WORK WITH HAYLEY
Writing & Research
The research I do is the therapy I do, scaled up.
In the therapy room, I help individual people identify the systems that harmed them and build lives that are actually theirs.
In my research, I do the same work at the level of institutions, economies, and theologies.
I keep returning to three questions:
how do systems justify harm?
how do these systems recruit the people inside them to defend the very arrangements that diminish them?
and what would it look like — politically, economically, theologically — for those systems to be accountable?
Meet the expert:
musician, therapist, parent, researcher, coach.
Speaking & Consulting
I say the things that some rooms need someone to say.
I am available for speaking engagements, organizational consulting, and training on the topics I research and live. My background spans clinical mental health, performing arts, theological research, and non-profit leadership — which means I can hold unusual conversations and reach unusual audiences.
I do not give motivational speeches. I give honest ones. My talks leave people with frameworks they can use and questions they can't stop thinking about. Take notes, because like all good podcasters, I talk fast and bring my sources.
Consulting
I consult with organizations navigating questions of culture, leadership, and institutional harm — particularly arts organizations, nonprofits, and faith communities. My approach draws on clinical training, research methodology, and hard-won experience leading organizations through difficult transitions.
Engagements are scoped individually. I do not offer off-the-shelf packages.
Speaking Topics
Trauma, Perfectionism, and the High-Achieving Body
What performance culture does to the people inside it — and what healing actually requires. For arts organizations, professional associations, and high-performance teams.
Jubilee Economics: A Biblical Case for Structural Change
The theological foundations of economic justice, and why the church is overdue for a serious reckoning with what the text actually says. For faith communities, seminary audiences, and justice-oriented organizations.
Power, Harm, and the Systems We Defend
How institutions recruit their own members to protect arrangements that hurt them — and what leadership looks like when it refuses to do that. For nonprofits, boards, and organizational leadership teams.
The Performing Artist as Canary: What Music Teaches Us About Human Systems
A keynote drawing on 25 years of professional performance, clinical training, and systems research to examine what the performing arts reveal about ambition, vulnerability, belonging, and cost. For arts organizations, conservatories, and interdisciplinary audiences.
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Don’t you remember on earth there were things too hot to touch with your finger but you could drink them all right? Shame is like that. If you will accept it — if you will drink the cup to the bottom — you will find it very nourishing; but try to do anything else with it and it scalds.
C. S. Lewis