About

Carol A. Kivler, MS, CSP, President of Kivler Communications, is a speaker, motivator, training consultant executive coach, and author.  Her company provides customized corporate training and development, organizational development, and executive coaching to a wide range of corporations, organizations, government agencies, and school systems.

Carol delivers programs known for their intriguing learning environment, interactive exercises, and appealing materials.  She has conducted more than 2,500 corporate programs and motivational speeches.

Raising Awareness, Instilling Hope and Combating Stigma

First diagnosed with a mental illness in 1990, Carol suffers from periodic acute bouts of medication-resistant depression, responsive only to ECT (electroconvulsive therapy). Since 1990, she has experienced both long periods of recovery and four acute episodes of depression, each time requiring hospitalization and additional ECT treatments. For Carol, ECT has become her “ladder out of the depression pit” for which she is truly grateful.

Carol started speaking to the mental health field several years ago, after being approached by the National Alliance on Mental Illness Conference (NAMI). She was asked to present and share her story of recovery and was certified by NAMI to deliver their national program, In Our Own Voice.

Carol founded Courageous Recovery to continue to share her personal story of depression, treatment and recovery with healthcare professionals, organizations, patients, and the family and friends of those diagnosed with mental illness. Her mission is to dispel the myths and stigma surrounding mental illness and inspire hope that recovery is real.

Carol has been interviewed on television, radio, and in print. She is a featured speaker each May during National Mental Health Month. Carol is the author of Will I Ever Be the Same Again? Transforming the Face of ECT (Shock Therapy) and Blessings: Your Journal of Gratitude.

Awards and Honors

2010 – Invited by the American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) to join their Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP), funded by the SAMHSA Recovery to Practice Grant. The panel advises the grant as well as other activities of the APNA involving psychiatric nursing practice.

2009 — Victorious Woman Award — presented for positively affecting
entire families, workplaces, and whole neighborhoods.

2008 — Recipient of the Garden State Seeds of Hope Award presented by New Jersey Monthly Magazine. This award honors exceptional people who go to extraordinary lengths to help and give hope to others.