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Kevin Briggs

Kevin Briggs is the Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge and a speaker for Active Minds. Contact us to arrange for Kevin to speak at your location!

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Book Speaker

Speaker Bio

Kevin Briggs shares his experiences while patrolling the Golden Gate Bridge as both an officer and a sergeant with the California Highway Patrol and includes his own personal story of physical and mental health challenges including recovery, military service, surviving the suicide of a loved one, divorce, and depression.

Briggs’ story has been featured in The New Yorker, People, and Men’s Health magazines and on The Steve Harvey Show and NPR’s Bob Edward’s Radio Show. Kevin also received the 2016 Visionary Leadership Award from the National Council for Behavioral Health.

Former California Highway Patrol officer Sergeant Kevin Briggs spent most of his career patrolling San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, where he encountered numerous people clinging to life by a thread—people who had lost all hope and could see no way out of their current situations—standing ready to leap from the bridge to what they assumed would be sudden death, and an end to their pain and hopelessness.

Briggs, through his compassion, gentle voice, steady eye contact, and an innate capacity for “listening to understand,” encouraged more than 200 of these anguished souls to come back over the bridge’s rail, where they had been standing precariously on the bridge’s chord, to solid ground and a new chapter in their lives. These challenging but rewarding efforts earned him the nickname “Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge.” After 23 years, Briggs retired to dedicate his life to improving mental health awareness across the globe through Pivotal Points, an organization he founded to promote Suicide Prevention, Crisis Management, and Leadership Skills.

Today, Briggs is mapping a movement, speaking publicly about his encounters with people on the bridge; he shares his “Listening to Understand” skills, followed up with key active listening points that anyone can use. He relates his personal triad for healthy living, and describes his own mental health struggles while serving in the Army, as a police officer, as a cancer survivor, as a family member and father, and as a leader and co-worker. Briggs speaks at mental, physical and behavioral health facilities, as well as consumer and advocacy events; he is widely sought by college groups and speaks frequently at first responder and law enforcement trainings (including FBI) and conferences, where he promotes suicide prevention, crisis management, and leadership skills.

Speaking Options & Highlights

Our speakers offer a variety of presentations and/or workshops. Learn more below.

Key Topics

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Faculty/Staff Trainings
  • First Responders
  • Men & Mental Health
  • Self-Care/Recovery
  • Substance Use
  • Suicide Prevention
  • Trauma
  • Veterans/Active Duty Service Members
  • Workplace Mental Health

Presentation Options

Get Serious About Self-care: The #1 Superpower To Deal With Burnout in The 21st Century

Get Serious About Self-care: The #1 Superpower To Deal With Burnout in The 21st Century

Stress is considered an inevitable part of the modern workplace and the pandemic tremendously increased the strain. Stress often goes ignored and has consequences for health and well-being that must be addressed. This session invites participants to understand the imperative for ambitious employees to get serious about self-care as a method to proactively address stress. Participants will identify and evaluate their own strategies and create a personal self-care plan designed to avoid burnout and support both individual and collective well-being.

This session will cover:

  • The 3 common burnout traps of ambitious employees (and how to avoid them).
  • Why it’s important to practice self-care daily and how to start doing it.
  • 5 Steps to take to make a self-care plan to revive and sustain your life and career.

“Gatekeepers: A Songwriter and a Sergeant and the Questions That Save Lives”

In 2003, songwriter Meg Hutchinson read an article in The New Yorker featuring an interview with Kevin Briggs, a sergeant with the California Highway Patrol. Briggs had saved hundreds of people from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge by asking them a few simple questions. Hutchinson wrote a song called “Gatekeeper” based on those questions and dedicated it to Briggs. Ten years later, Briggs heard the song and wrote to Hutchinson. They formed a friendship based on their dedication to mental health literacy and their shared struggles. With a deep commitment to suicide prevention, they offer two powerful perspectives on the issues that matter most in saving lives.

Other options with Kevin

Kevin Briggs is available for panel discussions, leadership round-tables, and joint presentations with Meg Hutchinson. Other topics from Kevin include Individual in Crisis: Signs to Look For and Appropriately Respond To; Law Enforcement Response to Mental Illness/Crisis Calls; My Life as a Police Officer with Mental Illness: “How Did I Get Depression? What Am I Supposed to Do Now?”; Quality of Life Triad (developed by Briggs, its explanation and daily use for healthy living); Using the Crucial Benefit of Time at Critical Moments; Engaging and Normalizing the Feelings of a Suicidal Individual; I’m Here to Help! What to Say and What Not to Say; Mental Illness: What Stops People from Seeking Help; Breaking the Stigma for Seeking Help That Surrounds Mental Illness.

Workshop Options

“Active Listening Skills”

This 50-60 minute workshop, offered as a stand-alone program or as an additional focus-group extension to the “Listening to Understand” keynote, allows small groups to learn and practice the proper use of active listening skills, and to discuss how to break the stigma related to mental illness.

Kevin was a wonderful speaker and a great addition to the Partner Conference. After his speech, several attendees remarked how powerful his presentation was and what it meant to them.

Jill Farrell, Credible Behavioral Health

Publications by this speaker

View all publications by this speaker.

Guardian of the Golden Gate: Protecting the Line Between Hope and Despair

More Americans die by suicide than by homicide or vehicular accidents every year. Nine percent of Americans are dealing with depression at any particular time, many of them with major depression that can last a lifetime. Depression is the leading cause of disability for Americans age 15 to 44. These are under-appreciated problems because they’re usually hidden and often come with a stigma of shame. In Guardian of the Golden Gate, Briggs shares his experiences with the help of people who credit their lives to him. His inspiring story will help shine a light on a killer that lurks in the darkness and show readers signs to look for and the value of hope. You will gain insight into this steadfast hero that will allow you to see why he’s known as the Golden Gate’s guardian.

Pricing

$4000–$8700 (dependent on virtual or in-person presentation). All inclusive of travel, accommodations, and fees.

Virtual/In-Person

Currently only available for Virtual Presentations and Workshops.

Traveling From Location

California