Speaking & Workshops
Speaking Partnerships:
"The most important story is the one you tell you about yourself. Your life has value, and it is your job to never be convinced otherwise. The world will try to."
Dr. Meag-gan on the TEDx stage in 2018 to remind us that our lives matter to the world.
Self-Worth Speaker
Self-Worth Speaker
DEI Speaker
Diversity Equity and Inclusion Speaker
Mental Wellness Speaker
Mental Wellness Speaker
Self-worth is your appraisal of your value
in the societal marketplace.
It is how you estimate your right to belonging, to having good things happen to you, and your worthiness to receive affection. It is a global and thus most important opinion you have about yourself. A worth woundTM is single or a culmination of experiences that erode one’s sense of significance and deservingness in the world and relationships.
I inspire Black people, and other marginalized groups as a Self-Worth Speaker to push back on the propaganda that has taught us to devalue ourselves and reclaim our worth and wellness. My life’s mission is for each of us to thrive as we see fit. I look forward to guiding you on this journey.
Building Self-Trust Through Self-Validation
Summary:
This workshop was co-created by Dr. Meag-gan and Alkeme Health.
We explore the principles of self-efficacy and how the past few years (COVID+ Racial trauma, & Grief) have exposed us to prolong stress. Despite the uncertainty, we can cultivate self-trust as one constant in a sea of constant change thus providing an anchoring element of groundedness and stability.
Learning Objectives:
- Define self-trust and self-validation.
- Discuss how self-trust & self-validation reinforce each other.
- Explore self-trust in reality.
- Understand the impact & importance of self-trust & self-validation.
- Understand the barriers to practicing self-validation.
- Learn how to incorporate self-validation practices.
Target Audience:
Anyone, community, team or organization seeking to improve their relationship with self.
Compassionate Striving: Self Kindness on Your Way
to The Top
Summary:
If we are honest, most of us hold onto a harsh internal voice that we believe we need to have in order to be successful. The good news is that the research is unequivocal that we suffer diminishing returns from self- criticism and that compassion always gets us further. Allow me to guide you in learning how to develop, practice and grow in self-compassion as your secret weapon to all the forms of success and well-being that you are seeking.
Learning Objectives:
- Guided reflection on where our inner critical voice may have come from and become internalized.
- Receive an impactful summary of the best and recent neuroscience research on self-compassion.
- Explore how self-compassion is not allowing for mediocracy.
- Understand opening Self-compassion skills to incorporate into a self-care and community care care practice.
Target Audience:
Entrepreneurs, Creators of all types.
Early career employees & Managers: High Achieving Work Cultures, Tech Companies.
How Oppression and Trauma Erode Self-Worth.
Summary:
I believe we all come into the world with a knowledge of our inherent dignity. Yet, it is as if we have all forgotten. The reality is, the inherent signature of significance has stolen from us due to Trauma and Oppression. This keynote/workshop is very direct in speaking truth to power and naming how those of us at the margins have been inundated with narratives, and traumatic oppression that can leave us lost to our own humanity and worth. The focus is on how to reject those narratives/systems and reclaim the truth of our unconditional worth. Everything changes when we walk in our worth.
Learning Objectives:
- Unpack and explore the definition of the following terms: trauma, oppression, marginalized communities, self-worth.
- Ability to articulate how trauma and oppression systematically erode self-worth through the process of marginalization.
- Identify where you are on the continuum of survival to thriving.
- Learn Resistance strategies.
- Received tangible tools to advocate for yourself and engage in “Systems Self Care” (a type of self-care that withstands oppressive systems).
- Illuminate real-life examples of how it can look to walk aligned in your worth.
Target Audience:
All marginalized groups and communities.
Clinicians and educators working with clients to restore self-worth and understand systems
Detangling Your Worth from Achievement
Summary:
How connected is your sense of worth to external markers of success, status and achievement? When you review your resume or check your GPA, are you ever left wondering, “Am I enough?” In this workshop, we shift the paradigm to consider how to cultivate a life rooted in intrinsic values and passions. Participants will leave with a personalized self-worth plan.
Learning Objectives:
- Ability to define the following terms: conditions of worth, inherent value, and self-worth.
- Ability to articulate what factors erode self-worth.
- Distinguish between healthy striving and unhealthy achievement seeking.
- Identify how to be beacons of unconditional self-worth for others.
- Gain insight on how to align with values over external validation.
