Speaker's Kit
BOOK Bernadine for lectures, keynote addresses, and workshops
Current Topics for Speaking Events
1. Therapy Abuse and Exploitation: What It Is and How to Recognize ItAudience: Mental health professionals, educators, peer support workers, researchers, and advocates
Workshop Description:
In this eye-opening and essential workshop, Bernadine Fox draws on over 30 years of lived experience and advocacy to explore the often-silenced topic of therapy abuse and exploitation. This session is designed to help professionals and allies identify the signs of boundary violations, understand the dynamics of grooming within therapeutic relationships, and recognize the long-term impact on survivors.
Participants will learn:
This workshop is grounded in a disability rights and trauma-informed framework and includes storytelling, real-world scenarios, and practical strategies. It challenges the myth of therapist infallibility and calls for systemic accountability, client safety, and survivor voice in mental health care.
2. Understanding Therapy Abuse and Exploitation: A Workshop for SurvivorsAudience: Survivors of therapy abuse, trauma survivors, peer groups, survivor-led collectives
Workshop Description:
This peer-centered workshop offers a supportive and validating space for survivors of therapy abuse to explore and understand their experiences. Led by Bernadine Fox—a survivor, advocate, and author of Coming to Voice—this session helps participants name what happened, recognize common patterns of manipulation and harm, and reconnect with their own sense of agency and truth.
In this workshop, participants will:
This session is not therapy—it is education and peer solidarity. Survivors will leave with a deeper understanding of their experience, tools for healing, and the knowledge that they are not alone.
3. Reframing Therapy Abuse: Ethics, Power, and Survivor Truth in Mental Health SystemsAudience: University students (psychology, social work, counseling), emerging clinicians, ethics boards, continuing education programs, and professional conferences
Workshop Description:
This critical and timely workshop invites participants to examine therapy abuse and exploitation through an ethical, survivor-informed lens. Led by award-winning advocate and survivor Bernadine Fox, this session deconstructs traditional models of therapeutic power and explores the dynamics of harm within a system that often lacks accountability to those who have been harmed in this way.
Participants will explore:
This session challenges professionals-in-training and early-career practitioners to think beyond compliance and ask deeper questions about power, trust, and integrity in clinical work. Bernadine offers a rare and necessary perspective that bridges theory with lived experience, helping participants reframe client safety not just as policy, but as praxis.
Key Takeaways:
This workshop is ideal for integration into ethics courses, practicum preparation, clinical supervision seminars, or professional development events.
Bernadine is also available for speaking engagements including lectures, workshops, keynote, podcast, radio, print, and TV.
1. Therapy Abuse and Exploitation: What It Is and How to Recognize ItAudience: Mental health professionals, educators, peer support workers, researchers, and advocates
Workshop Description:
In this eye-opening and essential workshop, Bernadine Fox draws on over 30 years of lived experience and advocacy to explore the often-silenced topic of therapy abuse and exploitation. This session is designed to help professionals and allies identify the signs of boundary violations, understand the dynamics of grooming within therapeutic relationships, and recognize the long-term impact on survivors.
Participants will learn:
- What therapy abuse and exploitation look like, from micro-boundary violations to overt harm
- How grooming and exploitation unfold in a therapeutic context
- How survivors typically come to recognize the abuse
- The common responses of predatory therapists when confronted
- Survivor-informed issues to understand to support clients who have experienced this form of harm
This workshop is grounded in a disability rights and trauma-informed framework and includes storytelling, real-world scenarios, and practical strategies. It challenges the myth of therapist infallibility and calls for systemic accountability, client safety, and survivor voice in mental health care.
2. Understanding Therapy Abuse and Exploitation: A Workshop for SurvivorsAudience: Survivors of therapy abuse, trauma survivors, peer groups, survivor-led collectives
Workshop Description:
This peer-centered workshop offers a supportive and validating space for survivors of therapy abuse to explore and understand their experiences. Led by Bernadine Fox—a survivor, advocate, and author of Coming to Voice—this session helps participants name what happened, recognize common patterns of manipulation and harm, and reconnect with their own sense of agency and truth.
