Speaker

Jen Johnson, licensed clinical mental health counselor, is a speaker and workshop facilitator focusing on:

stress reduction and resilience
mindfulness
climate psychology
mindful writing for transformation
burnout prevention
wellness and mental health

Jen offers webinars for healthcare facilities, universities, medical schools, corporations, NGOs, mental health providers, and government agencies.

Speaker Topics

• Mindfulness for Stress Reduction and Resilience
• Weathering the Storm: Building Emotional Resilience in a Changing Climate
• Climate Psychology: Therapeutic Approaches to Ecological Anxiety, Grief, and Adaptation (for therapists)
• Writing as Refuge: Creativity, Soul, and the Living World
• Writing with the Earth: A Climate Writing & Resilience Workshop
• Finding Your Place in the Climate Crisis
• Grief Ritual: Tending the Beauty of What Remains
  

Webinars are available in 1-hour, 1.5-hour, 3-hour and full day formats.

Bio: Jen Johnson, MS, MS, MFA, LPC, LCMHC is a mindfulness teacher, licensed counselor, speaker, and photographer. Her areas of specialty include climate psychology, mindfulness, stress, grief, and resilience. Jen offers a mindfulness, creativity, and ecotherapy approach to counseling and coaching. She facilitates Writing as Refuge and grief tending workshops online and is the author of Everyday Mindful Substack.

Mindfulness for Stress Reduction and Resilience

This presentation offers an overview of mindfulness for stress reduction and resilience. Mindfulness and resilience practices encourage being fully present in the moment with improved attention and focus. You’ll learn how to practice mindfulness and resilience skills and how to incorporate them into your day for a greater inner peace, happiness, and well-being..

Weathering the Storm: Building Emotional Resilience in a Changing Climate

As the realities of climate change become increasingly present in our daily lives, so do the emotional challenges—grief, anxiety, overwhelm, and uncertainty. Weathering the Storm explores the profound impact of the climate crisis on health, mental health, and well-being, while offering a path forward to building emotional resilience. Blending insights from psychology, climate science, and contemplative practice, this presentation invites participants to find steadiness amidst disruption, deepen their relationship with the natural world, and engage in compassionate action for a more sustainable and connected future.

Climate Psychology

This presentation offers an overview of the impacts of climate change on health and mental health. It offers strategies for navigating climate anxiety, climate grief, and other impacts of climate change more effectively while increasing emotional resilience. It teaches how we can use our strengths and gifts to take action and find our place in the climate crisis. Jen incorporates mindfulness and resilience skills in her presentations that you can use at home and work for a greater sense of inner peace, happiness, and resilience in the midst of uncertainty.  

This presentation can be adapted for audiences that include counselors, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, therapists, EAP counselors, healthcare providers, medical students, universities and colleges, non-profits, corporations, climate advocates, climate activists, environmental educators, climate scientists, and general audiences.

This presentation is available in a 1-hour, 1.5-hour, 3-hour, or 1-day format.

Writing as Refuge: Creativity, Soul, & the Living World

Explore mindfulness, writing, and nature connection practices to transform difficult times and cultivate a state of deep calm, connection, and creative renewal. Experience how mindful writing can help you to rewire your brain, reset your nervous system, and cultivate inner peace and resilience. The workshop will focus on writing using mindfulness, positive neuroplasticity practices, and transformative mindful writing techniques. We will write together in a live Zoom meeting.

This presentation is available in a 1.5-hour, 3-hour, or 1/2-day, or 1-day format.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program teaches mindfulness meditation and gentle yoga practices for awareness and stress reduction. Mindfulness has been shown to increase inner peace, happiness, and well-being and decrease symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression.

This program is available in a 1/2-day, 1-day, or 3-day format. It is also available as an online 8-week course that meets for 2 hours weekly.

