Boston Keynote Speaker
Victoria Maxwell - "Funny, You Don't Look Crazy!?"
Victoria Maxwell is one of North America's most sought-after educators and speakers on the "lived" experience mental illness, recovery, reducing stigma and addressing workplace mental illness. She is an award-winning actress and playwright with over 20 years experience.
After her diagnosis of bipolar disorder, anxiety & psychosis, Victoria became extremely proactive in her recovery. She combines her theater background, personal experience of psychiatric illness & professional knowledge as a group facilitator & mental health worker, to give a unique & powerful ‘insider’s’ perspective on dealing with depression & other mental illnesses. Her critically acclaimed one-woman show Crazy for Life, her true-life story about accepting and living with a psychiatric disorder, tours internationally to sold-out audiences and rave reviews, and has recently captured the Moondance International Film Festival award for best stage play in Colorado and the Gordon Armstrong Theater Award. Her highly anticipated second play Funny…You Don’t Look Crazy!? premiered in both Canada and the US and continues to tour throughout North America to capacity audiences. Victoria also blogs for Psychology Today under 'Crazy for Life: Escapades of a Bipolar Princess' (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/crazy-life ).
For more than 8 years, Victoria has been presenting keynote performances and workshops to conferences in Canada and the States helping health professionals, individuals and families better understand the ‘insider’s’ experience of mental illness and recovery. Programs and shows assist in identifying elements of effective therapeutic relationships and successful recovery strategies and treatment plans. More importantly, they offer tools and hope to build wellness and reduce stigma of this, one of the very last taboos. Info: www.victoriamaxwell.com
"Funny…You Don’t Look Crazy!?" is the much anticipated ‘sister’ show to Victoria Maxwell’s hit Crazy for Life. This award-winning high energy, irreverent one woman show is the second instalment of her bipolar escapades, capturing the world of work before, during and after bipolar disorder, anxiety and psychosis.
Follow her mad dash from acting with John Travolta to Safeway cashiering to wearing backless hospital greens, participating in vocational rehab with job coaches and back into employment again.
This true life story both entertains and educates, exploding stigmas and revealing glimpses of one face of psychiatric illness and the journey back to work. But at its essence, the play is a celebration of the richness of life, the strength of the human spirit and the power of the human heart. Audience members walk away with an expanded vision not of what’s improbable, but instead of what is possible.
Henry Winkelman, Development Coordinator - Clarks Companies, N. A.
As Development Coordinator for the Clarks Companies in Newton Upper Falls, MA, Henry is involved with two types of development. For Clarks Companies Retail, Henry coordinates the physical development of Clark's retail and outlet locations. Henry is also deeply invoived with the personal development of "people of all abilities" through Clarks' First Step internship program.
After a traumatic brain injury in 1996 derailed his career, Henry received vocational rehabilitiation services through the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission and was placed at Clarks by Triangle, Inc. in Malden, MA. Henry joined the Clarks team in 2002 as a part-time support services assistant. Through his personal abilities and the relationships he built within the Company, Henry was able to be instrumental in the continued growth and evolution of the First Step.
Henry has been a member of the Greater Boston Employer Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission since 2006. A graduate of Boston University, Henry and his wife, Marianne, live in Brookline, MA.