With October hosting both Mental Illness Awareness Week — an annual national public education campaign designed to amplify the reality of mental illness across Canada — and World Mental Health Day, several of our clients take this as an opportunity to prioritize mental health education and awareness within their organizations.
Taking place October 5-11, with World Mental Health Day on October 10, the mental health speakers featured in this guide — from clinical professionals to lived experience advocates — offer proven strategies for building personal and organizational resilience, creating psychologically safe workplaces, and developing sustainable mental health practices that support long-term well-being.
Contact us today to hire a mental health speaker and book your October event.
Top Mental Health Speakers
Celebrated mental health advocates, these speakers transform personal mental health experiences into powerful messages that educate, inspire, and empower audiences to prioritize their well-being.
Jessica Holmes
Mental Health: The Good, the Bad, and the Funny
Beloved comedian Jessica Holmes like millions of Canadians, has struggled with both post-partum depression and, as she puts it, “regular, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety depression”. Striving to help end the stigma around mental illness, she openly shares her mental health journey, bringing light to what can often be a dark topic.
In her heartwarming keynotes, Jessica combines comedy, characters, and music to distill lessons from her memoir, Depression The Comedy, empowering audiences to prioritize their health.
Anthony McLean
Fire Up Your Mental Health!
In this dynamic, high-energy keynote, Anthony McLean helps audiences regain their enthusiasm, recapture their joy, and get the pep back in their step, both at home and work, by sharing practical tools to recharge, refocus, and find the joy.
Whether kicking off a conference or wrapping up an event, Anthony’s lively session will leave attendees feeling motivated, uplifted, and ready to take action by developing a supportive mental health routine to better manage stress and build resilience.
Jessica Janzen
Mental Health: From Struggle to Strength
Through her own mental health journey, Jessica Janzen has learned how to transform life’s hardest seasons into fuel for resilience, growth, and impact. She draws from her experience to share powerful, real-life strategies to help audiences better navigate mental health challenges, including burnout, but shifting their perspective to unlock new levels of strength.
Audiences will discover the practice of finding “joy starters” and leave with other practical strategies to help them live well so they can lead well with resilience, clarity, and joy.
Kelly Hrudey
More Good Days: Mental Health Matters
Celebrated hockey broadcaster and former NHL goaltender Kelly Hrudey shares his personal mental health journey, and how his daughter inspired him to seek help and finally prioritize his mental health.
In 2005, Kelly’s daughter was diagnosed with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Kelly realized he had experienced similar struggles throughout his life. Today, Kelly shares his story publicly to showcase the importance of seeking help when you need it, and how, through sharing our stories, we can all put our mental health first.
Clara Hughes
Open Heart, Open Mind
Told with honesty and passion, Olympian Clara Hughes shares her personal journey through physical and mental pain to a life where love and understanding can thrive.
After her first Olympics, Clara began to realize that her physical extremes were masking a severe depression. She left the world of sport to heal. When she returned to competition, the healing path became an integral part of her athletic success and she has since emerged as one of our most committed humanitarians and mental health advocates both in Canada and around the world.
Michael Landsberg
Darkness and Hope: Depression, Sports, and Me
Michael Landsberg is best known as the charismatic host of TSN’s Off the Record. From watching his show, you’d never guess that he’s battled mental illness for most of his life.
Michael delivers a powerful keynote on the dangerously misunderstood issues of depression, anxiety, and stress. He shares his own battle with mental illness, as well as the unexplored stories of some of the world’s most recognizable sports figures, to show audiences that recovery, strength, and hope are possible in some of our darkest times.
Susan Stewart
A Bit More than a Rough Patch: What a Comedian Learned about Taking Mental Health Seriously
Comedian Susan Stewart delivers a blend of wit and wisdom to help people see the lighter side of life. While giving audiences lots of good laughs, she delivers powerful messages about stress management, resiliency, and mental health.
In this intimate keynote, Susan dives deep into the mental health crisis she endured in 2023, sharings her story to reduce stigma, normalize experiences such as depression and anxiety, and help people see the humour in the hard parts of our lives.
Matthew Pegg
Resilience Under Fire
The former chief of Toronto Fire Services, Matthew Pegg is a champion of personal and professional resilience. Today, he is the Chief Operating Officer of Warrior Health, where he leads the provision of mental health and resilience supports for Ontario’s public safety personnel.
In this keynote, Matthew shares candid truths about life and leadership and how they impact our personal resilience. Drawing from his time as a fire chief, pilot, and emergency incident commander, he will distill effective strategies for maintaining resilience under pressure and stress.
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau
Mental Health: The Building Blocks for a Strong Foundation
A passionate advocate for mental health, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau believes that to know and accept ourselves fully, we need to understand why we think and feel the way we do, and recognize the patterns holding us back.
Digging into the science behind brain health, Sophie offers fresh and educational insights into mental health. She leaves audiences empowered and equipped with the tools and strategies needed to enhance their emotional literacy and move forward on their path to wellness.
Building Mentally Healthy Workplaces
These workplace wellness experts and medical professionals provide evidence-based strategies and practical tools to help leaders create psychologically safe workplaces that support employee mental health.
Dr. Lisa Bélanger
Rethink Wellness: A Fundamental Shift to Workplace Culture that Works
Despite the rise of corporate wellness programs, employees are more burned out, stressed, and disengaged than ever. Here’s the truth: wellness isn’t a program or a perk — it’s a culture.
Dr. Lisa Bélanger uncovers the real drivers of sustainable workplace well-being and explains why traditional approaches often fall short. Leveraging insights from behavioural science, organizational psychology, and high-performance strategies, Lisa shows audience how to design environments that prioritize psychological safety, meaningful work, and a culture of connection.
Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa
Organizational Wellness
Investing in your employee’s wellness is not just the right thing to do, but a smart business decision. Evidence shows the workplace is both an opportunity and risk for mental health, with toxic environments seeing low morale and high turnover.
A resident doctor in psychiatry, Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa dives deep into the mechanics of wellness and what it looks like on an organizational level. She equips leaders with tools and strategies to implement an organization-wide policy that promotes and protects mental health on an individual and collective level.
Dr. Susan Biali Haas
Leave Burnout Behind: Strengthening Ourselves and Our Workplaces
Burnout is a multi-faceted work-related phenomenon that has reached epidemic proportions. Having experienced it herself, Dr. Susan Biali Haas is on a mission to help leaders and their teams thrive in an ever-changing world.
With her extensive evidence-based knowledge of organizational and workplace wellness, physical and mental health, and behavioural psychology, Susan shares key strategies to help people navigate the ups and downs and endless stresses and strains of modern work and life.
Contact us to learn more about our mental health speakers and corporate wellness experts and to book your Mental Illness Awareness Week event today.
