Matt Ellison

Matt’s lived experience as a trans man brings (a) unique perspective to the conversation around mental health. Having faced profound mental health challenges himself, stemming from both society’s behaviour towards trans people, and as a result of this, his own internalised stigmas, there is much to be learnt by all walks of life from Matt’s courageous journey of transition to improved mental health.

In this keynote Matt will talk about:

• Understanding external influences and how much they can affect others’ mental health.
• Why ‘being yourself’ or ‘bringing your whole self to work’ is fundamentally important to good mental health.
• Inspirational story overcoming mental health challenges.
• Lived experience giving insight into profound mental health struggles, and how they were overcome - relatable to all walks of life.
• Key points on how to help others overcome mental health struggles or prevent them developing.

Matt brings experience of having worked/delivered content within a high security psychiatric setting.

Matt uses his lived experience to demonstrate how diversity and inclusion can drive your company’s success. From recruiting more highly skilled staff, creating a welcoming environment, increasing productivity, and boosting staff retention, Matt highlights the tangible benefits of an inclusive workplace.

He offers practical advice on becoming more inclusive, initiating difficult conversations, developing best practices, and establishing effective company policies and procedures.

Using a powerful metaphor alongside real-life examples that resonate with the audience, Matt illustrates how and why the smallest actions can have the most significant impact.

In this highly relevant keynote, Matt will talk about:

• How diversity and inclusion can help your company thrive, from recruiting more highly skilled staff to increasing staff productivity and boosting staff retention.
• Practical advice on how to be more inclusive, develop good practices and put together company policies and procedures.
• How to be more dynamic with your diversity and inclusion policies and procedures, creating a higher degree of engagement, including with your non-LGBT staff
• The UK Gender Recognition Act and how to avoid inadvertently committing criminal offenses.

In this keynote Matt will talk about:

• What is gender?
• Male, female and non-binary.
• The difference between sex, gender and sexuality.

In this keynote Matt will talk about:

• Who do you identify as?
• Internal and external factors – appearance and inner identity.
• How aspects of identity may be in conflict or undergo change.
• Identity, self-discovery and self-realization.

In this keynote Matt will talk about:

• Our minds and lives are conditioned by the norms we have grown up with.
• They may seem natural, inevitable or just plain common sense, but they can be limiting or worse.
• Creative questioning of norms can allow liberating change.

In this keynote Matt will talk about:

• Raising awareness of transgender issues.
• How best to support staff, clients, students etc. who are undergoing or are around those undergoing gender transition.

The UK’s Gender Recognition Act: a British perspective on the right to be respected and to be accepted whatever one’s gender identity, sexuality, race etc.