In this workshop, participants will:
- Learn what therapy abuse and exploitation can look and feel like
- Understand the grooming process and how it breaks down trust and autonomy
- Hear common survivor experiences and emotional responses (e.g., guilt, shame, self-doubt)
- Explore the barriers to disclosure and healing
- Discuss challenges when seeking support from other therapists or systems
This session is not therapy—it is education and peer solidarity. Survivors will leave with a deeper understanding of their experience, tools for healing, and the knowledge that they are not alone.
3. Reframing Therapy Abuse: Ethics, Power, and Survivor Truth in Mental Health SystemsAudience: University students (psychology, social work, counseling), emerging clinicians, ethics boards, continuing education programs, and professional conferences
Workshop Description:
This critical and timely workshop invites participants to examine therapy abuse and exploitation through an ethical, survivor-informed lens. Led by award-winning advocate and survivor Bernadine Fox, this session deconstructs traditional models of therapeutic power and explores the dynamics of harm within a system that often lacks accountability to those who have been harmed in this way.
Participants will explore:
- The ethical blind spots and systemic vulnerabilities that allow therapy abuse to occur
- Real-world case examples of grooming, coercion, and boundary violations within the therapeutic relationship
- The psychological and systemic barriers survivors face when disclosing abuse
- The ripple effect of harm: how subsequent therapeutic relationships are impacted
- Survivor-led insights into best practices for ethical care, accountability, and repair
This session challenges professionals-in-training and early-career practitioners to think beyond compliance and ask deeper questions about power, trust, and integrity in clinical work. Bernadine offers a rare and necessary perspective that bridges theory with lived experience, helping participants reframe client safety not just as policy, but as praxis.
Key Takeaways:
- Deepened understanding of therapy abuse from a survivor-centered framework
- Critical ethical reflection around power dynamics and professional responsibility
- Tools to engage in trauma-informed, survivor-responsive, and reparative clinical practices
This workshop is ideal for integration into ethics courses, practicum preparation, clinical supervision seminars, or professional development events.
Bernadine is also available for speaking engagements including lectures, workshops, keynote, podcast, radio, print, and TV.
Bernadine Fox – Speaker, Advocate, and Survivor-Led Changemaker
Bernadine Fox is a compelling and seasoned public speaker who brings over 30 years of lived experience, advocacy, and leadership in the mental health and disability rights sectors. Based in Vancouver, BC, Bernadine speaks powerfully on the realities of trauma, therapy abuse, mental health systems, and the path to healing—offering audiences rare insight grounded in personal experience, activism, and artistic expression.
A passionate mental health advocate and award-winning communicator, Bernadine delivers keynote speeches, lectures, and workshops that leave a lasting impact. Her talks resonate deeply with survivors, clinicians, academics, students, and healthcare professionals. Whether addressing the silencing of trauma survivors or the systemic failures that perpetuate harm, Bernadine challenges norms and inspires change.
She is the author of Coming to Voice: Surviving an Abusive Therapist—a powerful memoir and resource now used across disciplines by survivors, professionals, and advocacy groups. She is also the host and producer of the award-winning radio show and podcast ReThreading Madness, where she reframes narratives around mental health, trauma, and recovery.
With a background in fine arts from Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, Bernadine integrates creativity and storytelling into her presentations, creating emotionally resonant and thought-provoking experiences. She facilitates peer support groups globally, consults on survivor-led mental health approaches, and is actively involved with TELL (Therapist Exploitation Link Line). Despite living with CPTSD, chronic fatigue, and osteoarthritis, Bernadine remains a passionate and tireless voice for justice and equity in care systems. Her message is clear: access to safety, dignity, and voice is a fundamental human right.
Now booking:
- Keynote speeches
- Conference presentations
- University and college lectures
- Professional development training for clinicians and care workers
- Survivor-centered workshops and panels
- Media appearances
Ideal for: Mental health conferences, healthcare institutions, advocacy organizations, post-secondary institutions, and survivor communities.
Bernadine lives and works on the ancestral and unceded traditional territories of the ), Kwikwetlem (kʷikʷəƛ̓əm), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. As a white settler, she extends her gratitude and appreciation to the Indigenous people who have cared for this land from time immemorial.
LONG BIO
Introduction for Bernadine Fox
... is an award-winning disability rights activist, mental health advocate, and survivor-led changemaker with over 30 years of experience supporting trauma survivors and challenging systemic harm in mental health care.
