Keynote Speaker
1. Improve Relationships
2. Strengthen Communication
3. Reduce Stress
Dr. Ari Sytner has been featured on 60 Minutes, NBC, FOX, CBS, NPR, and countless media outlets for his expertise and charisma. As a kidney donor, motivational speaker, two-time author, licensed clinical social worker, marriage therapist, and graduate professor, Ari delivers the perfect fusion of meaty content with heartwarming human experiences. With 3 Masters degrees, a PhD and numerous certifications, Ari’s credentials are matched only by his authentic warmth and contagious joy. Ari’s messages inspire audiences to maximize every moment of life, drawing from some of of his own unique personal experiences, including: surviving a deadly car accident; serving as a crisis responder in the aftermath of mass shootings, and donating a kidney to save the life of a complete stranger.
All keynote presentations and workshops are built on psychology and research, delivered with passion and heart, and have a clear call to action for motivating audiences to increased productivity.
POPULAR KEYNOTES
Breaking the Bonds of Stigma: How to Support Mental Health & Wellness
What Problem Does This Keynote Solve?
Helping to stabilize an organization or team in the wake of unexpected turbulence, crisis or change.
Mental illness impacts 1 out of 4 people, yet, it is still a topic that people are not comfortable discussing. In this presentation, Dr. Sytner uses stories, research, and draws from his own personal experiences and obstacles as a father raising 4 children, each with their own mental-health challenges. This presentation is full of moving inspiration, as well as practical tools for how to be truly supportive of others with mental-health challenges.
This session can be offered as a keynote or workshop, such as for a non-profit organization, community, or families. It was last delivered in 2020 to the annual NAMI of Utah conference, and was met with an overwhelmingly positive response.
If you would like to explore brining this powerful presentation to your event, please contact Dr. Sytner’s office below.
Employing Compassion for Success: Building a World of Kindness
What Problem Does This Keynote Solve?
Compassion fatigue has been shown to increase burnout and hinder performance and productivity.
In this high energy and inspiring talk, Dr. Sytner shares the powerful story of donating his kidney to a single mother he never met. He shares the struggles he confronted when making the decision and explores how people strive to find meaning in all aspects of life – even when it comes with personal sacrifice. In his case, it was to save a life. However, every company and organization operates with a mission and sense of purpose, which, when tapped into, can yield fierce results.
This is a deeply uplifting and moving keynote which inspires the audience to think about the power of one person to change the world. It includes elements of kindness and ethics and can be tailored to specific events and themes, including fundraising events. Additionally, this presentation can be used as a book-signing event, where copies of Dr. Sytner’s book on the topic can be distributed.
Audiences have consistently reported leaving this presentation feeling a deeper sense of purpose and passion to find meaning in their work, family and daily lives.
If you would like to explore brining this powerful presentation to your event, please contact Dr. Sytner below.
Communication Bootcamp: Diffusing Conflict at Work, Home or Community
What Problem Does This Keynote Solve?
Conflict and communication problems. The success behind any organization all comes down to the people. When those people cannot communicate effectively, morale drops and the output suffers.
Conflict is a part of life, both at home and at work. But rather than reinvent the wheel, Dr. Sytner draws from decades of concrete research on how to make marriages work and teaches the top communication skills to enhance the workplace atmosphere. As a published and renowned marriage therapist, Dr. Sytner uses case studies and research to drill down to the heart of why people fight and the importance of effective listening and validation to build trust among teams.
This session can be held as a keynote or a workshop, where Dr. Sytner will introduces various skills and role-play exercises to teach communication and conflict management. Audiences love that they can leave this uplifting presentation with a very practical set of skills which they can immediately use at home and at work.
This presentation has been delivered with incredible success, both for couples looking to improve their relationships, as well as companies looking to boost morale and improve communication with colleagues, employees, customers and teams.
Audiences consistently enjoy the way Dr. Sytner takes an uncomfortable topic and uses humor, scientific research and story-telling to convey a central message that is so helpful and universal.
