Michelle Hébert |
Writer
Speaking & Media
Michelle Hébert has an MFA in creative nonfiction and a Master of Social Work degree. She combines this background with her lived trauma experience to provide creative insights and approaches to healing and resilience, as well as informed discourse on the mental health system, social policy, and the impact of misogyny and stigma.
She is available for interviews, podcasts, and speaking engagements, to share her expertise on trauma recovery, women’s resilience, stigma, public policy, and the healing power of creativity.
Mental Health & Trauma
Topics for media, speaking engagements, and university lectures can include:
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Trauma-informed writing: caring for yourself & your reader when writing about difficult things
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The cost of not being believed: Misogyny, rape culture, and women's mental health
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“You don’t look sick to me”: Women, Masking, and Complex Trauma
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Trauma-Informed Workplaces: Why saying ‘Let’s Talk’ isn't enough
The History of Social Work & Social Policy in Canada
My book, Enriched By Catastrophe: Social Work and Social Conflict after the Halifax Explosion, describes how social work and social policy developed after the worst human-made explosion prior to the atomic bomb – in the Atlantic Canada port city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1917. I've spoken to national and international media and conferences about how policy decisions made over a century ago still shape Halifax, disaster relief, public health, and the profession of social work.
Topics for media, speaking engagements, and university lectures can include:
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The development of social work and public health as a result of the Halifax Explosion
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How racist and classist policy decisions made in 1917 still impact Nova Scotia today
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The lessons of the 1917 Explosion for current disaster response
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Women's roles in developing social work in Canada