Permission to stop. An invitation to live.
Kathy Stepien, MD is a physician, author, and coach who is known for her quiet authority and calm clarity. Her presence invites joy, insight, and the kind of truth that resonates long after the moment has passed.
With her steady presence and thoughtful voice, Kathy creates space for meaningful reflection, deep insight, and inner alignment. Her work is rooted in lived wisdom, gentle truth-telling, and clear permission to live differently.
Kathy’s work invites high-achieving women to let go of over-functioning, return to themselves, and live from enoughness, alignment, and self-trust—not as a reward, but as a right.
A pioneer in physician wellness and founder of the Institute for Physician Wellness, Kathy has spent nearly a decade supporting physician well-being through transformative coaching, retreats, and education. She now speaks to a wider audience of professionals and mission-driven organizations who are ready to redefine success—not through striving, but through wholeness.
Kathy accepts a limited number of paid speaking engagements each year for mission-aligned audiences seeking real depth and resonance.
Below are a few of the themes Kathy explores in her speaking. Each talk is shaped in conversation with the audience and occasion, offering depth, presence, and resonance.
Popular Speaking Themes Include:
- Done with Grit: Freedom from Over-Functioning
What happens when high-achieving women stop living from exhaustion and begin leading from alignment? This theme explores the invisible ways over-functioning is baked into the lives of driven women—especially in medicine and leadership—and the toll it quietly takes. Kathy invites audiences to question the cultural script that equates worth with sacrifice, and to reimagine a life led from clarity, enoughness, and quiet joy. This isn’t about giving up. It’s about no longer giving yourself away.
- It’s Not About the Dishwasher: What Are You Making It Mean?
This theme uses a relatable, real-life scenario to dive into the deeper emotional undercurrents of resentment, over-responsibility, and unmet needs. What looks like conflict over a dishwasher (or inbox, or meeting schedule) is often about something else entirely. Kathy unpacks the stories women tell themselves—about being needed, being good, being strong—and how those stories shape our relationships, our boundaries, and our burnout. With insight and warmth, she invites audiences to examine what’s really going on, and how to shift from reaction to truth.
- Rest Is Not a Reward: Reclaiming Joy, Ease, and the Right to What You Need to Be Well
For high-achieving women, rest often feels like something to earn—after the charting is done, the emails answered, the expectations met. But what if rest isn’t a reward for productivity? What if it’s a fundamental human right? This theme invites audiences to unlearn the cultural conditioning that ties worth to output. With clarity and compassion, Kathy offers a new lens: one where rest, joy, and ease aren’t indulgences—but foundations for a life fully lived.
- The Power of Presence: How Human Connection Mitigates Big-T and Little-t Trauma
Presence is more than being in the room—it’s being attuned, grounded, and available in a way that truly connects. For those living with stress, burnout, or trauma—whether capital-T or the kind that accumulates quietly over time—human connection is life-changing. In this theme, Kathy explores how personal presence and authentic connection allow the nervous system to soften, self-protection to ease, and the body to shift toward joy again.
Speaking Inquiries
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