What TED Speakers and Therapy Clients Can Learn From Each Other

There’s a moment in every TED coaching session when a speaker hesitates.

It might come just after they’ve shared a deeply personal story. Or just before they say something they’ve never admitted out loud. Their voice catches. Their breath shortens.

A question flickers behind their eyes:

“Can I really say this?”

It’s a moment I recognize — because I’ve seen it in the therapy room, too.

Surprising as it may sound, TED speakers and therapy clients often stand at the same crossroads: the one where vulnerability meets courage. And while their goals may differ — one is crafting a talk, the other seeking healing — the inner terrain they traverse can look strikingly similar.

As someone who walks alongside both, I’ve learned that these two worlds have much to teach one another.

 1. TED Speakers Can Learn the Value of Inner Work

Speakers often begin their journey with a clear “idea worth spreading.” But what they may not realize is that the most powerful talks come not just from what we know, but from what we've lived — and how well we’ve made sense of it.

Therapy clients do this inner work day in and day out. They ask hard questions:

• What do I really believe?

• Why do I react this way?

• Where does this pattern come from?

Speakers who embrace this same curiosity dig deeper. They stop performing and start connecting. Instead of saying “This is what I think,” they say, “This is what I’ve wrestled with — and here’s what I’ve learned.”

A speaker who’s done that kind of inner excavation delivers more than just a talk. They offer a gift: a piece of truth carved from personal experience.

2. Therapy Clients Can Learn the Power of Their Voice

On the other side, many therapy clients underestimate the value of their stories.

They often say things like, “It’s not that important,” or “Other people have been through worse.” They’ve lived through quiet battles, private turning points, and small, hard-won victories that no one sees.

But when I coach TED speakers, those are exactly the kinds of stories that move audiences — the ordinary made meaningful, the vulnerable made visible.

In the speaker space, we talk a lot about finding your voice. But in therapy, we work on reclaiming it — often from years of silence, shame, or self-doubt.

Therapy clients don’t need a stage to be powerful. But when they begin to own their story — even just in conversation — they touch others in ways they can’t always imagine.

3. Both Can Learn That Connection Comes From Authenticity

Whether you’re sitting across from a therapist or standing on a red dot under bright lights, people feel when you’re being real.

Authenticity isn’t about oversharing. It’s about alignment — between your words, your emotions, and your deeper values.

One speaker I worked with was stuck on the structure of her talk. It sounded polished, but something felt… off. When I asked her to describe the moment her idea became real in her life, she told a raw, unplanned story about a late-night phone call with her father. Her entire posture changed. Her eyes welled up. Suddenly, we were there with her.

That moment — the unscripted, unvarnished moment — became the heart of her talk.

In therapy, that same shift happens when someone stops trying to “get it right” and starts speaking from the core. It’s the difference between saying something and meaning it.

The Loop Between Inner Work and Outer Expression

There’s a loop I’ve come to love in this work:

• Therapy helps people understand and own their stories.

• Speaking helps them articulate and share those stories with the world.

• The act of sharing deepens their insight, which fuels more inner work… and so it continues.

In that loop, healing meets impact. Vulnerability becomes strength. And personal growth becomes a public service.

Not everyone in therapy wants to give a TED talk. And not every speaker needs therapy. But everyone benefits from asking the questions that therapy clients ask — and speaking with the intention that TED talks demand.

Whether you're whispering in a quiet office or standing before a crowd, the heart of the work is the same:

To tell the truth. To be heard. To connect.

And in doing so — to discover, perhaps for the first time — that your voice can change more than just your life. It can change others', too.

*Image by Bianca Van Dijk from Pixabay