Ashley Bendiksen

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"YOU COULD HEAR A PIN DROP DURING ASHLEY'S PRESENTATION! EVERY SINGLE STUDENT JUST LISTENED. THEY WERE INVESTED AND ENGAGED THE ENTIRE TIME."

– Director of Student Activities, Carondelet High School, CA

Trusted by Schools Nationwide — Rated 4.96/5 Stars by Hundreds of Clients

Impact Your Students, Empower Your Staff

Ashley Bendiksen is a nationally recognized youth speaker and subject-matter expert in teen dating violence, sexual assault, relational health, and trauma resilience. A Top Youth Speaker® and Certified Trauma Resilience Specialist in Education (CTRS-E), Ashley brings a rare blend of lived experience, research-backed education, and trauma-informed practice to every school she serves.

Through powerful storytelling and practical, age-appropriate guidance, Ashley equips students with the language and skills to navigate relationships safely — while helping educators and staff feel more prepared to recognize concerns, respond effectively, and support students with care.

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INVITED INTO SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION LEADERSHIP SPACES NATIONWIDE

Every young person carries potential – they just need the right tools to access it.

You want your students to succeed, feel safe, and stay engaged — academically, socially, and emotionally.

But the reality is that adverse life experiences, unhealthy relationships, and unaddressed trauma show up in classrooms every day. Even in schools with strong cultures and systems, educators are navigating increasingly complex student needs.

Ashley Bendiksen strengthens these efforts by equipping youth with practical skills for self-advocacy, healthy relationships, and resilience, while giving educators clear, research-backed strategies to recognize concerns, respond with confidence, and build connections that benefit all students.

The result: greater awareness, earlier intervention, increased disclosures, and school communities even more equipped to help students thrive.

teen dating violence speaker

Who Ashley Works With

  • Middle Schools and High Schools
  • Colleges and Universities
  • Educator and Staff Professional Development
  • Education Conferences
  • Youth-Serving Programs &  Organizations
  • Child Welfare & Organizational Trainings
  • Awareness Month Events
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Signature Presentations

Students need guidance, language, confidence, and skills — and so do the adults who support them. Ashley’s top-rated presentations combine meaningful inspiration with practical, research-backed tools schools and organizations can actually use.

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Students – Grades 6-12

That's a Red Flag - A Needed Talk for Teens

Explaining Healthy Relationships & Preventing Teen Dating Violence

At 14, Ashley was excited about her first relationship – until it became abusive, impacting her mental health, academic success, and sense of self. Ashley’s story isn’t unique. In the U.S., 1 in 3 teens experience dating violence, while countless more accept unhealthy behaviors among peers and friends as “normal.” This presentation is real, relatable, and eye-opening for students – teaching red flags, green flags, early warning signs, how to ask for help, and the foundational role of healthy relationships for mental wellbeing and success.

At 14, Ashley was excited about her first relationship – until it became abusive. This started a cycle of unhealthy relationships and choices that harmed her socially, mentally, and academically. Sadly, Ashley’s story isn’t unique. In the U.S., 1 in 3 teens experience dating violence, often in the form of emotional abuse, digital monitoring, and coercive control.

But it’s not just romantic relationships. Toxic friendships, family, peer pressure, and unhealthy social dynamics can also take a toll – impacting a student’s mental health, safety, and academic focus. Many teens stay silent, dismissing red flags as “just drama” without realizing the long-term consequences. However, these can become adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that significantly impact their present and future well-being.

As a survivor turned expert teen dating violence speaker, Ashley takes an empowering approach – equipping students to recognize red flags, embrace green flags, and redefine the relationships in their life through renewed self-advocacy. Students learn to set boundaries, protect their well-being, speak up for others, and seek support when in need.

