How to Book a Talk with Kerry Makin-Byrd

Start Here and Keep Going

Burnout doesn't arrive all at once — and neither does recovery. In this full-day interactive training, clinical psychologist and burnout educator Dr. Kerry Makin-Byrd offers therapists a rare thing: an honest, grounded, science-based reckoning with what burnout actually is, how it takes hold, and what a genuine path out looks like. Drawing on evidence-based models of burnout and moral injury, Kerry weaves together personal experience, case examples, and three novel skills — moral elevation, fierce compassion, and the art of half-heartedness — to offer both a clear map of the terrain and practical tools for navigating it.

The day is designed for therapists who have experienced burnout — past, present, or anticipated — as well as those who support clients navigating burnout or moral injury of their own. It is equally suited to helpers who want to build more sustainable practices before burnout takes hold, and to those who recognise, with some honesty, that the work is harder and more depleting than it should be. (That makes sense. All of this is so much easier said than done.)

By the end of the day, participants will have a clear understanding of the evidence-based pathways to burnout and moral injury, language and frameworks for three sustaining skills that are rarely taught but immediately usable, and a renewed connection with what they love about their work — and about the rest of their lives. The day closes with a restorative orientation and an extended reflective writing exercise, from which each participant leaves with a personalised written plan for regenerative work and nonwork practices they can begin immediately.

The Lies We Tell About Burnout and Self-Care

Burnout is everywhere — and so is bad advice about it. In this engaging 45-minute talk, clinical psychologist and author Dr. Kerry Makin-Byrd cuts through the noise to challenge what we most commonly get wrong about burnout: the myths, the misconceptions, and the well-meaning but ultimately unhelpful — or actively counterproductive — guidance that surrounds it. Drawing on science rather than silliness, Kerry offers audiences a more accurate, more honest, and ultimately more hopeful account of what burnout actually is, how it happens, and what genuinely helps. This talk is for anyone who has ever felt tired and overwhelmed — and who suspects that the usual advice isn't working because it isn't quite right. It is followed by open discussion and a book signing.

ACT for Burnout

Work burnout is skyrocketing among helping professionals — and much of the standard guidance offered in response doesn't go far enough. This 90-minute webinar equips clinicians, supervisors, and other helping professionals with an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-informed framework for understanding, alleviating, and preventing burnout: in clients, in supervisees, in colleagues, and in themselves. Drawing on emerging evidence for ACT-based approaches to burnout, Dr. Kerry Makin-Byrd outlines why ACT offers something genuinely distinctive to this conversation — and how to put it to work. What makes Kerry's approach different is a willingness to hold two things at once: the very real system-level forces that drive burnout, and the reality that meaningful relief often begins with individual change. Her framework addresses the frequently overlooked relationship between values and vulnerabilities, and why understanding that link matters for both resilience and post-burnout recovery. This fully revised 2026 training includes two significant additions: integrated shame and moral injury interventions for those working in high-risk or service-focused professions, and a focused exploration of the cognitive distortions common among helpers that quietly fuel burnout — and what to do about them.

Start Here: The Story Behind This Practical Guide To Overwhelm

Public talk for libraries, bookstores, and literary events

What does it take to write an honest book about burnout — while burned out? In this warmly candid and often funny public talk, clinical psychologist and author Dr. Kerry Makin-Byrd shares the behind-the-scenes story of her second book: the experiences that compelled her to write it and what readers have told her has mattered most. Part memoir, part author event, and part practical guide, this is a conversation about why helpers struggle to take their own advice, what the science of burnout actually says, and why Kerry believes that recovery isn't about doing less — it's about going deeper. Audiences leave with a highlight reel of the book's most usable ideas, alongside the stories and missteps that gave rise to them.

Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness and Compassion Practices

Mindfulness practices carry real benefits — and real risks for people who have experienced trauma. In this talk, Dr. Kerry Makin-Byrd draws on the work of David Treleaven to help practitioners understand how and why standard mindfulness instruction can inadvertently overwhelm trauma survivors, and what to do instead. Through a combination of neuroscience, clinical framework, and direct practice, Kerry outlines the key principles of trauma-sensitive mindfulness: how to recognise signs of dysregulation, how to modify practices in real time, and how to create conditions in which mindfulness becomes genuinely safe and accessible for the people in our care.

In the extended half-day workshop format, participants have the opportunity to experience and adapt practices directly, with ample time for personal reflection, group discussion, and clinical application. The talk is accessible to general audiences and can be substantially deepened for groups of medical and mental health professionals.

Wise, Fierce, or Tender: Compassion for Self and Others as a Clinical Tool

Compassion is not a single thing. It can be tender and soothing, but it can also be fierce, protective, and activating — and knowing which form of compassion a moment calls for is one of the most underrated skills available to helpers and therapists. In this workshop, Dr. Kerry Makin-Byrd — New Zealand's only certified Compassion Cultivation Training instructor — introduces participants to a rich, evidence-informed framework for understanding and practising three distinct expressions of compassion: for self, for others, and from others. Drawing on the Compassion Cultivation Training curriculum and the work of Paul Gilbert, Kerry shows how active compassion maps directly onto core flexibility processes in third-wave behavioural therapies, making it immediately usable across a range of clinical presentations including grief, shame, and burnout.

Participants complete a compassion assessment, engage in guided exercises, and explore cultural and clinical adaptations through case discussion and — in the extended formats — structured role plays. The full-day workshop includes a workbook and a significantly richer experiential component with dedicated time for personal reflection. The 60-minute version offers a focused introduction to the framework and its clinical applications, suited to conference keynotes, professional development days, and collegial training events.

Burnout And The Neurodivergent Experience

Burnout looks different when you are neurodivergent — and yet it is rarely talked about that way. In this talk, Dr. Kerry Makin-Byrd draws on emerging research to explore why neurodivergent individuals face a distinctive and often compounding set of pathways to burnout, and what genuinely helps. Moving between individual experience and system-level change, Kerry examines the particular toll of masking, the importance of sensory attunement, and the kinds of practical and environmental supports that make sustainable living and working more possible.

This talk is for two audiences who often sit in the same room: people who are themselves neurodivergent and navigating burnout or trying to prevent it, and clinicians, coaches, and helpers who want a richer and more accurate framework for supporting them. The 45-minute introductory format offers an accessible, evidence-informed overview of the landscape — the risks, the signs, and a hopeful set of directions. The extended workshop format, currently in development, will offer a substantially deeper experiential and clinical component with more time for personal reflection, skills practice, and discussion of real-world application.

When The News Is Too Much: Staying Grounded And Purposeful Amid A Suffering World

How do we continue the work we love — work that brings us into repeated contact with suffering, locally and globally — while also living lives that offer us rest, renewal, and genuine hope? This is not a question with a tidy answer, but it is one that Dr. Kerry Makin-Byrd believes deserves to be taken seriously. Anchored in the spirit of a Talmudic teaching — you are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it — this talk offers a practical and honest exploration of what it means to stay present and purposeful when the weight of national and international events threatens to overwhelm us.

This talk is for anyone who cares about the state of the world and is trying to figure out how to keep going — and it speaks with particular directness to helpers, caregivers, and anyone whose work brings them into sustained contact with others' pain. In the 45-minute format, Kerry offers a focused set of frameworks and practices for building what she calls a sanctuary: an inner and outer life that is genuinely renewing, not merely recovered. In the extended workshop format, participants have the opportunity to explore these ideas interactively, with time for reflection, discussion, and the slow, meaningful work of figuring out what this looks like for them specifically.