Public Speaking

Yael Schonbrun, PhD, is a practicing clinical psychologist, Brown University faculty member, and the kind of person who finds misunderstandings between people genuinely fascinating — which, it turns out, makes for a pretty good talk.

Drawing on science, clinical practice, and her books — including Work, Parent, Thrive and the forthcoming Why Don't You Understand Me? — Yael speaks to organizations, teams, and groups about the surprisingly tractable problem of why people miss each other, and what it looks like when they don't. Whether the context is a struggling team, a leadership challenge, or a high-stakes negotiation, the underlying dynamics are the same: human beings trying — and often failing — to understand each other. Her talks blend rigorous research with real-world application and enough humor to keep things from feeling like a continuing education requirement.

Topics include:

The Confidence Trap: Why we're wired to feel certain we understand, even when we don’t–and what to do about it.
How Small Gaps Become Big Rifts: The compounding psychology of miscommunication, and the early moves that change the trajectory.
Accidental Adversaries: Why people working toward the same goal end up on opposite sides, and the path back to the same team.
The Art of Generous Understanding: How to extend good faith to difficult people, and why it's the most reliable way to transform conflict.
Humor as a Bridge: The surprising science of why laughter builds trust, disarms defensiveness, and makes hard conversations more possible.
The Most Underused Skill in Every Relationship: Why validation works, why we resist it, and how to use it even when you think the other person is wrong.
When to Stay, When to Step Back: The psychology of strategic disengagement and how to know when pushing harder is making things worse.
Seeing Clearly Under Pressure: How emotions, memory, and confirmation bias quietly distort our understanding and practical tools to compensate.
The Many-Roles Problem: Navigating the tension between competing identities (professional, parent, partner, person) without losing yourself or the people around you.
Working Caregiver Well-Being: Preventing burnout and cultivating genuine enrichment across work and home life.

Yael offers keynote lectures, fireside chats, and interactive team workshops, and is equally comfortable with a broad public audience or a room full of skeptical professionals.

To inquire about speaking engagements, please contact me here.