Learning Outcomes: 

  • Recognizing what makes relationships healthy vs. harmful
  • Awareness of teen dating violence and common red flags to spot
  • Prioritizing green flags as the foundation of healthy relationships
  • Role of boundaries for mental health and academic success
  • Specific steps to seek help, plus tips to support a friend
  • UPON REQUEST: Sexual assault prevention and consent education

"You could hear a pin drop... From the moment she got up on the mic, everyone single student just listened. I saw this level of being able to weave her own personal story with real, hard data and the realities we currently face. She was able to intermix all those things. The students were engaged the entire time."

Carondelet High School

 
What Schools Report
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College & University – Students and Staff

The Talking Cure

Real-Talk on Abuse and Assault to Strengthen Student Success & Campus Safety

As a college student, Ashley endured devastating harm through relationship abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault. The hardest part, however, was losing herself in the process. Struggling mentally and academically, she eventually dropped out. Her story mirrors what countless students experience, yet rarely talk about. This urgent and powerful conversation strengthens campus safety by helping students understand the realities of harm, protect themselves or a friend, access campus resources, and build the self-advocacy skills that support healthier relationships and a safer campus community.

As a college student, Ashley endured devastating harm – relationship trauma, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Yet, the hardest part was losing herself in the process. Struggling mentally and academically, she eventually dropped out. Her story mirrors what countless students silently experience, making her message urgent and deeply relatable.

On campuses everywhere, toxic and harmful behaviors are all too common. In fact, college students face the highest rates of relationship abuse and violence. Beyond immediate safety concerns, these experiences erode confidence, mental health, focus, and academic success. Addressing this isn’t optional – it’s central to student well-being and a thriving campus culture.

Ashley’s presentation is real, relatable, and refreshingly empowering, making her a must-have speaker for any school dedicated to student safety, belonging, and well-being. Later returning and graduating as Valedictorian, Ashley conveys the true impact of self-advocacy and relational health.

From the “red zone” to “red flags,” this talk is powerful year-round – orientation week, awareness months, student wellness, campus safety, and Title IX efforts, training for auxiliary staff. Students learn to not only recognize harm and access campus resources, but to speak up and take an active role in building a safe campus community. This is their home and their life now, and they help shape it.

Learning Outcomes:
Customized to align with your event goals

  • Understanding abuse and power-based violence on campuses
  • Reinforcement of campus resources for student support
  • Recognizing red flags of emotionally abusive relationships
  • Consent, Title IX, and sexual violence prevention
  • How to build healthy and supportive relationships
  • Bystander intervention + collective actions that build safer campuses
  • Trauma-informed best practices for campus faculty/staff

"Her message was so inspiring. Everything that she talked about - I really feel like she reached a lot of our students. Her delivery method was amazing. I didn't even know how long the presentation went. I feel like we learned so much, and I am looking forward to working with her in the future and bringing her on for other events."

-Youngstown State University

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Students and Youth – All Ages

Second Chances

Custom Trauma Resilience Talks for High-Risk, At-Promise Youth

For youth who have faced adversity, instability, or systems involvement, hope can feel distant. In this highly customized, story-driven presentation, Ashley shares her journey from trauma to transformation — equipping high-risk and at-promise youth with practical resilience tools, self-advocacy skills, and a renewed belief in what’s possible. Each talk is thoughtfully tailored to the unique needs of the group, creating space for reflection, connection, and forward momentum.

No matter what a young person has faced – or how much they feel behind, different, alone, or exiled – they hold the power to overcome adversity and rewrite their story. Ashley’s journey is proof of this, and now she helps youth identify the tools, resources, and pathways available to change their lives too.

This presentation is designed for smaller and/or niche groups of youth facing unique challenges – including alternative schools, second-chance schools, juvenile justice programs, foster and adoptive youth, afterschool and life-skills programs, child welfare, and child and family services.

Strongly story-driven, this presentation provides youth who may feel hopeless or stuck in a cycle of failure with a powerful real-life example of resilience and transformation. Alongside Ashley’s story, youth gain research-backed practical tools and, when appropriate, engage in group dialogue for shared learning.

