Youth Mental Health: It Takes All of Us
Our children are the future of humanity. It’s going to take all of us.
Parents, educators, coaches, bus drivers: everyone who surrounds our children needs to be included. It’s going to take all of us.
It starts with you. Checking yourself, taking inventory, and modeling kindness, dignity, love and compassion for kids. I want people to leave with tools they can implement right away.
Where I really lean is prevention, upstream. You can’t teach a child how to swim when they’re drowning.
Having spent ten years filming mental health experts, brain scientists, educators, parents and countless young people, I’ve learned what works, what doesn’t, and the best practices for how to implement change.
I’ve also learned that you don’t go in to fix something. You enter any organization with kindness, dignity and respect for the hard work they have done and the systems they have in place. Then you see how you can support them, fill gaps, be complementary and move the needle.
And while the system figures out how best to help our youth, there are things we can do for ourselves: to help the effort, and to support ourselves in the moments when office hours are closed and the wait for therapy is long.
What I talk about
Who it’s for
Schools, corporations, youth-supporting organizations, education conferences, mental health summits, government and civic leadership forums, foundations, hospitals, juvenile centers and healthcare conferences. As a keynote, a film screening with conversation, a workshop or an extended training.
Subjects I speak to
Anxiety, depression, suicide, social media addiction, bullying and belonging. I speak from years of filming, and from lived experience.
- 01
It Takes All of Us
Why everyone who surrounds a child has a role, and what each of us can do.
- 02
It starts with you
Taking inventory and modeling kindness, dignity, love and compassion, with tools you can use right away.
- 03
Upstream: prevention first
Building skills before the crisis. You can’t teach a child to swim when they’re drowning.
- 04
What works, and how to implement it
Lessons from ten years of filming experts, educators, parents and young people.
- 05
Support in the in-between
What we can do for ourselves when office hours are closed and the wait for therapy is long.
Policy + infrastructure
I meet with legislators to learn about policy and infrastructure: networking at the top while working in the trenches.
The Creative Coping Toolkit is our film and evidence-based mental health education program. It addresses anxiety, loneliness, digital citizenship, online safety, bullying and belonging.
Every state is different, but the needs of families are the same.
Where this comes from
Stages and rooms
- NAMICon 2023, the NAMI National Convention: “RACE to Be Human: The Impact of Race and Racism on Youth Mental Health”
- International School Counselor Association, Prague, 2026: “Stories, Brain Science, and AI: A New Blueprint for Student Wellbeing”
- Silicon Valley Employee Benefits Conference, 2026: opening keynote
- Utah State Capitol, Salt Lake City: meeting with legislators on policy and infrastructure
Films and program
- Films: Angst, LIKE, The Upstanders and Race to Be Human
- The Creative Coping Toolkit, used in thousands of schools
- 1M+ people reached, in 30 countries and 14 languages
- The book: The Creative Coping Toolkit
From the room
- LIKE was referenced from the stage by former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy at the UConn Training Institute, Washington, D.C., July 2025
- “I left thinking differently about how we support young people.” Kristine Mizzone, ISCA
Bring the conversation to your room.
Keynotes, film + conversation, fireside conversations, panels and workshops.
Speaking inquiries