See the Mental Health Keynote Speaker Topics
You might have clicked to get a list of names of mental health keynote speakers. What I am offering is sound advice for a subject that should be handled with care. I have focused on two important questions in this article.
What mental health keynote speakers will motivate my audience?
For that, you need to know if the mental health speaker you hire can deliver the message. If they don’t ask questions about the problems your attendees face, it’s unlikely they’ll make the customizations that would offer solutions and relevant resources.
A canned presentation is not authentic.
“Slick” speakers come across as self-absorbed, unapproachable, inauthentic, and unreliable.
Slides crammed with data can be a snoozer.
A relatable mental health keynote speaker with lived experience should share stories that:
- Educate through their stories
- Offer resources to support their efforts
- Supply takeaways that provide strategies someone can start using right away
People do remember stories more than just statistics. And every keynote needs to focus more on the message of hope, so the audience is left feeling motivated and inspired– instead of traumatized, hopeless, and depressed
Which mental health keynote speakers could potentially traumatize my audience?
A speaker with training and expertise, in addition to lived experience, will impart information responsibly and within guidelines while also being more relatable to audience members. (Guidelines for speaking on suicide are here.)
You do want to avoid speakers who sensationalize the emotional aspects of their story or share graphic details for the sake of shock value. Because it’s not safe to sensationalize this subject, and a good speaker can still captivate without doing so.
Lesser speakers rely on sensationalism, like some websites rely on clickbait.
And while you obviously don’t want a homogenized story stripped of emotion, you don’t want to put your attendees at risk. I have been a speaker at an event where the speaker scheduled before me got way too graphic. I had to mobilize the counselors in the audience to help me support individuals who were not doing well afterward. One attendee needed further support, and because we had support on-site, we were able to meet her needs.
“When a presenter has the personal experience, as this presenter, it adds an element of authenticity and compassion to what they are conveying.”
Attendee from Anne Moss’s School Safety Mental Health Keynote Forum Presentation
Contact Mental Health Keynote Speaker AnneMoss Rogers
The goal is not to stun people into action but to allow them to process what they’ve heard
You want the mental health keynote speaker to show a path to finding hope and connection, and ways the audience can take positive action after the event, either for themselves, for their family, patients, or co-workers.
That is how you define a motivational and inspirational mental health keynote speaker.
Find out more
- Video: Mental Health Keynote Speaker: Surviving A Son’s Depression, Addiction & Suicide (Event: Critical Issues for Teens & Adolescents, Audience: Mental Health Clinicians)
- Video: From Pain to Purpose Keynote for Educators (Event: Safe & Sound Schools Summit)
- Video of a full keynote is available upon request (I don’t have permission to post the entire keynote but I can share it via email from Google Drive.) Contact AnneMoss
Free eBook: How to Craft Your Mental Health Story for Public Events
- Includes a content warning script template
- Clear steps to reviewing scripts & stories
- Safety guidelines for the event
- How to coach storytellers
- Handout templates for novice storytellers to write their narratives for panel events
AnneMoss Rogers is a leading wellness and suicide education expert and one of the top mental health speakers and suicide prevention speakers. Known for her powerful, motivational keynotes, AnneMoss combines her personal story of loss with proven strategies to help organizations build a wellness culture that drives results and saves lives. She speaks at conferences, workplaces, K-12 schools, and universities, delivering impactful presentations that inspire change and promote mental health awareness.
AnneMoss does this work in memory of her son, Charles, who struggled with anxiety, depression, and addiction, and died by suicide at age 20 in 2015.
Thank you, Anne. Keep speaking up.
I will Yvonne, thank you