She is the author of Coming to Voice: Surviving an Abusive Therapist, a powerful memoir that is now used by survivors and professionals across disciplines. Bernadine is also the creator and host of ReThreading Madness, a globally broadcast radio program and podcast that disposes of colonial-based ideas about mental health and brings critical conversations about trauma, psychiatric harm, and recovery into the public sphere.
Through her work as a speaker, artist, and peer supporter, Bernadine weaves personal experience, creative expression, and social critique into every presentation — offering rare and vital insight into what justice, safety, and healing truly mean.
Why Hire Bernadine Fox as a Speaker?
Bernadine Fox offers what few others can: the rare combination of lived experience, professional insight, and survivor-led advocacy, delivered with clarity, compassion, and unflinching honesty.
With over 30 years of work in the mental health and disability rights sectors, Bernadine speaks from deep experience—as a survivor, an advocate, a public educator, and a creative force. Her presentations are not theoretical; they are rooted in real-world understanding of trauma, therapy abuse, systemic harm, and the resilience of marginalized communities.
Organizations hire Bernadine because she:
- Centers survivor voices in conversations often dominated by clinical or institutional narratives.
- Bridges gaps between professionals, survivors, and systems with nuance and empathy.
- Educates through story, art, and practical insight, creating emotionally resonant and transformative learning experiences.
- Challenges norms in mental health care while offering actionable paths toward justice, safety, and equity.
- Engages diverse audiences — including clinicians, educators, artists, peer support workers, students, and policy makers — with accessible, inclusive language.
- Tailors each talk to meet the needs of the audience, whether that’s trauma-informed training for professionals, advocacy strategy for activists, or hope and validation for survivor communities.
If your organization values lived experience, transformative dialogue, and a powerful call to ethical action — Bernadine Fox is the speaker you’ve been looking for.
Books
What People Say About Bernadine's Lectures, Workshops ...
In the nearly four decades that I have been doing this work, I have never met anyone as energetic, creative, and determined as Bernadine, this despite her horrendous history of childhood and domestic abuse, having been sex-trafficked as early as age 9, having struggled with dissociative identity disorder (D.I.D), and having suffered a prolonged period of emotional, sexual, and financial exploitation at the hands of an esteemed mental health professional, one who, through Bernadine’s efforts, was ultimately unmasked as a monster. ... The people who reach out to us are overwhelmingly traumatized and despondent. Many are actively suicidal. In her on-line work with them, Bernadine has shown herself to be empathic, kind, wise and level-headed. Victims feel reassured in their contact with her—and many believe that if she has been able to survive, they can as well. She is also an insightful and reliable collaborator when her sister Responders request thoughts and ideas as to how to handle a particular situation. Without question, Bernadine has used her own experience and courageous recovery generously and intelligently to help others.
Jan Wohlberg/TELL
****
Gallery Gachet 's motto is Art is a means of survival (Yoko Ono). Bernadine embodies this in her personal work but also in her dedication as a teacher to helping others through art and self expression. Her artwork reflects her commitment to educate viewers about mental health and de-stigmatize those with lived experiences. Thus, over many years she has touched the lives of many people and continues to do so. She has been a consistent and dedicated supporter of our gallery's mission over many years being thus instrumental in our artist run center getting recognized as a leading artist run center this year by receiving the runner up Lacey Prize from the National Art Gallery of Canada. ... [Bernadine] exemplifies resilience in overcoming challenges and transforming this knowledge to help others learn and cope in order to survive and heal.
Bruce Ray, President/Gallery Gachet
****
Bernadine’s natural ability to collaborate with diverse groups of people, facilitate difficult conversations, and articulate experiences and perspectives often misrepresented by mainstream media are behind the show’s success. Bernadine bravely goes outside her comfort zone every day, whether it’s learning how to operate a radio studio from the ground up, or speaking her truth to power, particularly when it comes to the negative impact on mental health consumers due to lack of industry regulation.
Bryan McKinnon/Vancouver Coop Radio
****
continued in drop down menu below...
