Wednesday, October 6th from 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM (GMT)

Online Webinar – Zoom – Link will be sent before event.

Cost: Free to attend – your donations help us keep this series running and accessible to all.

About Breda O’Toole

From a childhood shaped by neglect and violence to three brutal years spent in a cold, indifferent convent, Breda O’Toole’s early life was marked by abandonment. When she sought help, she entered a mental health system that continued the pattern — misdiagnosing her, medicating her into silence, binding her in a straitjacket for 11 days and subjecting her to 29 rounds of electroconvulsive therapy. Across decades, Breda was treated not as a person, but as a problem to be managed — her pain unseen, her voice unheard.

Her recently published book Unseen (Gill Books, 2025) is a story of fierce resilience. Refusing to be defined by the failures of the system, Breda fought to reclaim her health, her voice and her life. Through courage, determination and a relentless search for dignity, she uncovered a sense of self that had long been buried.

Blending deeply personal narrative with a forensic study of 23 years of psychiatric records, Breda exposes the devastating consequences of a system that too often loses sight of the human being at its heart.

Breda O’Toole is a music teacher, a mother of eight, three of whom died as babies, and a grandmother to twelve. She lives in Connemara, County Galway. She has followed Fiona’s work for several years attending many online events including Fiona’s Public Speaking Workshops which have helped her greatly.

*Support us! We greatly appreciate donations. If you are able to donate, please do so as this helps us to continue to offer these life-changing webinars.

Join us for a powerful and moving webinar with Breda O’Toole, author of Unseen: A Memoir of Trauma, Ireland’s Psychiatric System and a Lifetime Spent Healing. In this remarkable story of resilience, Breda reflects on a childhood marked by neglect, her years within Ireland’s psychiatric system, and her journey to reclaim her voice after decades of being silenced. 

Together, we’ll explore what it means to feel “unseen,” how the mental health system can both harm and heal, and how hope and dignity can be restored even after the darkest of times. Breda’s story is not just about survival, but about the urgent need for compassion, reform, and listening more deeply to those in pain. 

This is a conversation for anyone who cares about mental health, human dignity, and the power of resilience. 

About Breda O’Toole

From a childhood shaped by neglect and violence to three brutal years spent in a cold, indifferent convent, Breda O’Toole’s early life was marked by abandonment. When she sought help, she entered a mental health system that continued the pattern — misdiagnosing her, medicating her into silence, binding her in a straitjacket for 11 days and subjecting her to 29 rounds of electroconvulsive therapy. Across decades, Breda was treated not as a person, but as a problem to be managed — her pain unseen, her voice unheard.

Her recently published book Unseen (Gill Books, 2025) is a story of fierce resilience. Refusing to be defined by the failures of the system, Breda fought to reclaim her health, her voice and her life. Through courage, determination and a relentless search for dignity, she uncovered a sense of self that had long been buried.

Blending deeply personal narrative with a forensic study of 23 years of psychiatric records, Breda exposes the devastating consequences of a system that too often loses sight of the human being at its heart.

Breda O’Toole is a music teacher, a mother of eight, three of whom died as babies, and a grandmother to twelve. She lives in Connemara, County Galway.

*Support us! We greatly appreciate donations. If you are able to donate, please do so as this helps us to continue to offer these life-changing webinars.