse people in their sexual health journey.

Cultural Competency: Working with Diverse Cultures in ILCs
Developed with Brittyn Calyx
Many direct-service staff members come from privileged backgrounds, whether due to race or another category. It’s been proven that a lack of cultural competency is a factor in healthcare dissatisfaction, and this can be extended to the work service providers do. By learning more about diversity and culture, we will be able to better facilitate conversations and provide assistance, allowing us to meet our consumers where they are as opposed to where we are. Topics covered include the effects of systemic discrimination, the right and wrong way to share empathy, holding space for others, and how to continue learning about diversity and inclusion past the presentation. Attendees will come away knowing the basics about these groups including how to best support people from differing backgrounds using a social justice framework.

Hurts So Good: How Pain Disorders Can Affect Sexuality (and how we can fight back)
Developed with Ren Grabert & Rachael Rose
Kirsten has lived with chronic pain all their life. When they wanted answers about relationships, sex, illness, and more, they couldn’t find much. This presentation will cover the basics of how illness, pain, and disability affect our sexy times. We’ll talk about ways to fight that– from sexual health care and medications to relationship dynamics and communication tips.

Illness, Me, And Polyamory Makes Three (or more)
Developed with Ren Grabert & Rachael Rose

Chronic pain conditions can affect your sex life and sexuality – especially in relation to polyamory and ethical non-monogamy. Attendees will participate in an active discussion and come away with a better understanding of roadblocks chronically amazing people may face when considering an open relationship.

Cripping Queerness
The workshop gets to the bottom of the intersections of being an outsider in a cisheterosexist, abled world. I’ll touch on overlapping experiences, discrimination (especially in healthcare), and more. This was originally designed for Wisqueer 2018.

Chronically Hustling: My Journey as a Patient Activist
This class discusses the journey of how patients become activists in healthcare by sharing my own journey from a kindergartner with strep throat to a millennial working on disability and social justice issues. I can tailor this course to fit a variety of audiences and have presented it to pharmaceutical companies in the past.

Sex and Relationships with Arthritis
A throwback! This is the first workshop I created in my sex educator journey, and I’m lucky enough to have presented it at both of the 2016 Arthritis Foundation’s Juvenile Arthritis Conferences. In it, we discuss a variety of roadblocks rheumatic diseases put in the way of relationships and a healthy sex life while discussing tips and tricks to dodge them.

Tea & Empathy
From self-talk to communication with others, we could all build up our empathy skills. Sex educator Kate Kenfield is world-renowned for her work on empathy. She created Tea & Empathy to foster learning and communication around empathy, harness linguistic precision, and examine our feelings. While there are many ways to use these cards, the ideal way in a workshop is in groups of 3-5. Having taught workshops with Kate, I’m able to guide groups in using these cards and harnessing the power of empathy.

For past and upcoming presentation appearances, click here.