Target Audience:
All students: Middle School High School, College/Universities.
Early career employees & Managers: High Achieving Work Cultures, Tech Companies.
Cultivating Unconditional Self-Worth.
Summary:
This workshop is a deep dive into the tangible daily mindsets and behaviors that provide the scaffolding to develop self prioritization and a robust sense of self-worth.
Learning Objectives:
- Gain the ability to discern between conditional and unconditional worth.
- Define self-worth and understand its importance as a global attribution.
- Identify and minimize the barriers to self worth
- Receive the 7 skills to self-connection.
Target Audience:
Anyone, community, team or organization seeking to improve their relationship with self.
Silencing the Inner-Hater: Neutralizing Your Inner Critic
Summary:
High achieving professionals notoriously struggle with self-critical thoughts that often lead to minimizing self-care and feeling guilt when not being “productive.” This keynote/workshop will redefine productivity in a manner that fundamentally includes rest and replenishment. We will demystify the 7 different types of procrastination to ensure that our self-care practice is not escapism in disguise. Lastly we will learn why high achievers tend to be so self-critical and the three evidence-based methods to decrease the negative impact of self-judgment and allow for grace and grit.
Learning Objectives:
- Unpack and explore the limited utility of the inner-critic.
- Describe how judgment has been linked to motivation for success.
- Receive and be able to articulate a new definition of productivity and healthy striving.
- Understand procrastination as an emotional regulation issue not a time management issue.
- Identify and understand one’s own procrastinatory style and 3 approaches to minimize this habit.
- Utilize the three evidence-based methods to decrease the negative impact of self critical thoughts.
Target Audience:
All students: Middle School High School, College/Universities.
Early career employees & Managers: High Achieving Work Cultures, Tech Companies.
Recent talk titles:
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies are the
heartbeat of social justice.
I have mastered the art of speaking truth to power in a manner that enlightens and ignites action toward the highest aim of Liberation. As a first-generation Jamaican American, my own story intersects with countless narratives, particularly the stories of loss, pain, oppression, hope, and resilience. As a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Speaker I bring the humanity of each person with me as I speak to the impact of systems. Join me in creating a better world.
Wellness in the Workplace: The truth about Psychological Safety, Positionality and Power.
Summary:
Working professionals spend so much of their time and energy at work. Therefore, a work culture that truly understands the hidden forces of power and psychological safety are crucial.
This workshop will illuminate through common workplace experiences the elements and interactions that erode safety as well as tangible ways to intentionally rebuild it for all.
Learning Objectives:
- Define key terms as it applies to the workplace: Power, Possibility, and the four quadrants of Psychological Safety.
- Discern what factors weaking safety and why.
- Assess what your personal safety needs in the workplace.
- Apply evidence-bases methods to repair ruptures and rebuild safety overtime.
Target Audience:
Early career employees & Managers, High Achieving Work Cultures, Tech Companies. Non-profits.
Dismantling Impostor Syndrome: Rejecting Impostor Systems and Becoming a Trailblazer.
Summary:
If you have felt unworthy of an accomplishment, or are at times crippled by anxiety when it’s time to perform, chances are you’ve experienced Impostor Syndrome. It is the one of the biggest buzzwords that is recognizable, but rarely fully understood. This workshop allows you to learn the 4 defining features of Impostor Syndrome from a fresh perspective that includes Self-worth theory, social justice, leadership. First we must decolonize and re-defines Impostor Syndrome while highlighting the systems that breed impostor feelings. Together we can learn how to harness doubt and courageously blaze a path of our own.
*Best provided as a three-part series or as a Keynote address*
I: Impostor Syndrome 101.
The four defining features, Psychological Impacts and Remedies
II: Social Justice and Impostor Syndrome
III: Creating Impostor Syndrome Resilient Environments as Future Leaders
Learning Objectives:
- Acquire the ability to explain Impostor Syndrome phenomena.
- Identify the psychological impact to mental health and tailored remedies for each of the 4 defining features.
- Understand how lack of representation, discrimination and stereotype-threate create Impostor SystemsTM.
- Define and understand how being a Trailblazer is different and advantageous for mental health.
- Utilize tangible skills and mindsets to make the shift from impostor to Trailblazer.
Target Audience:
All students: Middle School High School, College/Universities.
Early career employees, Managers, Senior Leaders.
High Achieving Work Cultures, Tech Companies.
