Speaking
“Resilience is not achieved; It’s a mindset, healthy lifestyle and balanced way of life.”
Meg is an outspoken advocate for childhood illness, trauma and mental health. She is unapologetically authentic when she talks about her own mental health struggles and allows herself to be vulnerable and real for audiences. Her southern charm and natural gift of storytelling leave people encouraged and inspired.
Meg McElwain is a mental health advocate and founder of the Mitchell Bays Turner Pediatric Fund. Mitchell’s Fund seeks to improve the mental well-being of children and families who have experienced trauma. In 2012, three-month old Mitchell was diagnosed with childhood cancer and, after a life-long battle, died in 2014 just after his second birthday.
Meg’s presentations are resilience focused and use personal stories of faith, hope and survival to educate and advocate for a better understand of suffering and mental health illness. She has struggled since high school with anxiety and depression. The trauma of her infant son Mitchell’s long illness and death left her fighting to recover from depression, anxiety and symptoms of acute grief that took her to a very dark, suicidal state of mind.
Counseling, medication, daily journaling, prayer and exercise are some of the tools she uses to live with her symptoms of mental health illness. The beauty of resilience is there are learnable skills that Meg encourages in her keynotes and training sessions. Resilience is not achieved. It’s a mindset, healthy lifestyle and balanced way of life.
Each presentation is customized to meet the client’s audience and desired message. Meg often speaks to school children about turning pain into service to others and has engaged in small groups with seminary students as a real example of the suffering they will see in their future congregations. Her ability to deliver such a harsh message in a positive manner has inspired corporate teams, church groups, parents, healthcare providers, educators and more.
Follow her on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube @megmcelwain
contact meg for your next speaking engagement meg@mitchellsfund.org