The best mental health speakers deliver a vulnerable, educational, and inspirational story without leaving your audience feeling hopeless or traumatized. If you want a good mental health speaker, here are 9 things you should look for, questions you can ask, and ways to prepare so you give the topic of mental health the respect it deserves.
1. The unsexy stuff. Tell the audience there is emotional content.
The emcee or the mental health speaker should simply give the audience a heads up that a sensitive topic will be presented. Given how emotionally charged mental health topics like depression, anxiety, addiction, and suicide can be, you want mental health speakers who follow safe messaging guidelines. That starts with an a simple mention from your emcee or the speaker.
For example, my blurb for suicide prevention training or a mental health keynote is:
The following is an emotionally sensitive topic. Since I know suicide can be in this room in some very personal ways, I would like to point out crisis resources such as the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or the crisis text line at 741-741.
I put the crisis resources on a slide. So if your speaker focuses on trauma from sexual assault, you’d want to share the National Assault Hotline, 1-800-656-4673.
Special Considerations:
- IMPORTANT! For student mental health presentations, you should always have adequate coverage of counselors ready to meet students in the hallway. Often someone’s story inspires them to come forward to talk, ask a burning question, or admit they need support. You can usually assume that about 2% of this age audience will reach out, most asking the burning questions and fewer than that need follow-up–usually around 1%.
- I try to avoid the phrase “trigger warning” out of respect for the number of people I collaborate with who work with or have been through the trauma of a school shooting. I use “content warning” as my description for sensitive content instead of “trigger warning.” I use “activate” as my verb instead of “trigger.” (e.g., activates the audience, instead of triggers the audience.)
2. Should I hire a mental health speaker that is slick and polished? Or vulnerable and transparent?
If you are doing a keynote on how to be a great CEO, you might want polished and slick for your event.
But that kind of speaker screams “fake” and “unrelatable” and when it comes to a mental health topic, that doesn’t fly.
Top 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. Because we want the audience to understand that we all struggle at some point in our lives. And when life explodes in your face, it’s an act of courage to reach out and ask for, or accept help.
3. Why pay for mental health speakers when I can get one free?
Keep in mind that the free mental health speaker is usually inexperienced, can perpetuate misconceptions and myths, has little training, unknowingly uses incorrect language, and often doesn’t know to follow safety guidelines which can have a negative impact. Furthermore, speakers should be about 2 years out from their tragedy. That allows time for the person to process their experience more fully because in the early stages, emotions can be too raw.
Delivering a mental health story should not be confused with delivering an effective, well-thought-out mental health presentation that offers genuine value and makes a lasting impact. The question is, do you want to take the risk given the sensitivity of the subject matter?
4. 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 a group of students that everyone should deny difficult feelings and always “look at the bright side.” It does mean acknowledging it’s OK not to be OK but that it’s a painful learning experience that can have a positive outcome with effort.
Positive Narrative Speaker Examples:
- “It was awful and seemed hopeless while I was going through it but I’m so glad I worked through it and feel stronger today because of my experience.”
- “It’s because my brother didn’t listen when I told him not to tell anyone I wanted to die. He did tell and that’s why I’m alive today.”
- “I went to a support group after my son’s overdose and it made all the difference in my own healing.”
- “I reached out to my favorite teacher, and she connected me to the counseling team. And that’s when my healing started.”
Roughly a mental health story should focus about 10-25% of the time on the hardship part and the rest of the time on what helped get the person through the crisis, how that person healed, and why there is hope. Here is a quick chart to define that narrative.
The 4 H’s of Telling a Mental Health Story
HARDSHIP
Your story.
HELP
What helped you through the crisis?
HEALING
How you healed.
HOPE
Why do you have hope?
So you do want a mental health speaker who is passionate and authentic, one who revs up audience members to take action. Yet you also need this person to deliver that experience responsibly.
5. Mental health speakers should offer actionable steps and learning outcomes.
Just like any speaker you hire. Stories have lessons that help people learn and remember. Your mental health speaker needs to break down into steps what was effective. A documentary might focus solely on a problem but a presentation addresses a problem or pain point and has 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, any individual who is struggling is more likely to find recovery if they know where to go, and 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.
Resources should be customized based on the audience
Example: I might offer ManTherapy.org as a resource for a room of business leaders who are mostly men. For parents worried about their child’s substance misuse, I would offer up Families Anonymous, CRAFT-based support resources, SMART Recovery for Families, or NAMI Family Support Group.
The mental health speaker should offer resources for those who are struggling with an issue and for those who love them.
How those resources are shared can vary but they can be:
- posted on the wall
- offered on tables
- on a slide
- offered as a download
How can we know if the audience is learning anything?
Most conferences do surveys. And I love that. But here’s what I do.
An example of how I determined if the audience was getting the messages they needed: I wanted proof my audience was learning something. And I wanted to blunt the emotional crash I would experience after telling my story. So I asked the audience for one favor. Would they write on an index card, one thing they learned? These cards helped me take a piece of the audience back with me and they filled me back up and reminded me of my passion for mental health. They also helped me understand which messages were resonating. If you want to see more, they are posted in this gallery.