Combating Implicit-Bias
Summary
We all have bias. It is a common place that all can enter DEI work. However, the universality of bias does not absolve us to being complacent about uprooting our bias. In addition, given power and structural oppressions all biases are not created equal. This workshop participants will learn about implicit bias, its different manifestations, and how it can play out in the workplace or classroom.
Learning Objectives
- Learn the neuroscience behind bias through optical illusion and engaging activities to demonstrate the brains tendency to fill in gaps.
- Acquire emotional regulation skill to managing guilt and shame that arises when unpacking our personal prejudicial biases.
- Understand impact vs intent and the behaviors necessary to center empathy and conflict resolution.
- Utilize the top 8 evidence-based strategies for combating bias by making the unconscious conscious and accountable.
- Adopt a learner mindset to be able to engage in DEI work long-term.
Target Audience:
Educational Institutions: Middle School High School, College/Universities Department students and faculty
Early career employees, Managers, Senior Leaders.
High Achieving Work Cultures, Tech Companies.
Social Justice 101: The Long Road to Liberation
Summary:
Many people are aware of and use the term “Social Justice”, but are we truly aware of the scope and implications for our daily interactions and policies in our organization/ department? This presentation is a guided exploration of the 7 mindset from overt hate and oppression to equity and the concept of liberation as the highest goal.
Learning Objectives:
- Ability to define the following terms: diversity, inclusion, and justice
- Ability to articulate the difference between equality and equity.
- Gain a larger concept of what justice is.
- Define and understand what Liberation is and why it is the highest goal.
- Apply methods to work and care for students, clients and patients.
Target Audience:
Clinicians, physicians, educators, managers & senior leaders.
Recognizing and Responding to Microaggressions
Summary:
This presentation begins with an overview of what Mircoagressions are, the types, why they occur, and the common psychological impacts they have based on the research of Derald Wing Sue Ph.D. This is where most other training stop. The majority of the time is spent assisting employees, students; faculty, clinicians, or staff consider their options of actually responding to the event either in the moment or afterward. I present a flow chart to help with the decision-making process and feeling empowered to speak one’s truth. The best part of the training are the role-plays. This is why this training has gained so much popularity and positive feedback. We actually get to practice as a group, and work out real examples, unique dynamics, and difficulties in real time. The types of microaggressions are tailored to the audience.
Learning Objectives:
- Be able to define and identify microagressions
- Understand the short-term and Long-term mental health impacts of microaggressions
- Identify ones options for responding
- Appreciate that one can commit as well as be a victim of microaggressions
- Practice in responding
- Acquire new language
- Increase feelings of autonomy and empowerment for dealing with this situation directly and as a bystander.
Resilience Requires Replenishment
Summary:
We all desire to be resilient, but do we know what it requires? This presentation takes an honest look at how resilience has been warped and even weaponized into a phenomenon where many particularly of minoritized identities feel overworked, under resourced, and forced to deal with burnout under the label of being resilient. I unpack how true resilience requires replenishment in many forms, is not a individual pursuit and guide participants in building a true resilience repertoire.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn the origin story of the term resilience.
- Acquire a decolonized view of what it means to bounce back and recover.
- Redefine resilience
- Distinguish resilience from toxic productivity
- Identify what supports are needed to replenish
- Identify resilient work cultures and environments that foster healthy resilience not toxic perseverance.
Target Audience:
Educational Institutions: Middle School High School, College/Universities students and faculty
Early career employees, Managers, Senior Leaders.
High Achieving Work Cultures, Tech Companies.
Recent talk titles:
Mental health is not just the absence of distress, it is the presence of joy and flourishing.
I speak to both sides of the human experience. I eliminate stigma by illuminating the person behind the pathology. As a Mental Health Speaker, I equip audiences with perspectives and tangible tools. At Inherent Value Psychology, we believe in using the best decolonized psychological science to improve and liberate lives.
Decolonizing Mental Health: Reclaiming Our Ways of Wellness
Summary:
Many of the theories and approaches to mental health originated when there we little to no diverse voices in the field. These voices that came along are often on the fringes of our education and awareness. Decolonizing Mental Health is a process or seeking and reclaiming the multitude of viable ways we can understand healing, health and growth.
Learning Objectives:
- Acquire a critical consciousness
- Identify other ways of knowledge
- Examine common psychological theories through multiple lens
- Understand how to apply this accepting and expanded awareness with clients, patients, students and in your personal life.