Each talk is fully customized. A call will be scheduled to understand your youth, community, demographics, challenges, and goals.

The focus can then be tailored around topics such as:

  • Self-advocacy and boundaries
  • Healthy relationships and teen dating violence speaker
  • Unconventional academic and career pathways
  • Mental health and emotional regulation
  • Positive coping and resiliency tools
  • Stress and conflict management
  • Alcohol and substance use
  • Healing after abuse, assault, or neglect

"No one could believe that a woman so full of life had been through such a traumatic experience and then gone on to find so much success. Our participants were so moved and touched by Ashley Bendiksen’s story that they have asked her to come back and speak again."

-YWCA of Southeastern MA

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teen dating violence speaker

Educators, Staff, Youth Service Providers

Be A Lifeline

Creating the Conditions That Help Youth Build Resilience

Educators and youth-serving professionals play a powerful role in students’ lives, often noticing things long before a young person ever asks for help. This presentation blends Ashley’s lived experience and professional expertise to explore what it means to truly see students, recognize potential warning signs, and respond effectively to reduce harm. Alongside practical guidance on intervention and referrals, this training offers trauma-informed practices that strengthen belonging, resilience, and agency — supporting not only students impacted by adversity, but strengthening outcomes for every student.

Every day, educators, youth-serving professionals, and caring adults encounter young people navigating adversity, trauma, toxic stress, and challenges that may never be visible on the surface. These experiences can shape behavior, learning, relationships, and wellbeing.

Ashley knows this reality firsthand. As a teen, she was at-risk, yet no adult intervened, nor could she identify a trusted adult to turn to. This absence of protection and adult support carried lasting consequences.

But adversity alone does not determine outcomes – the conditions surrounding a young person matter deeply.

Blending a deeply personal story with practical guidance informed by years of experience in violence prevention, victim advocacy, and youth wellbeing, Ashley helps audiences better understand how adversity impacts youth while exploring the conditions that help all children build resilience.

More than a trauma-informed training, this session offers a practical strengths-based framework for helping young people feel safe, supported, connected, and capable of thriving—from classrooms to group programs and other youth-serving settings. Participants leave equipped with practical strategies and greater confidence, while also inspired by the role they can play in a young person’s life.

Learning Outcomes

  • Understand how adversity, trauma, ACEs, and toxic stress impact learning, behavior, development, and outcomes
  • Apply trauma-informed, resilience-focused approaches that strengthen safety, connection, and agency
  • Implement practical strategies that strengthen focus, engagement, emotional regulation, healthy coping, and self-efficacy
  • Recognize how relationships, environments, and systems can serve as powerful protective factors.
  • Strengthen the ability to support youth and foster positive outcomes

"Ashley was an incredible speaker. I would highly recommend her. What she's bringing to the table are really specific things that you can do as an educator to connect with kids who really need it. She gave such an incredible story that I think would move you all. And I just want to connect her with every school, everywhere, to hear her message."

-New England League of Middle Schools

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Values & Commitment

what you can expect

Authenticity & Connection

Genuine, human, real-life conversations

Trauma-Informed

Proven, research-backed, evidence-based practices

Inspirational and Practical

Making complex topics empowering and actionable

Lived + Field Experience

Beyond a survivor story - 18+ years of direct experience

Inclusive & Representative

Honoring identity, diversity, and lived realities

Professional Excellence

Detail-driven, prepared, and committed to quality

18

Years of
Experience

33+

States
& Counting

4.96

Star-rating by hundreds of clients

By addressing the realities of student life, schools strengthen resilience.

