A resilience and forgiveness speaker
As someone who seriously injured a friend unintentionally, I have spent 30 years thinking, reading, exploring, and writing my way from shame to self-forgiveness. I have two poetry books about my journey, and hundreds of pages of unpublished work that have waited for me to feel worthy enough to make them public. You see, I felt ashamed for learning life lessons from something I did wrong. And finally, I am ready. I would love to share my journey of shame and self-forgiveness with you and your organization or group. You can pick through the speaking topics below to see what pieces of my journey resonate with you. Though I currently focus as a resilience and forgiveness speaker, not everything is shame and forgiveness. The road is long, and the lessons are aplenty. You can also scroll down to read keynote addresses and fill out an invitation form.
Speaking topics
Forgiving yourself for your role in a traumatic event
Defining shame and forgiveness, and deconstructing the relationship between the two
It’s not the event, it’s the aftermath that makes a life
Self as Home
Why community eclipses isolation
Everything in life is a choice; the power of intentional decision-making
Facing the fear of success (and failure)
Rebuilding relationships with others and yourself during different stages of life
Healing from trauma through words; finding inner peace
Holding two opposing feelings and beliefs
Finding our purpose
Moving forward in spite of internal monologue
Healing in the aftermath of a traumatic event
Consequences of drinking and driving
Cheryl coupled valuable information, real-life examples, and the opportunity for us to participate in her presentation. She left our group inspired with a unique and renewed sense of home and the hope to have her return for a future event.
Jean Bailey ROber, Burlington Writers Club
Keynote Directory
Facing a stone mountain: wherever you go, there you are
During times of desolation, one word comes to mind: escape. But why is it that when you attempt to leave a situation either physically or mentally, the same issues prevail? After Cheryl’s accident, she realized that when the Big Thing you’re running away from is YOU, there is only one pathway to recovery, and it’s by embarking on an internal journey of forgiveness and self-acceptance.
The power of choices: why intentionality matters
Life is a series of choices. But, how do you make decisions with intention in your best interest, and in the best interest of others? And, does making a good decision mean that life feels good all the time? Cheryl deconstructs the craft of making some of life’s biggest choices, and how to alleviate the pressures we put on ourselves along the way.
Breaking barriers with accountability and forgiveness
We all want to know what will break the internal barriers built from our regrets, and unlock the door to the life we aspire to live. A scary, and important part of moving forward with a growth mindset, is holding ourselves accountable for past mistakes. Cheryl invites guests to explore the barriers in their lives and meet them first with accountability, then acceptance, and eventually, forgiveness. We must move forward in spite of our internal monologues, and understand that it’s not the event, but the aftermath that makes a life.
Self as home: poetry & architecture
From “home is where you hang your hat” to “home is where the heart is,” there is no single definition of home. Not feeling at home with herself or where she lived, Cheryl found her way to defining home in an unlikely place: an apprenticeship with an architect. Part story about an apprenticeship between an architect and a poet, part historical context of home, and part personal narrative exploring interior landscape–that space within our skin where we feel and think–Cheryl explores the question, “What does it mean to have a home: as shelter, as sentiment, as possibility, as identity?” and why it’s important to be asking it right now.
All of us: accepting every version of ourselves
Though we have only one physical form in this lifetime, we are many different people throughout the course of our life’s journey. It’s possible that at one stage we are an egocentric person, at another stage we are the person who gives a piece of themselves for the good of another human being. How do we accept all versions of ourselves? Which opens the floor to two even bigger questions, what makes a person bad? What makes a person good? Cheryl examines these thought-provoking ideas through the lens of her own experiences.
Invitation form
Please fill out the form below, or contact Hannah Larrew at Spellbound PR for all media and event related queries: hannah@spellboundpublicrelations.com.
