Many of us were taught to hide our difficult experiences and emotions because it would indicate that we’re crazy, unsuccessful or broken. But what if, instead, these feelings are wakeup calls for positive change? In this talk , you’ll hear from Meg Mateer who shares stories from leaders who have embraced difficult feelings, grief, mental health challenges, addictions, and other forms of distress and used it to positively transform their lives. You’ll also learn about groundbreaking research that asks us to rethink how we relate to our distress. Finally, you’ll discover why distress is not only important for individual healing, but as a key to help solve our biggest societal challenges. 

Meg Mateer is an organizational psychologist and consultant at the intersection of leadership and social impact. She is a teacher and coach at The School of Life, a social impact consultant at Better Future, the host of the “Break Down. Wake Up.” podcast and the founder of Empatiko. Meg’s approach is informed by more than 14 years of experience in business strategy, change management, psychology, and learning design and lessons from two of her biggest teachers, her anxiety and depression. She is dedicated to the power of diversity and passionate about creating contexts and tools for mutual learning and group transformation.