Ingrid Clayton

Psychologist and author Ingrid Clayton, PhD, explores fawning: the lesser-known trauma response that underpins people-pleasing, emotional over-functioning, self-silencing, and performative harmony. Her work, combining psychology, embodiment, and cultural awareness, is ideal for mental health summits, leadership forums, women's conferences, education events, trauma-informed practices, and more. In inspiring talks and keynotes on fawning, Dr. Clayton invites audiences to recognize this unconscious pattern as she offers a rare mix of clinical clarity, lived experience, and storytelling to make complex ideas feel deeply personal and actionable. Audiences will leave with tools they can use immediately, and a lasting framework for understanding selfhood, capacity, and resilience through a trauma-informed lens.

College is often described as a time of self-discovery, but for many students, it’s also a time of identity confusion, social performance, and quiet emotional exhaustion. For students, fawning might look like being the “perfect roommate,” over-extending in group projects, staying in toxic relationships, or prioritizing likability over authenticity. Psychologist Ingrid Clayton, PhD, offers college students a powerful, trauma-informed framework for understanding these challenges. In this talk, Dr. Clayton blends clinical insight with storytelling to give students a new language for what they’ve been feeling, and help them navigate relational stress, burnout, and identity confusion; all common barriers to thriving in college life across diverse student populations.

In nonprofit spaces, many professionals unconsciously bring fawning patterns into their work. While this often comes from a place of deep integrity, it can quietly lead to exhaustion, emotional over-responsibility, and internal conflict, especially for those with lived experience connected to the mission. Dr. Ingrid Clayton offers nonprofit leaders, staff, and client-facing teams a new framework to combat fawning by sharing accessible, trauma-informed insights to help strengthen the emotional sustainability of people doing high-impact work. Whether part of a team retreat, staff development initiative, or mental health series, this talk affirms the humanity of those working in service, and provides tools that help people retain clarity, avoid burnout, cultivate compassionate cultures of care, and continue their work without self-erasure.

Dr. Ingrid Clayton, psychologist and author of Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves—and How to Find Our Way Back, offers trauma-informed insights into burnout, creativity, and leadership. In this talk, Dr. Clayton addresses the emotional realities of professionals working in leadership and fast-paced settings, helping people identify and heal from fawning at work. She offers a new framework to support leaders and teams in aligning intellectual insight with gut-level wisdom, fostering cultures of care, clarity, and sustainability. Dr. Clayton empowers teams to work more sustainably, enhance employee wellbeing, and improve internal communication, leading to stronger long-term impact and ethical leadership.