In the nearly four decades that I have been doing this work, I have never met anyone as energetic, creative, and determined as Bernadine, this despite her horrendous history of childhood and domestic abuse, having been sex-trafficked as early as age 9, having struggled with dissociative identity disorder (D.I.D), and having suffered a prolonged period of emotional, sexual, and financial exploitation at the hands of an esteemed mental health professional, one who, through Bernadine’s efforts, was ultimately unmasked as a monster. ... The people who reach out to us are overwhelmingly traumatized and despondent. Many are actively suicidal. In her on-line work with them, Bernadine has shown herself to be empathic, kind, wise and level-headed. Victims feel reassured in their contact with her—and many believe that if she has been able to survive, they can as well. She is also an insightful and reliable collaborator when her sister Responders request thoughts and ideas as to how to handle a particular situation. Without question, Bernadine has used her own experience and courageous recovery generously and intelligently to help others.
Jan Wohlberg/TELL
****
Gallery Gachet 's motto is Art is a means of survival (Yoko Ono). Bernadine embodies this in her personal work but also in her dedication as a teacher to helping others through art and self expression. Her artwork reflects her commitment to educate viewers about mental health and de-stigmatize those with lived experiences. Thus, over many years she has touched the lives of many people and continues to do so. She has been a consistent and dedicated supporter of our gallery's mission over many years being thus instrumental in our artist run center getting recognized as a leading artist run center this year by receiving the runner up Lacey Prize from the National Art Gallery of Canada. ... [Bernadine] exemplifies resilience in overcoming challenges and transforming this knowledge to help others learn and cope in order to survive and heal.
Bruce Ray, President/Gallery Gachet
****
Bernadine’s natural ability to collaborate with diverse groups of people, facilitate difficult conversations, and articulate experiences and perspectives often misrepresented by mainstream media are behind the show’s success. Bernadine bravely goes outside her comfort zone every day, whether it’s learning how to operate a radio studio from the ground up, or speaking her truth to power, particularly when it comes to the negative impact on mental health consumers due to lack of industry regulation.
Bryan McKinnon/Vancouver Coop Radio
****
continued in drop down menu below...
What People Say About Bernadine's Lectures, workshops... (cont.)
cont....
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You touched hearts. You changed minds. You showed how art and professionalism make a difference. And everyone had a look at what real courage looks like.
Anonymous
****
Excellent
Anonymous ****
Bernadine took what seemed like complicated material and laid it out in a a simple, straightforward, and level-headed manner. Grateful.
Anonymous
****
Bernadine is a living example of the resiliency so needed in times of crisis and uncertainty that people are facing now. ... I’ve known her as an artist and a mental health advocate. She exemplifies a level of compassion and deep understanding of healing from trauma not just surviving
but thriving despite the challenges life presents to us. She has integrated these skills into initiating change within organizations, informing gaps in the justice system in BC, supporting and developing resources across a broad scope of community needs.
Haruko Okano, Britannia Art Gallery
****
Articulate and moving. Profound
Anonymous
****
After Bernadine's presentation: "I am prepared to support and work to make regulation of counselors a reality in British Columbia."
Anonymous
****
Bernadine’s style was very affirming and open—she provided very useful, clear information that validated and challenged me to learn more.
Anonymous
****
You touched hearts. You changed minds. You showed how art and professionalism make a difference. And everyone had a look at what real courage looks like.
Anonymous
****
Excellent
Anonymous ****
Bernadine took what seemed like complicated material and laid it out in a a simple, straightforward, and level-headed manner. Grateful.
Anonymous
****
Bernadine is a living example of the resiliency so needed in times of crisis and uncertainty that people are facing now. ... I’ve known her as an artist and a mental health advocate. She exemplifies a level of compassion and deep understanding of healing from trauma not just surviving
but thriving despite the challenges life presents to us. She has integrated these skills into initiating change within organizations, informing gaps in the justice system in BC, supporting and developing resources across a broad scope of community needs.
Haruko Okano, Britannia Art Gallery
****
Articulate and moving. Profound
Anonymous
****
After Bernadine's presentation: "I am prepared to support and work to make regulation of counselors a reality in British Columbia."
Anonymous
****
Bernadine’s style was very affirming and open—she provided very useful, clear information that validated and challenged me to learn more.