“Teaching an audience how to diffuse conflict can be a very difficult task. Yet, Dr. Sytner did it masterfully.”
If you would like to explore brining this powerful presentation to your event, please contact Dr. Sytner below.
Transforming Stress into Fuel
What Problem Does This Keynote Solve?
Dealing with debilitating stress. Who doesn’t struggle with stress and anxiety – especially during these difficult times? It is not easy to just check your personal-life at the door when coming to work and be fully present.
This bold, inspiring and humorous keynote is a journey of how stress impacts productivity in the workplace. Dr Sytner uses a scientific approach, looking at the psychological and physiological impacts of trauma and stress on the mind and body. Coupled with inspirational stories, audiences will learn how to recognize stress and re-process it in a healthy way that maximizes professional outcomes.
The presentation is broken up into 4 components:
1. Interacting with the audience to discuss stressful situations
2. A deep dive into the science behind stress
3. Clear and concrete coping mechanisms to de-stress
4. Inspirational content designed to motivate with a bias to action (This is the part where crowds tend to jump out of their seats with enthusiasm).
Audience members at past conferences have laughed, cried and been inspired by this heart-warming presentation which leaves people feeling uplifted and motivated to tackle their work with a renewed energy, unsaddled by stress.
This topic speaks to diverse range of audiences and has been called “the grand slam of presentations.”
The learning objectives include:
1. Apply the science of stress into home and work life.
2. Recognizing the symptoms of stress, and practice healthy coping and self-soothing
3. Improve productivity and focus through increased mindfulness and decreased stress and anxiety
To discuss this presentation, please contact Dr. Sytner below.
Unstoppable: Building Resilience
What Problem Does This Keynote Solve?
We all fall into a slump at different times of our lives, which will negatively impact our job-performance. How does one identify whether their funk is lack of passion, motivation, or possibly even clinical depression?
This is one Dr. Sytner’s most popular presentations, which audiences absolutely love!
While goals and dreams are wonderful, what happens when you hit a bump in the road and life takes an unexpected turn? Do you give up, create excuses, or adapt and succeed? The hardest lesson to learn is that failure is a critical key which is necessary for ultimate success. Working in a fast-paced, high pressured culture, combined with technology overload and numerous distractions, companies can benefit from forming an intentional strategy designed to overcome the factors which correlate with employee lag and burnout.
This inspiring and humorous presentation is broken up into 3 components:
- Presenting case-studies, while interacting with the audience to unpack the problem we aim to solve
- Sharing research-based strategies for how to face the unexpected, whether at work or at home, and confront pain, struggles, and obstacles that deflate employee performance
- Brining it home with inspirational personal examples from Dr. Sytner’s life journey that exemplify the take-away messages
This talk has been called, “profoundly powerful and transformational.”
Dr. Sytner’s goal is to motivate audiences by using humor, story-telling and research to help them feel stronger, more resilient, and ultimately become more productive. By teaching audiences how to welcome obstacles as opportunities, they learn to reframe them, so that frustrations are converted into fuel that will help them reach their goals.
If you would like to explore brining this powerful presentation to your event as either a keynote or workshop, please contact Dr. Sytner below.

The feedback from the team was excellent, especially your stories and analogies. They were particularly impressed by how “present” you were for each person in the room.

Ari is a wonderfully engaging speaker! He is able to adapt his message to any audience and speaks from the heart. His stories are vivid and he communicates in a way that captures your attention. He is such a kind soul and in his presence, you desire to learn more & more!

Thank you again for tonight’s presentation!! I received great feedback on the program and people commented how much they so badly needed it!
Additional Workshops & Lectures
- Marriage Bootcamp
- Parenting Children with Differences
- Prioritizing Mental Health
- Understanding Millennials and Bridging the Age & Cultural Gaps
- Building a Happy and Healthy Relationship
- What Marriage Therapy Can Teach You About Creating Healthy Organizational Relationships
- How to Build Consensus & Diffuse Conflict
- What My Kidney Donation Taught me About Building Community
- How to Build an Effective Committee Structure
- Parliamentary Success: How to Run Quick, But Effective Meetings
- The Role of Values & Ethics in a Successful Organization
- The Juggler: Finding Work/Life Balance