SCHOOL
KEYNOTES
Understanding Behaviours. Challenging Assumptions. Building Better Choices.
A data-informed student wellbeing and behaviour education keynote for Years 7–12 Presented by: Dorian Carey; high school Health & Physical Education Teacher, now Counsellor, Speaker, and Founder of Level Up Counselling. & Emily Faye, who witnessed domestic violence as a child and currently works in early childhood.
Helping Young People Understand the difference between harmful and beneficial behaviours that either damage or build relationships
BENEFIT helps young people recognise the difference between behaviours that cause harm and behaviours that strengthen people, relationships and communities.Rather than focusing only on what students should not do, BENEFIT explores the behaviours young people can actively develop to build trust, safety, healthy relationships, personal responsibility and character.The program combines:
- anonymous student data
- behavioural and psychological education
- lived experience
- real-world examples
- student reflection and interaction
- practical strategies for healthier behaviour
The central question is simple:
Does the way I behave harm the people around me or benefit them?
Two Perspectives. One Powerful Conversation.
BENEFIT is co-presented by Dorian Carey and Emily Faye, combining professional insight with two different lived-experience perspectives.
Dorian Carey
Dorian brings extensive experience across counselling (Founder of Level Up Counselling), secondary teaching, educational leadership, relationships, behaviour and student wellbeing.
He also brings lived experience of domestic violence, having experienced abuse within an intimate partner relationship.
Dorian brings a perspective that is often less visible in public conversations about domestic and family violence. His experience helps students understand that harmful and controlling behaviour should be recognised by the behaviour itself and its impact, rather than assumptions about who can experience it.
Dorian uses both his professional and lived experience to help students understand the psychology behind behaviour, recognise behavioural patterns, develop self-awareness and identify where they have agency over their own choices and responses.
His message is not about blame or defining people by their worst behaviour. It is about helping young people recognise patterns early, understand impact, take responsibility and develop healthier ways of relating to others.
Emily Faye
Emily Faye is a healthy relationships advocate and speaker who brings lived experience, compassion and a strong commitment to helping young people understand the impact of behaviour within relationships.
As a child, Emily witnessed domestic violence within her family and took on a protective, caregiving role in an attempt to support her mother. These experiences shaped her understanding of emotional safety, relationships and the ways children can adapt to difficult family environments.
Emily has since completed a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care and volunteered in domestic violence advocacy. She now uses her lived experience to help young people recognise harmful and beneficial behaviours, understand how their actions affect others, and build healthier relationships.
Her message is grounded in hope, responsibility and personal agency: our experiences may shape us, but they do not have to define who we become.
As a child, Emily witnessed domestic violence within her family and took on a protective, caregiving role in an attempt to support her mother. These experiences shaped her understanding of emotional safety, relationships and the ways children can adapt to difficult family environments.
Emily has since completed a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care and volunteered in domestic violence advocacy. She now uses her lived experience to help young people recognise harmful and beneficial behaviours, understand how their actions affect others, and build healthier relationships.
Her message is grounded in hope, responsibility and personal agency: our experiences may shape us, but they do not have to define who we become.
Together, Dorian and Emily bring two very different perspectives to the same underlying question:
What happens when harmful behaviour becomes a pattern, and what can we choose to do differently?
Their combined perspectives allow students to explore domestic and family violence, harmful relationship behaviour and positive character development without reducing the conversation to gender, stereotypes or simplistic ideas about who causes harm and who experiences it.
Together, they connect student data, psychology, lived experience and practical behavioural choices.
Your Students. Your Data. Your Presentation.
A defining feature of BENEFIT is that the presentation is informed by the students who will actually be sitting in the room.Before the event, students complete the confidential BENEFIT Student Behaviour Survey.
The survey explores harmful and beneficial behaviours across areas such as:
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Where appropriate, students consider behaviour from three perspectives:
EXPERIENCED
- Has someone behaved this way towards me?
DONE
- Have I behaved this way towards someone else?
WITNESSED
- Have I seen this behaviour happen to another person?
This allows students to consider behaviour from multiple perspectives rather than simply categorising people as the person who causes harm or the person who experiences it.
Student survey → data analysis → identification of student understanding → customised presentation → students see themselves reflected in the findings → facilitated education and discussion.
