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Keynote Speaking

Keynote speaking from direct field experience

Conferences and organizational events. Talks drawn from work inside probation, treatment and reentry settings, rather than from a literature review.

Dr. Tessa Beausejour

What to expect

A talk that leaves the room with something to do

Keynotes here are not motivational. They come out of casework and program work, and they end with something a practitioner can use on Monday.

Format

Thirty to sixty minutes, with or without questions. Can open a conference, close one, or anchor an internal all-staff day.

Preparation

A short call with the organizers first. We ask who is in the room, what they have already heard, and what the event is trying to shift.

Materials

Slides supplied in advance if your program requires them, plus a one-page takeaway for attendees. Recording by agreement.

Talks

Two keynotes currently on the road

Both are adapted to the room. Tell us who is in it and what the event is trying to shift.

You see my violence, rage and needle in my veins, but fail to see my emotional pain

Why aggression and substance misuse are trauma responses rather than character defects, and what changes in a caseload once a practitioner has that lens. For clinical teams, supervisors and frontline staff.

Are we doing justice for our juveniles and the previously incarcerated?

What the detention figures show about trauma exposure among young people in custody, and what becomes possible when a system asks what happened to a person instead of what is wrong with them. For justice, youth-serving and policy audiences.

A close view of a person's eye above a white cloth held to the face

The through line

Tend the root. Shift the question. Change the field.

Whatever the title on the program, every talk comes back to the same argument: ask what happened to a person rather than what is wrong with them, and what becomes possible changes for clients, practitioners and communities alike.

Speaking at your event

Send the date, the audience and the slot length. We will say quickly whether it is a fit.

Check availability