TEDx Talk … Coming soon….

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“Prescriptions Without Pills for Depression Relief” is the title of the TEDx talk that will be given by Susan Heitler PhD on Wednesday, August 24, 2016 at the 2016 TEDxWilmington Conference. Dr. Heitler recently shared the following perspective with the TEDxWilmington community about her TEDx talk preparations:

Thus Far, A Roller-Coaster

I have strategies for sustaining well-being that could help many people, and also a new book explaining these ideas. For both, I would love exposure. So when I heard about TEDx Wilmington, I was delighted to submit an application.

I was pleased some time later to see an acceptance note in my email. I speedily glanced through it to confirm, that yes, I would be given the opportunity to give a TEDx talk. I noticed something about a packet that would ask me to submit further information. Expecting the packet to arrive in a few weeks, I focused back on my clinical work and on preparations for my book launch just two months ahead.

Enter Ajit, who heads up TEDx Wilmington. I cannot thank Ajit enough for emailing me to call my attention to the fact that the deadline for submission of the further information was just ahead. Confused, I re-read the initial acceptance note. OH NO! The deadline was the very next day. PANIC.

Apparently in my earlier cursory reading of my acceptance email, the “packet” was actually attached to the acceptance email, hidden at the bottom of a long column of prior communications back and forth with Ajit. I love gmail, but I hadn’t understood before that attachments can take a long downward scroll before they become visible.

Pushing aside everything else on my desk, I sat down and stayed there until I had completed the requested materials. Phew. Problem solved. Disaster averted.

Since that time I have read every email from Ajit slowly and carefully. I have enjoyed the slow uphill work of talk preparation in spite of periodic anxiety about which therapy case to choose to illustrate my key points and whether I would be able to incorporate enough of the suggestions from the reading Ajit had suggested. So many dimensions to consider–how to choose a good narrative, how to keep the audience on the edge of their seats as if I am telling them a detective story, and at the same time how to convey my key points so that the talk ends with the audience having learned something that they will be able to use.

It turns out that the hardest part for me of preparing a TEDx is shaving. I have to shave off this idea, that example, this further point I want to make. Keeping the whole talk under ten minutes is challenging for someone who wants to share all I know on a very large, far too large, topic …

Now I have settled in, relieved to have chosen the case that illustrates my main points and to have submitted my outline.
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Speakers from around the world will be joining Dr. Heitler to give 39 TEDx talks ranging from 5 minutes to 15 minutes at the 5th Annual TEDxWilmington Conference on Wednesday, August 24th.

Bios of each of the speakers as well as the title of their topics are listed on www.tedxwilmington.com. Tickets are available for sale also onwww.tedxwilmington.com.