6. A mental health speaker should not sensationalize
Mental health topics or content should not be sensationalized because it can activate your audience in negative ways. I’m not suggesting a homogenized message or topic title stripped of personality.
However, there are ways a speaker can deliver a story of pain-to-hope without sensationalizing or including graphic detail. This is the art of writing and delivering a good speech and being a responsible storyteller.
Titles can be truthful and even catchy, but they should not be sensationalized, degrading, or graphic.
Example of insensitive language and then a more sensitive treatment: Appropriate Treatments for Drug Addicts is a degrading title because of the phrase “drug addicts.” A better title would be Appropriate Treatment for those with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) or Appropriate Treatment for those with Addiction.
Example of sensationalizing: Why are Suicide Rates Skyrocketing? is an example of sensationalizing. The word “skyrocketing” makes a problem seem overwhelming and hopeless. When we sensationalize, those who may be struggling might wonder, “What’s the point?” instead of reaching out for help.
7. Top mental health speakers use thoughtful language and appropriate presentation images
This part might be obvious, but no speaker should ever speak of those who suffer mental illness as “crazy” or “psycho” or refer to those who suffer substance use disorder as “junkies” or “crackheads.”
You wouldn’t tolerate a speaker referring to someone with cancer as a “bowling ball head” or a person with diabetes as an “insulin addict.”
This is why it’s important to treat all diseases, whether mental health or physical health, with the same respect. Of course, there are exceptions such as a personal experience that might be something like: “I was called psycho, and a junkie which further perpetuated my sense that I was a worthless piece of garbage.”
Mental Health Speakers should not use the phrase, “committed suicide”
While it has been in our lexicon for hundreds of years, it’s not what you want a speaker to say on stage. If someone you are considering uses this phrase in a pre-meeting you know they are novices most likely they’ve not had adequate training yet.
Seasoned mental health speakers use phrases like “he took his life,” or “died by suicide.”
These images should not be used in presentations about addiction
Speakers shouldn’t use slides and videos with visuals of needles or lines of coke. Unless it’s for a presentation to DEA agents on paraphernalia, these stock images are overused, and stigmatizing and can activate those in recovery.
These subjects need to be discussed, but they need to be covered in a way that shows sensitivity, and respect and doesn’t carry on a tradition of shaming.
8. A mental health speaker should not share graphic details
Whether it’s sexual assault, self-harm, childhood abuse, or suicide, audiences don’t need to hear graphic details about ropes, razor blades, belts, gun barrels, or the amount of blood spatter on the wall.
Mental health-related topics are already uncomfortable. It doesn’t need to be graphic and distressing, too. Just because Hollywood and streaming services take a shock-jock approach doesn’t make it right.
A speaker should especially avoid details about suicide methods that are potentially activating, especially for youth and vulnerable populations. Talking about suicide doesn’t plant the idea in someone’s head. Talking at length about the method can activate those at risk as well as survivors. Furthermore, mentioning certain locations like the media does often makes that location a “hot spot” meaning that it’s now a famous spot for people to go kill themselves.
9. Does the mental health speaker have training?
Those speakers with lived experience are among the most powerful and inspirational mental health speakers–whether they are suicide attempt survivors, someone in addiction recovery, or a trauma survivor.
It’s critical that this personal experience is balanced with safety guidelines, training, and education.
So ask if your speaker has had any training that supports their topic.
If they speak on suicide, ask if they have reviewed, followed, and practice safety guidelines. Doing so shows a commitment to responsible delivery on the topics. Speakers trained in these courses are committed to making the venue where they present a safe space.
As a final note, story and human experience are critical to getting an audience engaged. That’s what gets an audience revved up to take action. Yet you also need this person to deliver that experience responsibly. That’s why choosing the right person is really important.
AnneMoss Rogers’ Mental Health Speaker Topics
Article Summary
- The unsexy stuff. Why offer a heads up about emotional subjects?
- Should I hire a mental health speaker that is slick and polished? Or vulnerable and transparent?
- Why pay for mental health speakers when I can get one free?
- Your speaker should inspire with a positive narrative, not toxic positivity
- A mental health speaker should offer actionable steps and takeaways.
- A mental health speaker should not sensationalize
- Top mental health speakers use thoughtful language and appropriate presentation images
- A mental health speaker should not share graphic details
- Does the mental health speaker 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.
I am looking for a speaker who can speak to elderly suicide prevention. Any thoughts?
I can speak about that age group. There are different stressors of course with life transition, pain from physical Illness and aging, loss of purpose etc. They are also less likely to reach out for help considering it a weakness of character. It’s a high risk group, particularly males.
There are not a lot of us who are qualified speakers on suicide and I don’t know of one who speaks exclusively about this group. It would be a small niche within a small niche. Let me know if you want me to reach out or zoom meet.