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Rachael Siddoway & Sonja Wasden
Award Winning author | Mental Health advocate
Rachael Siddoway
Rachael Siddoway is an award-winning author. Her first book, An Impossible Life, is a best seller and an Eric Hoffer Grand Prize Winner. Rachael has been interviewed in all 50 states on local and national news, including CBS This Morning and The Tamron Hall Show. She has traveled the country speaking with organizations, mental health advocacy groups, and media outlets about her family’s personal experiences with mental health struggles and about the stigmas surrounding mental illness. She is an author, keynote speaker, and mental health advocate. Rachael is now writing her own story which outlines her triumph over dyslexia and overcoming the effects of being raised by a bipolar mother. A lover of cats and poetry, she lives in Texas with her husband, Brett and daughter, Indigo.
MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATE, KEYNOTE SPEAKER, AUTHOR
Sonja Wasden
Sonja is a suicide survivor with over 30 years of lived experience with mental health challenges. Her award-winning and best-selling book, An Impossible Life, which details her struggles with mental illness, was featured on CBS This Morning as a story of hope. Sonja has been an op-ed contributor in such publications as The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Oprah Daily, and others. She is a member of Newsweek Expert Forum. Sonja is a devoted mental health advocate. Oprah Winfrey graciously participated virtually in one of Sonja’s mental health book clubs’ discussions at Central California Women’s Facility, the world’s largest women’s prison. Sonja is passionate about helping individuals and organizations create open, inclusive, and educational conversations around mental health.