Bernadine Fox is a disability rights activist, award-winning mental health advocate, author, artist, and public speaker based in Vancouver, BC. With over 30 years of lived experience and leadership in survivor-led mental health advocacy, she is a powerful voice speaking truth to the often-silenced issues of those who live with trauma and those who have experienced therapy abuse.
A graduate of Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design (now ECU), Bernadine combines creative expression with social activism. As a visual artist, curator, and writer, she constructs compelling narratives that challenge the pathologizing of trauma and give voice to stories marginalized by mainstream systems. Her book, Coming to Voice: Surviving an Abusive Therapist, is both a personal testimony and a rallying call for change—used by survivors, clinicians, and advocates across disciplines.
Bernadine is the host and producer of the award-winning radio show and podcast ReThreading Madness, which dares to reframe how we think about mental health, trauma, and healing. She is a peer support worker and volunteers through TELL (Therapist Exploitation Link Line: a survivor-led resource for those impacted by therapy abuse and exploitation) and independently facilitates global peer support groups and professional workshops for both survivors and professionals.
Despite living with CPTSD, chronic fatigue, and osteoarthritis, Bernadine continues to lead through writing, art, education, and public speaking. Her work reflects her unwavering belief that access to safety, dignity, and voice in care systems is a human right.
Bernadine is available for keynote speaking, lectures, media appearances, workshops, and to facilitate survivor groups. Her talks are ideal for academic institutions, healthcare providers, conferences, advocacy organizations, and survivor communities.
To book Bernadine or learn more about her work, visit the Speaker's Page.
Message to fellow survivors:
It has become clear to me in the past few years that all of us who have gone thru being harmed by our therapists and are actively engaged in healing, supporting others here or on other platforms, and reporting are a part of a movement that resembles the one that pushed *ape into public view, brought recognition to battered spouses, that culminated in children with sexual trauma being addressed, that saw churches being held accountable for the acts of their priests and ministers or schools responsible for their teachers, that made authorities finally acknowledge and tackle human trafficking in our communities, and that had the world stunned by the #metoo response. All of these started the same way: survivors saying no, reaching back to support others, and demanding change. It was NOT the abusers or bystanders who made those changes happen. We are a movement - we are the army - we are the change. Don't ever doubt that.
It has become clear to me in the past few years that all of us who have gone thru being harmed by our therapists and are actively engaged in healing, supporting others here or on other platforms, and reporting are a part of a movement that resembles the one that pushed *ape into public view, brought recognition to battered spouses, that culminated in children with sexual trauma being addressed, that saw churches being held accountable for the acts of their priests and ministers or schools responsible for their teachers, that made authorities finally acknowledge and tackle human trafficking in our communities, and that had the world stunned by the #metoo response. All of these started the same way: survivors saying no, reaching back to support others, and demanding change. It was NOT the abusers or bystanders who made those changes happen. We are a movement - we are the army - we are the change. Don't ever doubt that.
|
Bernadine hosts a weekly syndicated radio program featuring the voices of those who live with mental health challenges, ReThreading Madness on CFRO 100.5FM. |
This is an interview People's First radio with Bernadine Fox about mental health
If you wish to book Bernadine for a speaking event please use the contact form.
Bernadine's visual art portfolio can be found at www.bernadinefox.ca
Bernadine lives and works on the ancestral and unceded traditional territories of the hən̓ ̓qəmin̓ əm̓ and Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh speaking peoples which includes several local Central Coast Salish Nations each one of which celebrates their own unique culture, history, traditions, protocols, and language. As a white settler, she extends her gratitude and appreciation to the Indigenous people who have been living and working on this land from time immemorial. In furtherance of reconciliation a percentage of the fees from her workshops will be donated to a local First Nation's mental health organization.
