About Shaun
I Didn’t Come Back to Tell a Feel-Good Story. I Came Back to Do the Work.
Mental health advocate. Speaker. Artist. Community builder. Verde Valley born, Sedona based, and unapologetically real about all of it.
The Hard Part First
23 Years. Then What?
I spent 23 years incarcerated. That’s not a footnote in my story — it’s the foundation. It’s where I learned what rock bottom actually looks like, and more importantly, what it takes to climb out of it when nobody’s cheering for you and no one’s handing you a map.
When I got out, I came back to the Verde Valley — where I grew up, where my story started. Not to escape it. To face it. To rebuild inside it. And eventually, to turn it into something that could help somebody else who’s stuck in their own version of that same place.
That’s what Stigma Shift is. It’s not a brand. It’s a reckoning — with who I was, who I became, and what I owe the people still fighting to get there.
What I Do Now
The Work Looks Different. The Mission Doesn’t.
Speaking
I speak at conferences, schools, health forums, and community events across Arizona. Not to inspire people — to challenge them. To start conversations that actually go somewhere. I’m an Ending the Silence Specialist with NAMI Arizona and have delivered keynotes at the Arizona Rural Health Conference, the Women’s Health Forum, and the CIT International Conference.
Art Workshops
I run trauma-informed art workshops at Clear Creek Trading Company in Sedona — painting sessions and Wild Relics Skull Art for locals and visitors alike. Art has always been a way through when words aren’t enough. I built Creative Expressions on that belief and I bring it into every workshop.
Community Work
I’m the President of NAMI Payson and a Board Member of NAMI Arizona. I co-founded Support on the Trail — a free monthly outdoor peer support hiking program — because sometimes the best therapy is moving your body through the desert with people who get it.
The Framework
Everything I do runs through The Five Gears — a framework I developed from lived experience that maps how people actually move through healing. Not in a straight line. Not on a schedule. Like a transmission: sometimes you’re in first gear, and that’s exactly where you need to be.
Credentials
✦ Ending the Silence Specialist — NAMI Arizona
✦ Certified Peer Support Specialist
✦ CIT Coordinator Training
✦ ISSA Certified Personal Trainer
✦ SOLO Wilderness First Aid
✦ Toastmasters VP of Education
✦ President, NAMI Payson
✦ Board Member, NAMI Arizona
✦ District 3 Area Director, Toastmasters
Why Stigma Shift
Because the Name Had to Mean Something.
Stigma is the thing that keeps people quiet when they need to speak up, isolated when they need community, and stuck when they’re ready to move. It’s not just a social problem — it’s personal. I lived on the wrong side of it for decades.
A shift isn’t a fix. It’s a movement. A change in direction. A gear change that lets you access more power. That’s what I’m after — not erasing stigma in a press release, but actually shifting it, one conversation, one room, one trail at a time.
“Healing moves like a transmission, not an elevator.”
Want to Bring This Into Your Organization?
I speak, train, and consult with organizations ready to have real conversations about mental health, reentry, and what recovery actually looks like from the inside.