Dr. Kevin Alderson

This general conversation focuses on the diversity issues prominent in the workplace. Topics include unconscious bias, microaggressions, inclusion, and inclusive workplaces. Building an inclusive workforce is critically important today. Individuals flourish and feel a deep sense of belonging when they feel respected by others.

For decades, Dr. Alderson has spoken to audiences about the “isms” (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, transphobia) and workplace inclusion. This presentation will be customized to fit your organizational needs.

LGBTQ+ individuals are much more visible than 20 years ago when Dr. Alderson first began his work as a professor studying LGBTQ+ issues and psychology. How do we create an “all for one, one for all” work culture when our colleagues seem so different from us? How do we talk respectfully and work collaboratively with employees or colleagues who are nonbinary, queer, pansexual, or transgender and now need to dress and act differently?

The diversity among LGBTQ+ individuals will be discussed so that everyone knows how to communicate and work collaboratively with them. Important topics will include language, safe spaces, stigma reduction, inclusive workspaces, and how to become supportive of the community as allies. Creating a respectful workplace for LGBTQ+ individuals helps all employees feel supported.

This presentation will be customized to fit your organizational needs. The focus can be tailored for parents, teachers, students, or any other relevant setting.

Most people will experience a mental disorder at some time in their life, and for some, the consequences are devastating. The presentation begins with a broad overview of the most common mental disorders and how they impact individuals at work. What can organizations do to create environments that reduce the likelihood that employees will become mentally ill?

Topics include workplace practices that increase employees’ sense of self-worth, confidence, and self-esteem. A simple acronym will be provided in the presentation that captures what employers and individuals can do to enhance institutional and employee well-being, respectively. This presentation will be customized to fit your organizational needs.

Change is happening quickly, and many people have trouble navigating what is unfolding before them. Life transitions are challenging, and when not managed well, they create stress, anxiety, or depression. A few examples include working from home and manoeuvring boundaries between work and home life, dealing with a change in management, coping with difficult colleagues, or shouldering personal difficulties and defeats.

Preventative health means having or developing the skills to cope with inevitable change. This presentation focuses on practical methods of becoming unshakeably resilient so that instead of breaking down, you step up. This presentation will be customized to fit your organizational needs.

The entire focus of this presentation is on prevention. Much anxiety and depression can be “nipped in the bud” before escalating into diagnosable mental disorders. Topics covered include stress management, self-directed cognitive-behavioural therapy, mindfulness practices, and when to consider taking psychotropic medication.

Learn about the warning signs that indicate the early onset of a mental disorder. This is what you can do before you contact a psychologist or psychiatrist. This preventative mental health presentation will also be tailored to fit your organizational needs.

Many risk factors predispose individuals to experience specific mental disorders. This presentation looks at the risk factors while encouraging participants to conduct their own assessment of their mental health. Several valid and reliable psychological questionnaires, scales, inventories, and tests are available for free on the Internet. These web addresses will be shared so that participants can complete relevant ones in their homes or other confidential environments.

This provocative presentation will provide attendees with a glimpse into their own mental health with the goal that they will seek appropriate help early. Both the contrasting kinds of mental health professionals and the different types of therapies available will be addressed. This presentation will be customized to fit your organizational needs.

The current statistics regarding addictive behaviours are alarming. This presentation reviews the common addictions before moving into those that challenge today’s workforce. Understanding these addictions is the first step in ensuring that those afflicted are treated respectfully by management and staff. Topics will include prevention, preventative health, and the warning signs that an individual is becoming, or has become, addicted. The treatment options will be reviewed so that attendees are empowered to take appropriate steps if needed.

This presentation will be customized to fit your organizational needs. For example, if desired, the focus can be on young people. Youth addictions are increasing at an alarming rate, and our culture has become desensitized to drug exposure. The effect of social media, the legalization of cannabis, and the popularity of vaping in youth culture should not be ignored. Their impact on youth might be more than most could have predicted.

This presentation takes attendees into the experience of psychoactive drugs with some very cool simulations. Current information about substance addictions (e.g., hallucinogens, stimulants, and depressants) and a brief look at behavioural addictions are reviewed. Why is the war on drugs not working? Why are increasing numbers of individuals becoming addicted? What are the current medications used to treat addictions?

The new-age treatments for mental disorders are equally fascinating. Some possibilities include new age drugs, transcranial magnetic stimulation, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and exposure therapy. Also, what have we learned about microdosing and the use of psychedelics in treating mental disorders? Are drugs the end, or are they the beginning?

Two of Dr. Alderson’s books are about self-hypnosis. Reveen and modern-day stage hypnotists have demonstrated hypnosis for years. Which parts are real, and which parts are not? What if it is all real? How hard would it be to overcome bad habits through self-hypnosis? How can hypnotherapy help in the treatment of mental disorders?

This presentation can include an experiential component that demonstrates clinical hypnosis, either for everyone who would like to experience it or for a specific individual who would like to act as the subject. This is just one of the many ways this presentation can be tailored to suit your organizational needs.

Most of us have never been exposed before to so many national and global issues simultaneously. The news has bombarded us with graphic images of climate change, deep unrest in the United States and abroad, and the political strife caused by a pandemic. In turn, some vulnerable individuals are committing heinous crimes that seem incomprehensible. Our trust in where we are headed might be eroding our sense of self and purpose.

Dr. Alderson has a motivating message that you need to hear, rooted in positive psychology and the best of what we know about human behaviour. Besides the voice of hope is the lesson of what you can do to cope in the ever-changing world before us.