Speaking and Training

Looking for a speaker to courageously share their lived experience with mental health challenges? What about a speaker who grounds the personal experience in science, policy, and professional insights? Then you’ve come to the right place.

 

Linea Johnson holding a microphone and sitting on a stage laughing

Talks and Training

  • Life at work can be challenging, but thriving is possible. How do we move beyond just surviving to genuinely flourishing in our professional lives?

    Join me for an inspiring and transformative keynote, where I share my journey with bipolar disorder. With honesty and courage, I unveil the insights and best practices I have learned, both personally and professionally, to thrive at work and beyond.

    This keynote will help your team:

    • Understand the critical importance of mental health

    • Combat stigma with empathy and awareness

    • Foster a supportive and resilient work environment

    Takeaway: Empower your team with the knowledge and tools to champion mental health awareness, reduce stigma, and create a thriving workplace.

    Audience: Ideal for all teams and departments

  • The world of work can be demanding and stressful, but as a manager, you have the power to create a culture where mental health thrives.

    How can you foster a healthy, inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and supported? Join Shift & Lead, designed specifically for people managers.

    This transformative talk will help you:

    • Reduce stigma and foster inclusion: Learn how to address and diminish mental health stigma within your team.

    • Develop inclusive leadership skills: Understand the principles of inclusive leadership and effective communication.

    • Support employee well-being: Gain practical strategies to support your team’s mental wellness and foster a psychologically safe environment.

    • Drive daily culture change: Discover daily actions you can take to promote a healthy and resilient workplace culture.

    Takeaway: Equip yourself with the skills to navigate and communicate change and champion a mentally healthy, resilient, and inclusive workplace.

    Audience: Ideal for people managers and leadership teams

  • This presentation discusses Linea’s journey from her initial diagnosis of bipolar to her current career as an entrepreneur, writer, and speaker.

    This talk will explore bipolar treatment, acceptance, grief, and self-advocacy. This presentation is a great compliment to Linea’s book Perfect Chaos: A Daughter’s Journey to Survive Bipolar, A Mother’s Struggle to Save Her.

    Intended Audience: Young adults, family support groups, mental health organizations, companies working to bring awareness of mental health to their audiences.

  • Workplace challenges can often feel overwhelming, but managers can transform these challenges into opportunities. How can you cultivate a thriving workplace where employees feel valued, supported, and engaged?

    Introducing Lead with Heart: Compassion, Curiosity, & Courage, a three-part training series for leaders and people managers. Available virtually or in person, this training provides flexibility to suit your organization’s needs.

    This training will help your leaders:

    • Promote Mental Health Awareness: Understand the critical importance of mental wellness and normalize mental health discussions.

    • Reduce Stigma and Foster Inclusion: Learn strategies to address mental health stigma and promote a diverse, inclusive environment.

    • Build Trust and Support: Gain practical skills to establish trust, create an accessible environment, and support employee wellbeing.

    • Enhance Psychological Safety: Create a safe space for open communication and collaboration.

    Takeaway: Arm your leadership team with the practical knowledge and tools to champion a mentally healthy and inclusive workplace. This training series offers practical strategies and insights to foster a supportive and thriving workplace culture.

    Audience: Ideal for people managers and leadership teams

  • By now the concept of charity marketing has fallen out of style, and yet consumers continue to be drawn to inspiration.

    What happens when real people feel their everyday lives are an inspiration to the masses? And how can marketers, engagement, and philanthropy professionals ensure a truly inclusive message?

    Learn from an author and mental health advocate who had previously made a career of being the bipolar poster girl. After years of helping sell seats at charities and fundraisers, Linea began to learn the harm living to be someone’s “inspiration” can cause.

    With a decade of public speaking based on her book Perfect Chaos, and years running communications and marketing within the disability space, Linea speaks both as “the poster child” and marketing director.

    Key takeaways:

    • Learn the complexity of inspirational marketing campaigns

    • Learn important concepts and lessons from disability studies to help create strong and inclusive messaging

    • Learn how to authentically share stories of lived experience without turning the individual into an inspirational object

    Intended Audience: Marketing, engagement, and development professionals, non-profits, health and life sciences organizations, pharmaceutical companies, educational institutions

  • In this intimate keynote presentation, Linea discusses how a diagnosis of a disability can change the course of one’s dreams, life goals, and self-identity.

    Topics such as self-harm, grief, acceptance, and self-care are discussed.

    Intended Audience: Mental health organizations, disability organizations, eating disorder organizations, recovery groups, motivational speaking events.

  • In this presentation, Linea speaks to her personal journey of acceptance and self-identification as a disabled and bipolar woman.

    Topics such as ableism, stigma, disability rights, disclosure, and mental health and disability pride are discussed.

    Intended Audience: Disability Studies programs, universities, disability organizations, mental health organizations.

  • Shaping a stigma-free workplace through the use of inclusive language. Leaders and teams will learn what it means to be inclusive in their language and how to use it to enable trust, create value and belonging, and strengthen community.

    Ideal Audience: Corporate teams, Leadership, Managers


Why Linea?

My mission in life is to help the world see that mental health impacts everyone and that we are not alone. After a diagnosis of bipolar disorder at age nineteen, I spent the last two decades learning from my diagnosis while training myself on disability rights and policy, patient engagement, and leadership.

As an internationally sought-after mental health speaker, I draw on my personal journey and years of education and mental health advocacy to offer keynote presentations, panel discussions, fireside chats, and workshops that help audiences feel hope, acknowledge individuals, and equip leaders to take on the fight.

My goal is to make topics that often feel heavy, complicated, and stigmatized accessible for all audiences through relatable and conversational presentations.

Key Topics:

  • Mental Health: Bipolar, Depression, Anxiety, Eating Disorders

  • Workplace Mental Health

  • Identity and Mental Health

  • Self-Advocacy and Empowerment

  • Disability Rights

  • Health and Wellness

  • Life Transitions

  • Self-harm, Trauma, and Suicide Awareness

Linea Johnson speaking in a bookstore. She is wearing a black shirt and leopard print pants.

Watch Linea in Action

BREAKOUT SESSION | The 5th Annual Kennedy Forum Meeting

2017 Peace of Mind Storytellers

Dorothy C. Fuqua Lecture at Skyland Trail


Looking for more information on Linea’s expertise? Click the link below for a CV and Resume.