A Year in Review: Mental Health, Healing, and Hope

In this special year-in-review episode, I reflect on a year of global travel, impact, and learning across workplace mental health, suicide prevention, clinical training, and lived-experience storytelling. Recorded for both Headspace for the Workplace and Hope Illuminated, this episode weaves together impact metrics, tools developed, global conferences, leadership lessons, partnerships, and deeply personal reflections on burnout, aging, grief, purpose, and hope.

What This Episode Covers

  • Workplace mental health and suicide prevention trends

  • Global impact from conferences in Vienna, Dallas, and Canada

  • Empowering clinicians to support suicide loss, trauma, and recovery

  • Storytelling as a healing practice after suicidal intensity, attempts, loss, and caregiving

  • Leadership, burnout, imposter syndrome, and mental health in uncertain times

  • Building systems of care that actually help people reconnect with living

  • Personal reflections on grief, aging, resilience, family, and renewal

This year’s work was made possible through partnerships with organizations committed to scaling meaningful mental health action, including utilities, construction leaders, labor organizations, clinicians, and safety professionals. Special attention is given to training managers, building internal capacity, and embedding mental health into safety and leadership systems.

I also share candid reflections on my own mental health journey, navigating burnout, imposter syndrome, aging, leadership pressure, grief, and the emotional toll of witnessing suffering, while continuing to prioritize healing, connection, family, movement, and joy.

Hopefully, you have listened to many of the episodes this year on both podcasts; if not, dig in and you will be able to learn from our international experts…

  • What is workplace mental health and work-related suicide, and why do they matter?

  • How can organizations and communities support people after a suicide loss?

  • How can clinicians help people recover after suicide loss or attempts?

  • What helps prevent burnout in mental health and leadership roles?