Dean Yates Book as a speaker/entertainer for your next event

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Key Points for Dean Yates

  • Dean Yates’ critically acclaimed memoir, Line in the Sand, took seven years to write and has been acclaimed by well-known clinicians, authors, journalists, and politicians around the world. 
  • Dean has been called a rare communicator, someone who speaks with passion and insight, is authentic and relatable. He combines lived experience with deep knowledge of trauma and the workplace mental health literature.
  • Dean’s final job at Reuters was to create a mental health strategy for 2,500 journalists. It was a unique role in global media, probably anywhere. The successes and failures guide Dean in the workplace mental health training he does today.
  • Dean has given talks/presented for the Black Dog Institute, Mindarma, Moody’s Corp (London), MAD World Summit (London), SC Group-Global, Monash Health, Tasmanian Leaders and Relationships Tasmania. He’s trained staff from the BBC, SBS, Zeit Online, Iran International and designed a mental health strategy for Private Media.
  • As a journalist and speaking about his own journey, Dean has been interviewed by ABC Australia, CNN, the BBC, and PBS as well as multiple publications, radio stations and podcasters. Dean hosts a podcast for Mindarma, an award-winning mental health outfit supported by the Black Dog Institute.
  • Dean led teams that covered the Bali bombings, the Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia (death toll 166,000) and was Reuters bureau chief in Iraq when two staff were killed in a U.S. helicopter airstrike. Julian Assange released classified footage of the attack in 2010, shocking the world.

Topics for Dean Yates

  • A jaw-dropping story. Inspiring and hopeful
    Dean was a high-flying foreign correspondent brought to the brink of suicide by extreme workplace trauma who recovered because of his obsession to get better and the human connection of his loving family and a mental health system that worked (yes, you read that correctly).
  • The pillars of a mentally healthy workplace
    Dean speaks with authority on what he calls the 6 pillars of a mentally healthy workplace: Leadership buy-in; psychological safety; prevention & early intervention, multi-layered organisational support; evidence-based training and good communication.
  • Trauma
    Dean’s memoir is a life-changing roadmap for anyone trying to heal from trauma. Dean explains the moral dimension of trauma, he shows the consequences when organisations fail to look after their people. Health workers, especially in the mental health space, will learn something because Dean never gave his good clinicians a chance to relax! And people will understand why trauma makes their male partners difficult to live with.
  • Moral injury
    Dean is an Australian expert on moral injury, a condition akin to PTSD that can occur in any occupation/walk of life. Moral injury is starting to get attention because it can happen when someone’s idea of what’s right has been violated strongly enough. The possibilities for harm are endless.
  • Breaking stigma
    No matter the context, Dean has a story to tell about stigma: around suicide, mental illness in the workplace, in-patient psych wards. Dean is passionate about breaking stigma, and you will be too after listening to him.
  • Men!
    Dean has instant credibility with men, whether they wear suits or Hi-Vis vests, which is why he's the ideal speaker at showing men the benefits of seeking mental health support and expressing their emotions.
  • Eyewitness to the world
    Dean covered some of the biggest global stories of the past 25 years. Why do journalists risk their lives? What do they take from these experiences, the loss of life? Does reporting on ordinary people matter as much as wanting to be there when Saddam Hussein gets captured?
  • Navigating life
    Dean’s family have been through the wringer, and not just from having to deal with him! Dean’s wife has had depression all her life. Their children, now young adults, have had mental health issues. Dean’s eldest son survived a cardiac arrest in 2020.
  • Julian Assange
    Who is Julian Assange and why does his story matter?

Testimonials for Dean Yates

Dean's keynote presentation at the (2023) Tasmanian Suicide Prevention Forum was insightful and engaging, and his passion for reducing the stigma associated with suicidality was evident from start to finish. What impressed me the most about Dean was his ability to connect with the audience and deliver his message in a relatable and impactful way … His expertise, compassion, and dedication to the cause are truly inspiring.
Coordinator Suicide Prevention
Relationships Tasmania

Dean is a thoughtful, empathetic and high impact speaker. Combining real-life experience with his gift for storytelling and knowledge of mental health, Dean is at all times professional, well-spoken and a great listener. This enables him to read his audience, tailor the session to their needs and answer questions with empathy and care. I highly recommend Dean as an inspiring speaker, impactful facilitator and knowledgeable mental health expert for large and small audiences as well as for individuals, teams and organisations.
CEO
Tasmania Leaders Inc.

We engaged Dean as the keynote speaker at our annual dinner. He has a compelling story to tell and uses his journalistic skills well. Dean's story helped many of us think about mental health in our own workplaces and what we needed to do to support our teams through their own challenges. Dean has a unique set of skills and life experiences that allows him to talk about mental health issues in corporate settings. I highly recommend engaging him to support your business.
Managing Director, Asia Pacific
SC Group-Global, Sydney

We engaged Dean as a speaker at our quarterly in-house team huddle. Dean showed us some video and then spoke about his personal story through his lens as a journalist but also as a husband and father. Dean's insight, experience and recommendations for resources helped us develop a strategy for supporting mental health within our workplace. The feedback from our team was 100% positive. Dean's demonstrated vulnerability allowed us to engage in subsequent team conversations with empathy and sensitivity.
Director/Physiotherapist
In-Balance, Launceston

Dean is a compelling speaker who really connects with the audience. He was kind enough to agree to talk to my company's mental health and veterans' employee groups. He spoke with passion and insight about his work and the toll it took on his mental health. The feedback was very positive - many said it was one of the best events we've had.
Vice President Communications
Moody’s Corporation, London

Dean’s passion for mental health cannot be understated. He has an exceptional ability to talk about his own experiences to give people hope as well as educating those who are well to give themselves the best chance of remaining that way.
President and Founder
Code 9 Foundation, a registered charity that supports Victorian first responders with PTSD and other mental illnesses

Dean’s craft is well honed from years as a journalist. He is one of those rare communicators who uses words economically yet is still impactful.
CEO
Kingthing Marketing, Launceston

Dean is a passionate and kind man with a compelling combination of harnessing personal experience, developing great expertise in his subject, and spearheading necessary corporate change.
Senior Reuters correspondent/editor, UK

With his passion, courage and drive, Dean did more than anyone to chip away at the stigma and begin to shift the newsroom culture towards one of openness around mental health, which was no easy feat.
Head of peer network
Reuters, Washington DC

Dean distinguished himself in some of the toughest jobs in journalism, from reporting on the ground at scenes of atrocity to managing multinational, multimedia teams, large and small, in dangerous and hostile environments. I saw how, from Bali to Baghdad, his integrity, lucidity and empathy shone through in every assignment. I’ve seen those qualities, too, in more recent years, as Dean responded when those years of pressure caught up with him by turning his extraordinary energies to healing, and to caring for others. As an advocate and service provider for mental health among media workers, Dean brings personal values and hard-won experience that few can match.
Former Reuters bureau chief Baghdad, Jerusalem and Brussels
Senior correspondent Moscow, Paris and London