"I have never heard a speaker's name mentioned so many times! We wanted our keynote speaker to start off the conference weekend strong and you exceeded all of our expectation! Over the weekend, I heard your name mentioned over and over again. You really helped break down a lot of walls, so thank you!"
MassSTAR Leadership Conference
"I have seen firsthand why Ashley is a leading speaker for youth. She delivers a powerful message that engages students and compels them to take action afterwards. I would recommend her to anyone!"
Junior Achievement
"Ashley Bendiksen spoke at our event with over one hundred Superintendents across New England. Reviews of her presentation were overwhelming positive. Ashley's message was heartfelt, informative, and immensely practical."
New England Association of School Superintendents
"You could see the engagement from students as they all watched Ashley speak. Her story is a stark reality that most young people do not even realize... Never have I seen an assembly so intently listening!"
Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center, Amesbury High School
"You gave a really good speech today. I usually don't care to listen to the people we have come in and talk, but as soon as you started telling your story I was all there. Your speech made me realize that I was abused and also made me realize I might be slightly abusive myself. I really appreciate you coming in. I know a lot of other people that are thankful for what you shared too."
Male Student, Grade 10
"I ended up asking for help because of this presentation. I learned that I am currently in a toxic relationship and that if it progresses, it will only get worse. I learned more about how critical my situation can become."
Student, Grade 10
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Read real, candid student feedback!

Trauma and adverse life experiences don’t have to define your students’ futures.

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No obligation, no pressure - ever.

FAQ's

Check out these commonly asked questions or send Ashley’s team a message: [email protected]

What are Ashley's speaker fees?

Ashley offers a few different fee options, depending on the number of presentations and how much impact you’d like to bring to your school or event.

Ashley’s fees are all-inclusive, which means travel is paid for and arranged by the speaker. No additional expenses will be invoiced to you.

When you reach out, Ashley’s team will provide her rates along with recommendations. There is never any pressure; we encourage you to gather info and then decide.

If you lack the funds or budget to pay for a speaker, you’re not out of luck. Schools find money from multiple sources. You may easily have funds available to you that you aren’t even aware of. We can help with ideas.

Download Ashley’s Free Guide: 10 Ways to Find Money to Pay for a School Speaker for easy, proven, and tested strategies to bring in a speaker.

Additionally, Ashley’s team may be able to creatively work within your budget. Inquire and we can provide some recommendations and options.

Presentation length is based on whether Ashley is offering an assembly, workshop, or staff training. Typically, a student presentation ranges from 45-60 minutes. Workshops and staff in-service trainings range from 60-120 minutes. However, Ashley is able to customize every presentation to your time period.

Ashley has extensive experience offering virtual presentations. Expect the same top notch content, just delivered in a different format. Ashley is committed to providing a professional, high-quality virtual experience. Ashley guarantees clear and crisp audio, exceptional video quality, and ample lighting. She also uses fun, high quality software for a seamless presentation experience (no sloppy screen sharing or pauses) and will leverage the chat feature if available for added engagement. Ashley will also schedule a tech run-through before the event.

As a highly experienced teen dating violence speaker and trauma-informed speaker, Ashley guarantees age-appropriate presentations for every audience. She has experience speaking to youth in K-12 and at the college level. This is often a mere matter of changing language, using different stories to demonstrate lessons, or presenting issues from a different angle or perspective, depending on the age group.

As an experienced trauma-informed speaker and top-rated teen dating violence speaker, Ashley is skilled at presenting in a safe and non-triggering way. There’s minimal focus on details and an amplified focus on universally shared feelings and experiences. Presentations are carefully designed to keep students emotionally regulated, weaving in levity while embodying calm, grounding, and honesty. They’re accessible and built on empowerment. (If you’ve ever experienced otherwise, Ashley feels your frustration. Check out this LinkedIn post she wrote).

Ashley is the author of A Kids Book About Boundaries – written for elementary-age youth (ages 5-9). Bulk pricing is available to purchase copies for your community.

Ashley also offers: reinforcement posters for schools, digital resource printables, and an e-book for parents.

For adult presentations, Ashley provides a take-home summary resource for further implementation. 

Additional resources may be custom created for your event.