Kevin Briggs Speaker Biography
Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Expert,
Known as the Guardian of the Golden Gate
As an international Crisis Management, Suicide Prevention, and Leadership Skills presenter, Sergeant Kevin Briggs’ story and lived experiences have been featured at the Technology, Entertainment, and Design 2014 Conference as a TED Talk, Ciudad de Las Ideas (Mexico), NBC’s Access Live, Yahoo News, The New Yorker Magazine, Men’s Health Magazine, NPR’s Bob Edwards Radio Show,People Magazine, USA Today, as well as other magazines, newspapers, radio, and podcasts across the world. His first book, Guardian of the Golden Gate: Protecting the Line Between Hope and Despair, was released in July 2015.
Golden Gate Bridge
Briggs, a retired California HighwayPatrol sergeant, spent many years patrolling the Golden Gate Bridge. While on patrol, he encountered numerous individuals clinging to life by a thread – individuals who had lost hope and could see no way out of their current situation – ready to jump off the bridge to what they assumed was a sudden death and ending of their pain and hopelessness.
Mental Health Awareness
Suicide prevention keynote speaker Kevin Briggs, through his compassion, gentle voice, eye contact, and his innate ability of “listening to understand” encouraged more than 200 individuals over his career to either not go over the bridge’s rail or come back to solid ground from where they had been standing precariously out on the chord of the bridge and start a new chapter in their life. These challenging, but rewarding efforts earned him the nickname “Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge.” After a 23-year career with the California Highway Patrol, Briggs retired to dedicate his life to promote mental health awareness across the globe through Pivotal Points, an organization he founded.
Keynote Speaker
Today, Briggs ismapping amovement as he speaks and trains others in suicide prevention, crisismanagement and negotiations. He shares his “Listening to Understand” skills followed up with key active listening points; his personal triad for healthy living; his RELEASE model to assist in communicating with someone in crisis and his crisis safety plan for those who may be struggling. He also discusses in depth his own personal mental health struggles. Briggs spends the majority of his time speaking/teaching at conferences, advocacy events, colleges and universities, first responder conferences, law enforcement (including FBI & Secret Service), and military bases. He also works with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), corporations, and othervenues.
Kevin Briggs Speaking Topics
Interventions with Individuals in Crisis
• Understanding the importance of empathy and understanding in crisis communication • How “Listening to understand” is critical in the communication process • Specific interactions (case studies) with individuals contemplating suicide • Enhancing communications skills
The High Price of Mental Illness in the Workplace
• Understanding stress, the good and the bad • Compassion fatigue/vicarious trauma/moral injury • Employee mental health and its role in a company’s success • Creating a mentally healthy workplace • Quality of Life: A guide to making every day count • Living and thriving with a mental illness
Crisis Communication
• Signs presented by an individual in crisis/contemplating suicide • Familiarization of effective communication tools • Interacting with adolescents in crisis/regarding suicide of peer • RELEASE Model for working with individuals in distress or a crisis • Developing a Crisis Safety Plan
Other Options
Kevin Briggs is available for panel discussions, leadership round-tables, and joint presentations with Meg Hutchinson. Other topics from Kevin include Individual in Crisis: Signs to Look For and Appropriately Respond To; Law Enforcement Response to Mental Illness/Crisis Calls; My Life as a Police Officer with Mental Illness: “How Did I Get Depression? What Am I Supposed to Do Now?”; Quality of Life Triad (developed by Briggs, its explanation and daily use for healthy living); Using the Crucial Benefit of Time at Critical Moments; Engaging and Normalizing the Feelings of a Suicidal Individual; I’m Here to Help! What to Say and What Not to Say; Mental Illness: What Stops People from Seeking Help; Breaking the Stigma for Seeking Help That Surrounds Mental Illness.
Kevin Briggs Books
Guardian of the Golden Gate: Protecting the Line Between Hope and Despair
Purchase BookKevin Briggs Videos
Kevin Briggs Articles
Kevin Briggs Speaker Testimonials
Kevin provided an excellent example of how ordinary people can do extraordinary things and make a real difference in the lives of others. He was flexible and prepared to go to extreme lengths to get things to work for us as conference organizers – I suppose this attitude is what he took to work on the bridge.
- Jorgen Gullestrup, CEO | Mates in Construction (Australia)
Your talk was awesome! That email you added late on was incredible. Really breathtaking. And the fact isyou had everyone's rapt attention throughout the talk.I was really struck by your willingness to take a few small tweaks to your already excellent talk. It's rare that someone who's as talented as you as a public speaker is willing to listen like that and be so enjoyable to work with. Many, many thanks for that... and for lighting up our event.
- Chris, Curator | TEDtalk