We Bring Your School's Data into the Room
Student survey responses are analysed before the event.
Selected aggregated and de-identified findings are then incorporated directly into the presentation.
Students might be asked:
- What percentage of students at your school have witnessed someone being deliberately humiliated?
- How common is jealousy or controlling behaviour within relationships?
- How many students have seen someone genuinely take responsibility and change their behaviour?
- How often are students seeing their peers intervene when someone else is being treated badly?
This means students are not simply hearing adults describe what young people might be experiencing.
They are being presented with patterns reported by students within their own school community.
The data helps Dorian and Emily identify which topics require greater attention and enables the presentation to be tailored to the needs of each participating cohort.
The purpose of the survey is educational. Individual students are not identified through the presentation data.
step one
Anonymous Student Survey
Prior to the presentation, students complete an anonymous online survey provided.
The survey explores students’ perceptions and attitudes surrounding topics such as:
- self-awareness
- emotional regulation
- personal agency
- empathy
- courage
- responsibility
- honesty
- boundaries
- accountability
- compassion
- integrity
- character
Individual students are never identified.
The purpose is to understand the collective attitudes of the student cohort.
The purpose is to understand the collective attitudes of the student cohort.
step two
School Data Analysis
Dorian collates and analyses the anonymous survey data to create a unique presentation directly informed by the students’ responses.
Across each area explored in the survey, Dorian identifies patterns, trends and differences in how students understand behaviour, relationships, conflict, emotional regulation, social dynamics and personal responsibility.
These collective responses are then considered alongside evidence-informed psychological, behavioural and social concepts, allowing the presentation to begin with what students actually think, experience and observe within their own world.
The data becomes the foundation for exploring why certain behaviour patterns develop, how they affect others, and what students can influence in their own choices and responses.
Rather than simply telling students how they should behave, the presentation uses their own collective voice as the starting point for self-awareness, critical thinking, personal agency and meaningful behavioural change.
Across each area explored in the survey, Dorian identifies patterns, trends and differences in how students understand behaviour, relationships, conflict, emotional regulation, social dynamics and personal responsibility.
These collective responses are then considered alongside evidence-informed psychological, behavioural and social concepts, allowing the presentation to begin with what students actually think, experience and observe within their own world.
The data becomes the foundation for exploring why certain behaviour patterns develop, how they affect others, and what students can influence in their own choices and responses.
Rather than simply telling students how they should behave, the presentation uses their own collective voice as the starting point for self-awareness, critical thinking, personal agency and meaningful behavioural change.
step three
Presentation
Students are brought face-to-face with their own collective voice, seeing how their year group, age group, gender group responded to key questions about behaviour, relationships, conflict, emotional regulation, social dynamics and personal responsibility.
The student data is the starting point for an engaging and thought-provoking presentation, exploring where students agree, where perspectives differ, and what patterns emerge across their collective responses.
Drawing on evidence-informed psychology, behavioural science and relevant social and cultural research, the presentation helps students explore why certain behaviours occur, how patterns develop, the impact those behaviours can have on others, and how individual choices contribute to the culture of their relationships, peer groups and school community.
Students are encouraged not simply to accept what they are told, but to think critically, recognise their own behaviour patterns and consider the agency they have in what happens next, how they respond, communicate, manage conflict, treat others and take responsibility for their choices.
The goal is to move students from simply recognising behaviour to understanding it, and from understanding it to making better choices.
The student data is the starting point for an engaging and thought-provoking presentation, exploring where students agree, where perspectives differ, and what patterns emerge across their collective responses.
Drawing on evidence-informed psychology, behavioural science and relevant social and cultural research, the presentation helps students explore why certain behaviours occur, how patterns develop, the impact those behaviours can have on others, and how individual choices contribute to the culture of their relationships, peer groups and school community.
Students are encouraged not simply to accept what they are told, but to think critically, recognise their own behaviour patterns and consider the agency they have in what happens next, how they respond, communicate, manage conflict, treat others and take responsibility for their choices.
The goal is to move students from simply recognising behaviour to understanding it, and from understanding it to making better choices.
WHAT STUDENTS explore
HARM AND BENEFIT
Students learn to consider behaviour according to its impact.
Harmful behaviour can diminish another person's:
- safety
- dignity
- autonomy
- confidence
- trust
- wellbeing
- sense of belonging
Beneficial behaviour can strengthen those same areas.
