“One of Australia’s most loved and respected psychiatrists”
Ramsay Healthcare September 2021
Speaker
Mark is a much in-demand speaker at conferences, professional development events and educational and government establishments.
He takes the ‘heartsink’ out of talking about mental health and uses his own lived experience to engage, entertain and educate.
He doesn’t dumb down, but neither does he use technical clinical speak unless it’s appropriate.
Here’s an example: the first one minute of a recent speech on happiness.
TOPICS MARK SPEAKS ON…
Difficult conversations and how to have them
Whether it’s at work or at home, we all know the feeling of dread when we have to tackle a subject with someone who’s going to find it confronting. But there are tips and techniques from the psychiatric world you can use to make sure those conversations have a better outcome for both sides. Mark consults on this for major corporates as part of their employee development programs.
Anxiety
Mark’s a neurotic shrink who has lived with it all his life. When he disclosed, colleagues told him he should never discuss his own mental health. But through his own lived experience, Mark brings practical advice and stories that resonate with all of us.
Good Mental Health In The Workplace
The numbers of Australian workers on sick leave with mental health issues is rising. Mark describes how to create mentally healthy workplaces and help employees and their managers to flourish. Doing the work now may save a staffing crisis later.
LGBTQIA mental health issues
Mark is gay. He didn’t come out until his mid 20s – when he was growing up in South Africa homosexuality was illegal. His community face prejudice and as a result have higher incidence of anxiety and depression. By combining his personal experience with his clinical knowledge, Mark connects with those marginalised by society.
Young People – life after the pandemic.
The last two years have had an impact on us all – but what about those who missed out on their first kiss, their first under-age drink or just chilling with their friends for two years? This talk is for young people and everyone who cares about them. It’s about resilience and bouncing back, but also understanding they’ve experienced a unique set of circumstances.
Finding your happy
What is happy and how do you know if you’ve found it? Is happiness dictated by external circumstances and life going well? Or is it something we can bring from inside ourselves? Why are some people apparently happier than others, and should we by trying to achieve that?
Professional Burn Out and how to avoid it
It’s more than two years since the pandemic began and many of us are exhausted - perhaps not depressed, but ‘languishing’. Mark would count himself amongst those. But he’s done the work on himself and now has a plan that will restore your energy and help you refund your energy.
Other services
Workplace Education
Mark works with major corporates, educational establishments and government agencies to ensure they have the right processes and procedures in place to ensure a mentally healthy workplace.
He can review and audit workplace wellness assets
He assesses Mental Health Risk in the workplace and then demonstrates how to minimise it.
He runs regular webinars on request.
See the full version of Mark’s talk on happiness.
CHANGING MINDS
Mark championed film crews being allowed into locked mental health wards for the first time in Australia, to help destigmatise and demystify a world most of us hadn’t seen before. The result was the multi award winning Changing Minds Produced by Northern Pictures for the ABC.
The series was described by the Sydney Morning Herald as
‘Surely one of the most important programs in the history of Australian television.’
Review from The Age Green Guide
WAKEFIELD
Drama series for the ABC
theconversation.com.au
Wakefield credits Dr Mark Cross, who featured in Changing Minds, as consultant psychiatrist. Several mental health organisations are also acknowledged, including Mindframe, Headspace, Lifeline, Black Dog Institute, Beyond Blue, Mind Australia and SANE Australia.
It is encouraging to see Australian screen producers collaborating with mental health experts to create authentic stories about mental health issues. This expertise encompasses many voices.
With Wakefield, Kristen Dunphy has brought to the screen a fictional story inspired by her own experience as a patient and realised by her creativity as a screenwriter and showrunner.
The result is an original and complex portrayal of mental health
Mark in the Media
Mark is a frequent guest on podcasts and a regular commentator on all things mental health. Here are some of his favourites.
Conversations with Richard Fidler
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations/8378414
Conversation with Sarah Konowski
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/mark-cross-anxiety/12008946
Osher Gunsberg
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/340-dr-mark-cross/id711028488?i=1000477077084
Tammi Faraday
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dr-mark-cross-the-anxious-shrink/id1536041978?i=1000528897643
House of Wellness
https://www.houseofwellness.com.au/podcasts/05-09-2021-house-of-wellness-radio