Matthew Johnstone

Matthew Johnstone is a best-selling author and an advocate for mental health awareness. Drawing on his own experiences with depression, he has developed successful creative educational programs on understanding mental health, and resilience for schools, communities, eHealth and the work place.

Matthew works extensively with corporates as well as leaders in mental health and wellbeing, among them Black Dog Institute and The Golden Door Elysia.

A powerful, highly visual public speaker, he has presented to audiences throughout Australia, New Zealand, UAE, and Europe including Iceland. Matthew Johnstone delivered a keynote to 87 countries at the World Health Organisation in Geneva and has presented to Google in New York. His talks are an inspiring odyssey of hope, resilience, acceptance, the path to happiness and what can be learnt from coming through adversity.

Matthew Johnstone gained a diploma in Fine Arts before changing course and entering the world of advertising as a creative. He worked for some of the world's best agencies in Sydney, San Francisco and New York, winning many industry awards along the way.

Since then Matthew has published several books, including one lateral thinking book and one kids' book. The others are mental health and wellbeing books and they have all been best sellers in Australasia and the UK.

Matthew believes most mental illnesses, such as depression and anxiety, don't need to happen. Good mental health is relevant to everyone everywhere and if we can spot the early warning signs, learn the skills on how to communicate effectively, find ways to seek help without fear or consequence and most importantly learn about resilience and how good can come from bad, then we're half way there.

Matthew is as happy talking to teenagers as he is to the Reserve Bank. There are no graphs or pie charts; his is purely a visual and often humorous speaker who leaves audiences inspired to:

• Communicate more openly and effectively, both at home and work

• Strive towards living more authentically

• Be more mindful and present

• Be inspired to create more purpose in their lives

• Be motivated to work towards what makes them genuinely happy

• Understand that good can come from bad if we're open to learning from the experience.

Testimonials:

I have had ongoing feedback since your presentation from all sides of the office about both the standard of the presentation and the deep-reaching content. New faces of openness and freer spirits, new conversations with unpractised confidence in the workplace are a noticeable consequence of the detail and honesty of your research and experience. Investec Conference organizer

Matthew was a hit. People listen to survivors. But Matthew’s presentation was more than a single survivor’s story — it was a guy’s story that had universality, told with humour and illustrated with fantastic graphics. Matthew’s presentation at our Seminar Series was the highlight of the programme, very well-rated on the evaluations … None of the written comments noted how funny his presentation was but that was what made it easy to listen to. The audience was often in whoops of laughter. Blacktown City Mental Health

Having attended many staff development presentations over the last 15 years I would rate Matthew’s presentation as one of the most engaging and relevant presentations. Matthew is an engaging and charismatic presenter – deriving not only from his personality and experience in presenting but also from an evident passion to educate people on the topic mental illness and importantly to seek out early intervention. The Scots College, Sydney

What is unique and stand out about the way Matthew presents is that the entire presentation is illustrated; the images are poignant, often funny but get to the core of what is being discussed. He enlightens and informs with creative visuals and inspiring metaphors. This is the 2nd time Alumni have had Matthew speak; he comes with our highest recommendation.
UNSW Foundation