Speaker Jen Johnson

Jen Johnson is a mindfulness coach and counselor teaching mindfulness, mediation, self-compassion, and resilience practices for inner peace, happiness, and resilience. She has been a counselor, speaker, and mindfulness teacher for 35+ years. Jen teaches people how to practice mindfulness, integrate it into everyday life, and establish a regular mindfulness practice to support stress relief, well-being, and resilience.

Click here to learn more about Jen

Jen Johnson’s Previous Speaking Events

• Climate Reality Project Northeast Ohio
• Virtual Ability annual mental health conference in Second Life
• Employee Assistance Professionals Association of NC
• Employee Assistance Professionals Association ZZ Chapter
• University of North Carolina Medical School
• Charlotte Behavioral Health Center, FL
• Garland Restaurant, Raleigh, NC
• Aquant, New York, NY
• The Cedars of Chapel Hill, NC
• Reimagine: Life, Loss, and Love Festival 
• Lufthansa Cargo, Atlanta, GA
• GoTerra, Cranbera, Australia
• Resource Center Women in Ministry in the South, Durham, NC
• Cape Fear Sierra Club, Wilmington, NC
• New Hanover County Health Department, Wilmington, NC
• New Hanover County Sheriff’s Department, Wilmington, NC
• Island Montessori School, Carolina Beach, NC
• Brain Injury Association of NC. Keynote presenter 2017 
• Wells College, Aurora, NY. Teacher in residence March 2016
• Cape Fear Museum, Wilmington, NC
• Invisible Wounds of War project, NC
• Wells Insurance, Wilmington, NC
• Licensed Professional Counselors Association of North Carolina, Statewide Conference 2015, Raleigh, NC
• Tri-County Dental Association, Wilmington, NC
• Licensed Professional Counselors Association of North Carolina, Regional Conference 2015, Wilmington, NC
• Licensed Professional Counselors Association of North Carolina, Regional Conference 2015, Asheville, NC
• University of North Carolina Wilmington, Keynote address at the inaugural annual Women’s Conference
• Carolina Wellness Institute, Hillsborough, NC
• Wilmington Health Pumpers Club
• Wilmington Health Diabetes Support Group
• Wilmington YMCA
• International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals, Triangle, NC Regional Chapter. Raleigh, NC
• National Association for Social Workers, Wilmington, NC
• St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, NC
• Lower Cape Fear Hospice & LifeCareCenter, Wilmington, NC
• GRUB, Wilmington, NC
• Quality Enhancement for Nonprofit Organizations, Wilmington, NC
• University of North Carolina-Wilmington
• University of North Carolina-Asheville
• CarePartners Hospice, Asheville, NC
• Wellness and Writing Connections Conference, Atlanta, GA
• Asheville Mild Brain Injury Support Group
• Goddard College, Plainfield VT
• Narrative Matters International Interdisciplinary Conference, Toronto, Canada
• Georgia State Board of Worker’s Compensation Conference, Atlanta, GA
• Atlanta Mild Brain Injury Support Group
• Atlanta United Church of Christ
• GENEX Case Management Company, Atlanta, GA
• Shepherd Center Rehabilitation Hospital, Atlanta, GA
• Veterans Administration, Atlanta, GA
• Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
• Georgia Council on Child Abuse, Atlanta, GA

Benefits of Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation practice has been shown to increase:

• inner peace
• happiness
• well-being
• creativity
• resilience

Meditation and mindfulness have been shown to decrease symptoms of:

• stress
• anxiety
• fatigue
• autoimmune disorders
• gastrointestinal disorders
• symptoms of cardiovascular disorders
• high blood pressure
• depression

It is estimated that over 90% of illness is stress related. Mindfulness and meditation are frequently cited in the research as some of the most effective methods to increase well-being and reduce stress.

Mental Health at Work

According to the World Health Organization, “An estimated 15% of working-age adults have a mental disorder at any point in time.  Depression and anxiety are estimated to cost the global economy US $1 trillion each year driven predominantly by lost productivity.”

WHO’s Guidelines for Mental Health at Work recommends interventions that build workers’ skills in stress management, such as interventions based on mindfulness or cognitive behavioral approaches.