Rejection & Resilience: Responding to Stigma at Work, at School, and Home

Please register via Zoom to receive the link to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Eg9NhzuVSB2Uz-Lw31vgcA

Mental illness stigma can happen anywhere. When people inappropriately imagine we are dangerous, incapable, or socially undesirable because of our mental health problems, it can often lead to them pulling away or outright rejecting us. What can you do about it? This program teaches conflict resolution skills to help you clarify what happened, cope with the trauma, collect evidence, cultivate support, and consider your options. Everyone who attends will receive tools they can use right away to help them move forward in healthy and productive ways, even when people are inappropriately avoiding them. All participants can also share their questions and scenarios anonymously in advance if they would like to have those questions used as examples during the program.

Dan Berstein has worked for over a decade developing tools to help legal practitioners, courts, and government agencies across the country talk about mental health, become accessible to people with disabilities, and address challenging behaviors. A mediator living with bipolar disorder, he wrote the book on Mental Health and Conflicts (originally published by the American Bar Association), developed a trauma-informed and bias-resistant resource platform for courts (funded by the American Arbitration Association - International Centre for Dispute Resolution Foundation), and created a model for inclusive mental health stakeholder engagement as part of the National Dialogue on Mental Health. Dan leads the Mental Health Safe Project’s advocacy work, encouraging organizations to update or remove discriminatory policies and practices, and teaching people with mental health problems how to use conflict resolution skills to speak up when they are mistreated. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Wharton School and a master’s degree in Mental Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.