Target Audience:
Clinicians, Physicians, Educators, Managers & Senior leaders.
Wellness Starts with “We”: The Rise of Community Care
Summary:
Self-care for many is difficult and has lost its appeal. In this workshop participant will reexamine the missing piece from the self-care conversation- Community care. What is it, why does it matter and how to we successfully engage in it. Literature on the outcomes of community care will be shared to inspire and motivate.
Learning Objectives:
- Define community care.
- Articulate how self-care and communicate are intimately related.
- Understand why community care is essential for identity and self-worth.
- Communicate how communicate is associate with other positive psychology attributes such as gratitude, appreciation, and altruism.
- Identify behaviors that qualify as community care.
- Develop a personalized communicate care plan.
Target Audience:
Educational Institutions: Middle School High School, College/Universities students and faculty
Early career employees, Managers, Senior Leaders.
High Achieving Work Cultures, Tech Companies
Rejecting Toxic Productivity Granting Yourself the Permission to Be
Summary:
This workshop begins with the reminder that we are biological beings and not machines. The current work culture often defines our wellbeing and worth by how much we produce. Participants are invited to examine their pace of life, values and seek deeper alignment with wellness while still maintain goals. We explore the idea of down time and “the permission to be” Lastly, particiapants are guide on how to have an identity separate from productivity.
Learning Objectives:
- Define toxic productivity.
- Distinguish toxic productivity from health striving / ambition
- Articulate the 7 types of rest.
- Understand how to grant yourself permission.
- Tools for managing how to attend to stillness and down time
- Introductory mindfulness skills.
Target Audience:
Early career employees, Managers, Senior Leaders.
High Achieving Work Cultures, Tech Companies
Self-Care for Women in STEM and Tech
Summary:
“Self-Care” has become a buzz word. This workshop offers a new perspective on the biological and psychological importance of replenishing particularly for women in a male dominated filed.
Learning Objectives:
- Define and identify what is true self-care
- How to develop a personalized and sustainable self care plan.
- Understand what happens when we do not engage in self and community care
- How to advocate for systems Self Care (self care needs supported by your department or agency)
Racial Trauma and Radical Joy as Resistance
Summary:
This workshop begins with a difficult and honest historical review of how Black lives have NOT mattered in this country. An education of the origins and mission of BlackLivesMatter is provided. The focus shifts to attend to the students, staff and employees of color that are impacted and best practices to counsel and support them. The H.E.R.S. model is taught as a framework for clinicians and managers to approach this topic.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the historical context of BlackLivesMatter
- Become aware of the effect of watching black death on television.
- Practice having courageous conversations about oppression.
- Integrate the H.E.R.S model into existing constructs of providing support.
Movement for Mental Health
Summary:
So many people alternate between focusing on the body or on their emotions. The truth is that our physiology and psychology are intimately linked, and movement is one way to attend to ourselves wholistically. This workshop illuminates the fascinating newest science on how the mind body works together. Participant will be guided in explore their relationship to movement with self-compassion.
Learning Objectives:
- Decolonize the mind-body connection presented in the traditional medical model.
- Acquire an expanded perspective on what qualifies as movement (not just exercise or weightlifting)
- Self-reflect on affirming movement practices.
- Explore self-compassion and body image.
- Develop a movement plan.
Target Audience:
All Audiences
Recent talk titles:
Podcasts
TED How To Be A Better Human
Episode: How To Redefine Your Self-Worth
Black Lady Adulting
Episode 4: Black Mental Health & Wellness
Stanford BEAM, On The FLI
Episode 7: Bouncing Back After Rejection
Changecatalyst
Episode 63: Embracing Anger as a Pathway to Empathy…and Resilience
Unconditionally Worthy Podcast
Episode 40: Find Your Off-Resume Self
Featured Articles & Publications
INC
Do You Ever Think You're Not Enough? A Stanford Psychologist Says It Robs You of These 5 Things
BLAVITY
Here’s What Could Be Behind The Black Flight From The Bay
MEDIUM
Systems Centered Language
TEDx IDEAS
Going back to the office? 6 Tips to help you adjust
TEDx IDEAS
Do you ever feel like you’re not enough?
WASHINGTON POST
Five skills parents can learn so they can help their children cope
VOGUE
The next phase of sex positivity choosing not to have sex?
THE GUARDIAN
America is obsessed with ambition. Is it time to redefine it?