Examples explored may include:
- Humiliation → Protecting dignity
- Exclusion → Inclusion
- Manipulation → Honest communication
- Control → Respect for autonomy
- Threats → Safe communication
- Jealousy and possessiveness → Trust
- Explosive anger → Emotional regulation
- Blame → Accountability
- Ignoring boundaries → Respecting boundaries
- Gossip → Responsible communication
- Bystanding → Safe intervention and help-seeking
- Performative apologies → Genuine repair and changed behaviour
The BENEFIT Framework
Students are introduced to seven practical principles they can apply to their own lives.
Build People Up
Dignity, encouragement, inclusion and respect.
Emotional Regulation
Managing anger, jealousy, frustration, rejection and impulses without making another person responsible for our emotions.
Notice Your Impact
Developing enough self-awareness to consider not only what we intended, but how our behaviour affected another person.
Exercise Agency Responsibly
Recognising that while we cannot control other people, we retain meaningful influence over our own choices, responses, boundaries and behaviour.
Freedom, Not Control
Understanding the difference between healthy influence and coercion, manipulation, possessiveness, pressure and control.
Integrity
Recognising that character is demonstrated through consistent behaviour, not simply words or intentions.
Take Responsibility
Learning the importance of accountability, apology, repair and changed behaviour.
Intent and Impact
A central concept within BENEFIT is understanding the difference between intention and impact.
Students commonly hear explanations such as:"I was only joking.""I didn't mean it like that.""I was angry.""Everyone does it.""They know I care about them."
Students learn that intention matters, but so does the effect their behaviour has on another person.
The conversation shifts from:
“Did I mean to hurt them?”
to
“What impact did my behaviour have, and what can I do differently?”
PRESENTATION OPTIONS & pricing
*NOTE: School funding may be available. Some schools may be eligible for grant or external funding depending on location and circumstances. Ask us about funding options when you inquire.
BENEFIT
Understanding the behaviours that build character
Duration: 60–90 minutesIdeal for a:
- Whole school/Year level assembly
- Student Leadership teams
- Chapel services
- School Camp/Retreat
From $5,250 + GSTIncludes :
- BENEFIT Student Behaviour Survey
- pre-event student data collection
- analysis of school-specific behavioural patterns
- customised presentation informed by survey findings
- presentation of selected de-identified student data
- co-presentation by Dorian Carey and Emily Faye
- two lived-experience presenters perspectives
- psychologically informed behavioural education
- student interaction and reflection/Q&A
- BENEFIT Framework
- age-appropriate adaptation for the participating cohort
Best suited to: an individual year level, senior cohort or larger student audience requiring a concentrated presentation experience.
Half-Day
Duration: Up to 3.5 hours onsite, 2-3 presentations/workshops.
From $8,250 + GST
Full-Day
Duration: Up to 6 hours hours onsite, 3-4 presentations/workshops.
From $11,500 + GST
A Full-Day Program allows BENEFIT to be delivered across multiple cohorts or used to explore school-specific behavioural themes in substantially greater depth.The day may include:
- multiple student presentations
- separate junior and senior sessions
- targeted year-level sessions
- deeper exploration of student survey results with staff
- student leadership sessions
- facilitated discussions
- scenario-based learning
- school-specific priority areas
Where appropriate, the day can be structured differently for Years 7–8, Years 9–10 and Years 11–12.
travel & accommodation
📍Based on the Gold Coast, Queensland.
Travel within the Gold Coast region is included.
Regional and interstate travel and accommodation is quoted at the time of booking.
*funding may be available
We want cost to be as little of a barrier as possible for schools accessing our programs.
Depending on your school’s location, student community, funding context and the program being delivered, grant or external funding may be available to contribute toward some or all of the presentation cost.
Funding availability varies and eligibility cannot be guaranteed, but we can discuss potential funding options with your school during the enquiry process.
Depending on your school’s location, student community, funding context and the program being delivered, grant or external funding may be available to contribute toward some or all of the presentation cost.
Funding availability varies and eligibility cannot be guaranteed, but we can discuss potential funding options with your school during the enquiry process.
Interested in bringing this program to your school?
Get in touch and ask us about current funding opportunities complete the contact form below
Contact
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