Often referred to as an inspirational speaker, a mental health motivational speaker covers topics like managing change, stress, grief, anxiety, and depression. They’ll highlight ways to build resilience, promote help-seeking as a sign of strength, inspire mental health conversation, and present effective and healthy coping strategies.
The best motivational speakers on mental health deliver a vulnerable, educational, and inspirational story
And they do it without leaving your audience feeling hopeless or traumatized. This story usually includes a traumatic life event and how the speaker worked through it to find recovery and post-traumatic growth.
A motivational speaker doesn’t sugarcoat the experience but is honest about the ugly, tangled, and often difficult path of finding joy again and the perseverance and support they utilized along the way.
Ultimately, a motivational mental health speaker should empower individuals to take positive, action-oriented steps toward improving their mental health by sharing doable skills to manage adverse events and tips on savoring moments of joy.
Here’s what you need to look for in a motivational speaker on mental health
1. The key traits of a motivational speaker for mental health are authenticity and vulnerability.
Motivational mental health speakers are relatable, authentic, warm, and human. They tell you about their failures, and what they learned from them. They speak from experience and from the heart.
The audience needs to feel the speaker’s vulnerability in their story and it should come across as a strength, not a weakness. We want the audience to understand that we all face struggles at some point. And when life explodes in your face, it’s an act of courage to reach out and ask for, or accept help or support.
2. Your speaker should inspire with a positive narrative, not toxic positivity.
Positive Narrative means ensuring that the collective voice of the story is “promoting the positive” in the form of actions, solutions, successes, or resources.
This doesn’t mean saying to an audience that people should deny difficult feelings and always “look at the bright side” which falls in the column of “toxic positivity.” It does mean acknowledging it’s OK not to be OK but that it’s a learning experience with pain and setbacks that can have a positive outcome with effort.
3. Your speaker shouldn’t be slick and polished but vulnerable, authentic, and transparent.
Slick and polished screams “fake” and “unrelatable.”
And when it comes to mental health, that doesn’t fly. You are looking for someone your audience can relate to. Audience members remember how a speaker makes them feel and that feeling should be inspiration and motivation.
AnneMoss Rogers captures hearts and fills them with hope. Find out more about motivational speaker AnneMoss Rogers here. See her mental health speaker topics here.
4. Mental health motivational speakers should offer actionable steps and learning outcomes.
Stories have lessons that help people learn and remember. And a presentation like this needs to address a problem or pain point and offer solutions, takeaways, and steps people can take to heal, cope with adversity, find joy, or define boundaries.
Whether it’s peer support or support for loved ones and friends, anyone struggling with themselves or a family member is more likely to find recovery if they know where to go, what to listen to, or read. And they are more likely to be inspired to do that right after a mental health presentation so they need something to take them forward in their healing journey. This is why the speaker needs to tailor resources for your audience.
5. A mental health speaker should not try to be “motivational” by sensationalizing.
These subjects need to be discussed, but they need to be covered in a way that shows sensitivity, and respect while not carrying on a tradition of shaming. Titles, for example, can be truthful and even catchy, but they should not be sensationalized, degrading, or graphic. The reason we don’t get graphic is because it’s traumatizing and can negatively activate members of the audience. It’s unnecessary to the overall goal of a story and we don’t need to know graphic details that fit in the “shock jock” category.
Why are Suicide Rates Skyrocketing? is an example of a sensationalizing title that makes a problem seem overwhelming. Someone who is struggling might wonder, “What’s the point?” instead of reaching out for help and that is not the outcome you want.
6. Every mental health speaker or suicide prevention speaker should have training.
While many mental health motivational speakers talk about a personal story and probably don’t have initials after their names, they should follow guidelines and have mental health training and certifications with an ongoing effort to keep up that education going forward.
Summary of what to look for in a motivational mental health speaker
- The key traits of a mental health motivational speaker are authenticity and vulnerability.
- Your speaker should inspire with a positive narrative, not toxic positivity.
- Your speaker shouldn’t be slick and polished but vulnerable, authentic, and transparent.
- Mental health motivational speakers should offer actionable steps and learning outcomes.
- A mental health speaker should not try to be “motivational” by sensationalizing.
- Every mental health speaker or suicide prevention speaker should have training.
One sheet (2 sided pdf) on Anne Moss Rogers’ topics, bio, and reviews.
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.