Anonymous
How Bernadine can promote your event
I will post your event on all my social media platforms for 1 month to 2 weeks leading up to the event. (see below)
Links to Bernadine's social media
SUGGESTED HASHTAGS FOR BERNADINE
#mentalhealth #DID #multiplepersonality #plural #abuseintherapy #metoo #mentalhealthawareness #sexualabuse #sexualassault #abuse #domesticviolence #survivor #rape #trauma #sexualviolence #childabuse #ptsd #rapeculture #emotionalabuse #rapevictim #feminism #rapesurvivor #consent #womenempowerment #sexualharassment #feminist #domesticabuse #healing #women #physicalabuse #awareness #nomeansno #abusesurvivor #cptsd #ReThreadingMadness #bothsidesnow #VancouverCoopRadio #CFRO #BernadineFox #radioshow #podcast #publicaffairs #youtube #selfcare #selflove #anxiety #mentalhealthmatters #depression #health #mindfulness #loveyourself #inspiration #mindset #wellbeing #recovery #ptsd #art #trauma #mentalhealthsupport #growth #mentalhealthadvocate #humantrafficking #stigma
Suggested questions for bernadine
- What is Therapy Abuse: what is it not?
- What are the ethical boundaries therapists must follow?
- How do abusive therapists groom their victims: checklists?
- What does the abusive therapists do/react when victim discloses or makes a complaint?
- What are the consequences to the client who is victimized by a therapist?
- Making a complaint, filing a police reports, or advancing a civil suit: issues.
- What are the therapeutic issues that a subsequent therapist will need to address with a survivor?
- Where can people get resources?
Previous Speaking Engagements: (partial since late 80s)
SALAL, Sexual Violence Support Centre (Impact on Clients of Therapy Abuse and Exploitation)
Association of Co-Operative Counselling Therapists (Impact on Clients of Therapy Abuse and Exploitation)
Gibsons Town Hall Meeting, Gibsons, BC (Surviving Predatory Therapists)
Gallery Gachet (various artist talks and symposiums)
Canadian Psychiatric Association: Art & Health,
Elizabeth Fry Society,
Vancouver Crisis Line,
Northwest Region Study Group, Bellingham, WA,
Barbra Schiefler Commemorative Clinic, Toronto
International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation, Vancouver/Victoria
(cont. in drop down menu below)
SALAL, Sexual Violence Support Centre (Impact on Clients of Therapy Abuse and Exploitation)
Association of Co-Operative Counselling Therapists (Impact on Clients of Therapy Abuse and Exploitation)
Gibsons Town Hall Meeting, Gibsons, BC (Surviving Predatory Therapists)
Gallery Gachet (various artist talks and symposiums)
Canadian Psychiatric Association: Art & Health,
Elizabeth Fry Society,
Vancouver Crisis Line,
Northwest Region Study Group, Bellingham, WA,
Barbra Schiefler Commemorative Clinic, Toronto
International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation, Vancouver/Victoria
(cont. in drop down menu below)
Previous speaking Engagements cont.
Symposium on Sexual Abuse, Victoria
Fraser Valley Mental Health Services, Surrey
UBC School of Social Work,
VISACS, Vancouver Incest and Sexual Assault Centre Society,
Justice Institute of B.C.
Battered Women’s Support Services,
Vancouver Child Protection Services, Richmond
Ombudsman’s Office, Victoria
Burnaby Arts Guild
Engaging Disability, University of Victoria
Greater Vancouver Mental Health,
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
BC/Yukon Transition House Association, Vancouver
Nanaimo Social Services, Parksville
Denial, Dissociation and Defensiveness, Victoria
Symposium on Sexual Abuse, Victoria
Phoenix Transition House, Prince George
Intersect and the Native Friendship Society, Prince George
Duncan/Cowichan WAVAW
KickstArt, Vancouver
Fraser Valley Mental Health Services, Surrey
UBC School of Social Work,
VISACS, Vancouver Incest and Sexual Assault Centre Society,
Justice Institute of B.C.
Battered Women’s Support Services,
Vancouver Child Protection Services, Richmond
Ombudsman’s Office, Victoria
Burnaby Arts Guild
Engaging Disability, University of Victoria
Greater Vancouver Mental Health,
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
BC/Yukon Transition House Association, Vancouver
Nanaimo Social Services, Parksville
Denial, Dissociation and Defensiveness, Victoria
Symposium on Sexual Abuse, Victoria
Phoenix Transition House, Prince George
Intersect and the Native Friendship Society, Prince George
Duncan/Cowichan WAVAW
KickstArt, Vancouver
