Walk for BPD Chicago Speakers

Akanksha Vir:

Akanksha Vir is a Chicago-area advocate, peer facilitator, and Co-Chair of the Events and Fundraising Committee at Emotions Matter. She lives with borderline personality disorder, and she speaks from the inside of that experience... not as a case study, but as someone who has had to unlearn stigma in order to find a life that feels possible.

When she first named her diagnosis out loud, she said what many people with BPD already know: the world often sees the outside and misses the person. What she was looking for was not perfection. It was a community she could feel safe in.

Emotions Matter became that place. Through peer support, fundraising, and bringing the Walk for BPD to Chicago, Akanksha now helps build the kind of welcome she once needed. On October 4 at Jackson Park, she will share what it means to stop hiding and to walk anyway.

Dr. Kay Segal:

Dr. Kay Segal is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, DBT-Linehan Board of Certification Certified Clinician, and the Owner and Certified Team Lead of Chicago DBT Institute. She earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and has extensive training and experience utilizing Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). She has been Advanced Intensively trained by Marsha Linehan, PhD, the developer of DBT, and has provided treatment across outpatient, partial and inpatient hospital, forensic, community mental health and specialized settings.

Dr. Segal has published several articles and book chapters on the use of DBT in various settings and currently serves on the Program Certification committee of the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification. She provides trainings and lectures on a community, national and international level on Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Mindfulness. She works collaboratively with adolescents, adults, families and couples using evidence-based interventions and brings enthusiasm, humor, expertise and a radically genuine approach to her work.

Bradford Lawrason:

Bradford is a peer support group facilitator with Emotions Matter, as well as co-chair of the board of directors and has lived experience with BPD. He has struggled with anxiety, depression, codependency, self-harm, substance use and a loss of identity that comes with BPD. Through therapy, community, and believing that there is a better life to be lived, he has been able to manage these challenges. Seeing the impact that Emotions Matter has made with his life and his peers, he’s an advocate for community, purpose, and trust with those affected by BPD.

Antoinette Del Rio:

Antoinette Del Rio is the Interim Executive Director of Emotions Matter. She first found Emotions Matter while looking for support after her borderline personality disorder (BPD) diagnosis. After attending the organization’s peer support groups, she became a facilitator and later joined the Board of Directors before stepping into her current role. Drawing from her own lived experience with BPD, Antoinette is passionate about helping people with BPD feel less alone and believes deeply in the role peer connection and community can play in recovery.