Speaker Series 2026

Dance Therapy: How Movement Supports Brain Health
Jan. 24, 2026

Dance and movement therapy is more than “exercise.” It is a clinical, body-based approach that helps people process emotion, regulate stress, and build resilience by working directly with the nervous system. In this session, Lisa will explain how movement supports brain and mental health, including why the body often holds what the mind cannot easily articulate and how movement can interrupt spirals of anxiety, shutdown, and overwhelm. She will share approachable examples you can do at home or at your desk, plus guidance on how to use movement to create calm, improve mood, and build a stronger sense of inner connection. Attendees will leave with practical tools and a clearer understanding of when body-based work can be especially helpful for anxiety, depression, and emotional intensity.

Giftedness as Identity
March 28, 2026

Giftedness is not only a cognitive trait. For many people, it becomes an identity that shapes relationships, self-worth, belonging, and the way stress is experienced in everyday life. Alma explores how gifted identity forms across the lifespan, why it can feel invisible or misunderstood, and how it can show up as intensity, perfectionism, masking, or chronic mismatch in environments that were not built for high sensitivity and complexity. This session will examine the costs of being unseen, including disconnection and burnout, alongside the strengths of a well-integrated gifted identity, including self-trust, clearer boundaries, and healthier connection with others. Participants will leave with language, frameworks, and reflective prompts that support self-understanding and a more grounded way of relating to giftedness at work, at home, and in community.

Spirituality: Meaning, Connection, and Brain Health
May 23, 2026

What if spirituality is not about doctrine, but about meaning, connection, and purpose beyond the self? In this session, Chip offers a grounded, accessible view of spiritual practice and why it can support well-being, resilience, and mental clarity. He will explore how daily habits of attention, gratitude, service, reflection, and community can help stabilize the mind during uncertainty and reduce the sense of isolation that often fuels anxiety and despair. Rather than “big claims,” Chip focuses on practical practices anyone can adopt, regardless of faith background, and how these practices can shape the stories we tell about our lives. Attendees will leave with a simple framework for cultivating meaning and a set of everyday rituals that support steadiness, renewal, and hope.

Gifted Un(der)employment
July 25, 2026

Many gifted adults cycle through unemployment or underemployment, not because they lack capability, but because their strengths do not translate cleanly into conventional hiring signals, role definitions, and workplace expectations. Cristina breaks down the common patterns that create career turbulence, including chronic mismatch, values conflict, overqualification narratives, and identity disruption after repeated “false starts.” She will also explore why gifted adults may struggle with positioning, interviews, and “telling a simple story” when their strengths are broad, deep, and non-linear. The second half of the session moves into solutions: how to clarify your value proposition, communicate it in plain language, target better-fit environments, and build a strategy that supports both performance and well-being. Attendees will leave with practical guidance for turning complexity into clarity and moving toward sustainable work that fits.

The Polymath Advantage
Sept. 26, 2026

Polymathic thinking is a strength in a complex world. The ability to connect dots across domains can generate novel insights, innovation, and leadership that single-lens expertise often misses. But polymaths also face a familiar tension: others may interpret breadth as lack of focus, and polymaths themselves can burn out from trying to do everything, prove everything, or explain everything. In this session, Angela draws on her experience in government leadership development and her research on modern polymathy to help participants translate breadth into credibility. She will share practical ways to craft a coherent narrative, choose the right “through-line,” and communicate value without shrinking range. You will learn how to design a career and life that rewards interdisciplinary strengths, set boundaries that protect energy, and make breadth a strategic advantage rather than a source of stress.