About the Program
The Self-Investigation’s Mental Health Leadership for Fact-Checkers program is a rigorous, 6-month program of training and coaching for leaders of fact-checking organizations. In 2024 we have run two cohorts, one in English and one in Spanish, with 14 fact-checking organisations participating.
Fact-checking professionals face a specific set of challenges around mental health, such as time-tight timelines, online harassment, vicarious trauma and strong work demands. This is especially important in mega-election years with more than 60 countries hosting elections, multiple global conflicts and an onslaught of harrowing images on social media (both real and AI-generated). Because of this, we believe that having the right tools and strategies to protect one’s mental health and better support their team is more important than ever.
In its first edition, the program has been offered free of charge to two cohorts of journalists, made possible by a generous grant from the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). The objective is to empower fact-checking leaders with the skills to cultivate a lasting culture of mental health awareness and action within their teams. In addition, leaders receive individualised coaching and accompaniment in implementing change.
What participants learn:
Through five group training sessions and 1:1 coaching, participants are learn key skills in the following areas:
- The basics of mental health and burnout prevention;
- Addressing vicarious trauma and online harassment in the newsroom;
- Developing digital boundaries in an always-on culture;
- Creating a culture of psychological safety in the team;
- Sustaining a mental health toolkit and practices in your organization.
Key activities in the program:
- Practical skills and actionable frameworks designed for fact-checkers
- Coaches and trainers with media industry experience
- Group discussions for mutual learning and support
- Pairing with a coach for 1:1 support during the program
- Written resources and guides for implementing change
The expected time commitment is 15-20 hours over 6 months.
This is how two managers in the program define a mentally healthy workplace:
Mental Health Leadership Toolkit for Fact-Checkers
Five guides available on burnout prevention, digital boundaries, vicarious trauma and moral injury, online harassment and psychological safety
Revisit the MHJS24 panel discussion about lessons learned from the Mental Health Leadership for Fact-Checkers program.
Listen to fact-checkers Jency Jacom (BOOM), Blanka Zöldi (Lakmusz), Eric Litke (USA Today), and program manager AX Mina provide early insights into the program’s structure, learning objectives, its transformative impact.
Articles about the Program
In 2024, the program has been sponsored by:
About the Participants
About the Trainers and Coaches
Topics: Sustaining a mental health toolkit and practices in the newsroom and Creating a culture of psychological safety in the team
Emma Thomasson is a British journalist, consultant and trainer based in Germany. She previously worked for Reuters as a correspondent and bureau chief in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, South Africa and the UK. She has reported on a wide range of topics including business, technology, economics, politics and international law. She is also a leadership coach and an advocate for better workplace mental health. At Reuters, she helped run a peer network, which supports journalists suffering from stress and trauma, and ran workshops on burnout and resilience. She also set up a global mentoring network to promote diversity and support mid-level managers.
Topics: Sustaining a mental health toolkit and practices in the newsroom
Natalia Martín Cantero is a journalist and university lecturer based in Brussels (Belgium). She has written extensively about mental health and wellness in Spanish-speaking media worldwide, including El País, Univision Noticias, and Agencia EFE, where she worked as a United States correspondent for seven years. Her book, ‘Think Well and You Will Get It Right: Compassion, Mindfulness, and Other Refuges for Maintaining Hope in Today’s World,’ was published in January 2024 by Plataforma Editorial. She is a Stanford Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) instructor and a certified mindfulness and yoga instructor.
AX Mina is part-time Program Director at The Self-Investigation. She is also a strategic consultant and leadership coach who’s supported news leaders and managers through programs with LION Publishers, The OpEd Project and the American Press Institute. She was a founding board member of the News Product Alliance and is a Senior Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg School for Journalism and Communications. She is a certified trauma-informed yoga teacher and lifelong mindfulness practitioner.
Topics: The basics of mental health and burnout prevention
Kim co-founded The Self-Investigation. As Director of Coaching, she supports the team of coaches to serve TSI’s clients in the best way possible and to professionalize and align around TSI’s core values.
As a coach, Kim supports journalists and changemakers to lead with greater resilience, purpose and personal excellence. She has coached journalists and support staff from dozens of media organizations around the world, including The Guardian, Volant Media, Zeit Online and through the European Journalism Center, the International Center for Journalists, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and the World Association of Newspaper Publishers.
She has over two decades of experience working as an activist, then founder and organizational advisor to many media, journalism and social justice support programs around the world.
Topics: The basics of mental health and burnout prevention and Creating a culture of psychological safety in the team
Aldara is one of the co-founders of The Self-Investigation. She is a journalist and coach, expert in emotional intelligence and mindfulness. She directs the coaching section in the NIUS digital newspaper. She founded The Coaching Post to raise self-awareness in the field of communication and education. Before that, she worked for 20 years as an editor on Noticias Cuatro and CNN+.
Topics: Addressing vicarious trauma and online harassment in the newsroom;
Naseem Miller joined The Journalist’s Resource in 2021 after working as a health reporter in newspapers and medical trade publications, covering a wide range of topics from correctional health care to clinical trials. She covered the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting while at the Orlando Sentinel and later helped start the Journalists Covering Trauma Facebook group to provide support to reporters who cover tragic events. She has an undergraduate degree in molecular and microbiology from the University of Central Florida and a master’s degree in multimedia journalism and public affairs from American University.
Topics: Digital boundaries and communications in an always-on culture
He is a co-author of the books “The Time Factory/How to Tame Your Screens” (Penguin Random House) and co-host of the podcast “How to Create Time” alongside Martina Rua.
Today, he is the regional manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Fund for Public Interest Media. He was the executive and journalistic director of Chequeado and an editor at La Nación (Argentina). He teaches undergraduate courses at the University of Buenos Aires and postgraduate courses at the Torcuato Di Tella University. He has conducted training sessions and given talks in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
Topics: Addressing vicarious trauma and online harassment in the newsroom
Juan Carlos Segarra is a founding partner of Vinland Solutions, with a master’s degree in psychology and a specialist in psycho-emotional security and physical security of brigades, he has created different manuals and programs for the protection and monitoring of journalists and human rights defenders in Latin America, the United States and Europe.
Over the course of 20 years of work, he and his team have trained and assisted more than 3,000 journalists and human rights defenders.
Rocío supports organizations and changemakers to increase their well-being and build healthy workplaces to boost impact and improve working relationships. She teaches communication skills, leadership, teamwork and systemic change at several universities in Spain.
She has written for publications such as El País, El Mundo and El Diario.
She works as a freelance coach and is Acumen fellow, a global network of change leaders.
Elena supports people and teams in nonprofits and private companies to navigate through professional and personal challenges. She has coached leaders and communications staff most recently at organizations such as Educo and Ashoka (Spain).
She has 20+ years’ experience in organizational management with international companies and NGOs working on social development, environmental sustainability and human rights
She currently coaches individuals and teams and serves as a strategy consultant for both nonprofit and private companies.