Dr Helen Street
Education Consultant & Mental Health Advocate
Dr Helen Street is an education consultant passionate about mental health, wellbeing, and building resilience. Known for challenging norms and sparking change, she inspires educators, students, and communities to thrive in the face of adversity.
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Dr Helen Street is a respected author, presenter, and education consultant dedicated to improving mental health and wellbeing for Australians of all ages. Her latest book, The Impossible Question of Living Well, explores resilience, wellbeing, and thriving through change.
Known as an agitator, Helen challenges societal norms to create a better future. Her research on youth engagement, motivation, and wellbeing has been presented internationally, and she is a regular contributor to educational publications including Western Teacher and The Positive Times.
Helen’s journey began in 1994 with a Howard Morton Trust Scholarship to complete a PhD at the University of Sheffield, where she developed her internationally recognised Conditional Goal Setting theory, explaining how misunderstandings of motivation can lead to vulnerability to depression and anxiety.
In 1999, Helen joined the School of Psychiatry at The University of Western Australia and co-founded the Positive Schools Initiative with Neil Porter, advocating for educational reform that supports equity, motivation, and wellbeing. The initiative’s Positive Schools conferences are Australia’s leading mental health and wellbeing events for educators.
Helen has advised the WA Health Department’s Centre for Clinical Interventions and the WA Association of Mental Health, and has shared her expertise on TV, radio, and other media—including as the show psychologist on Channel Ten’s The Circle. She has worked with schools across Australia and in over 15 countries worldwide.
She is the author of four influential books, including Standing Without Shoes (co-authored with George Burns, foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama) and Contextual Wellbeing – Creating Positive Schools from the Inside Out, which has earned praise from leading educators globally.
Topics
Putting Wellbeing into Context
Self-help and happiology is all around us in the form of books, programs, courses and word of mouth ideas. Yet, despite this growing fashion to seek happiness, we are an increasingly distressed nation of adults and children. Never has mental health been such a major issue and a major concern. It is time we understood wellbeing within the context of our lives rather than as an additional skill to be acquired. It does not matter how theoretically versed we are, we need to challenge and change the context of our school life, home life and working life, if we are to genuinely improve our wellbeing.
Motivation
Rather than ask how we can get ourselves more motivated, we need to ask how we can become motivated in the right way… Talks about the need to develop intrinsic motivation rather than rely on extrinsic rewards.
Engagement
How to increase engagement in learning in the classroom and/or at work and at home; and why it is important
Cohesion
How to develop cohesion in social settings – i.e. positive relationships and a sense of belonging; and why it matters.
Honesty and the Development of Trust
Everyone lies every-day to ensure they fit into society; so how can we learn trust and honesty?
Stress Management
Why we need to stop building psychological armor and start living differently
Social Issues
Issues that impact on Mental Health eg advertising, social media, marketing, movies
