SCHOOL, COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY SPEAKER

ON MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING

"The students felt the session was informative and inclusive. Katherine helped them to feel better about their own body image and they felt she gave them helpful and realistic advice" 
Sophie Manley, Talbot Heath PSRE teacher

Combining personal experience, professional expertise, honesty, vulnerability and excellent communications skills, I speak to schools, colleges and universities on the following mental health and wellbeing topics:

• Managing stress, anxiety and overwhelm
• Avoiding and overcoming eating disorders, addictions and other forms of self-harm
• Overcoming perfectionism to thrive
• Overcoming low-self esteem and building self-worth
• Achieving our full potential while staying happy, healthy and well 

In my talks and workshops, I share my personal experience of overcoming an eating disorder that took root in my early teens, combatting perfectionism, and managing and overcoming stress, anxiety and low self-esteem. I also share practical tools and techniques to help young people to thrive in life and in their education. 

email me to invite me to speak

STOPPING THE CYCLE OF SELF-HARM

In my talks, I explore how to avoid self-harming behaviours and how to stop the cycle of self-harm before it becomes deeply rooted and hard to address. I tailor my talks to each audience so that participants receive the maximum benefit.

Please also take a look at my TEDx talk as well as my speaker showreel (the latter is aimed at a corporate audience but it will give you a sense of my story and style as well as the feedback I've received).

WATCH MY TEDX

SPEAKER TOPICS

• How to manage the stresses and pressures of being a young person in today's society
  
• What is low self-esteem and why do some of us suffer with it while others don't?
  
• How can we boost our confidence and self-esteem?
  
• How to avoid 'compare and despair' and manage the pressures of social media
  
• How to manage stress, anxiety and perfectionism in healthy ways, rather than through self-harm
  
• Why eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder and other forms of self-harm develop. What's going on inside?
  
• Ways to spot disordered eating in oneself or in friends
  
• How to address an eating disorder and recover from disordered eating

email me to enquire

INSPIRING HIGH-ACHIEVEMENT ALONGSIDE HAPPINESS

In my motivational talks, I inspire young people to reach for the skies while staying happy, healthy and well.

I grew up in Liverpool, a child of a single parent family, and attended a private school on scholarship. I went on to study at Oxford University and work for Reuters as a foreign and political correspondent, working in parliament, travelling with prime ministers and other VIPs. My story inspires and motivates young people to achieve their full potential, despite their life or family circumstances, to break down barriers and overcome obstacles.

TESTIMONIALS

"The talk was a powerful mix of informative, vulnerable and calm, and conveyed very useful strategies for understanding stress responses. I would recommend Katherine's talk because it made complex and painful issues understandable and therefore gave hope for managing them" – Emma Exelby, Head of Sixth Form, Bloxham School
 
"Excellent, truthful and really powerful at engaging difficult areas of discussion. I feel I have more of a toolkit for discussing difficult issues with pupils and staff" – Greg Webber, Biology teacher, Bloxham School
 
"A thought-provoking and moving presentation on a timely topic. Relevant and intellectually coherent. The personal testimony modelled vulnerability, which was a key theme of the talk" – Graham Gamble, English Teacher and Tutor (former headteacher), Bloxham School
 
"A powerful personal testimony that helped me to understand this complex issue and how it can pervade one's entire life," – Father Alex Ladds, Chaplain, Bloxham School
 
"A really engaging workshop which enabled the students to consider their underlying issues with body image. Within a safe and trusting environment, Katherine offered a range of accessible coping mechanisms. This is invaluable work which gave the students a safe place to examine deep-rooted, often taboo body image concerns. The feedback from the students was overwhelmingly positive" – J. Winters Sixth Form Tutor, Bromley High School, Kent

"Our centre would like to thank Katherine for her workshop on eating disorders and coping mechanisms. Katherine challenges students to pause and take a moment to reflect upon themselves as young adults. Katherine’s own experiences will probably have struck a chord with many sitting within the hall whether they admit it or not. Our centre is very grateful to Katherine for highlighting the many triggers that can cause complications and ensuring students know what options they have" – David Bailey, Head of Sixth Form, Our Lady's Convent High School, Hackney, London

"Katherine delivered an engaging and thought-provoking workshop, which led the students to think clearly about their areas of strength and their natural gifts," – Naomi Aidoo, senior school teacher, London
 
"Talbot Heath School would like to thank Katherine for coming in and delivering a workshop on self-esteem and eating disorders to Years 10 and 11. The feedback from staff and students was positive and the school nurses thought it was very helpful for the students. The students felt the session was informative and inclusive. Katherine helped them to feel better about their own body image and they felt she gave them helpful and realistic advice" –
Sophie Manley, Talbot Heath PSRE teacher