Healthy relationships can be taught. Abuse can be prevented. And prevention should begin before unhealthy patterns take hold.
Before Love Hurts helps schools, families and communities move prevention upstream—with honest conversations about self-worth, boundaries, communication, control, accountability and healthy manhood.
Build the self-respect and confidence that make healthy boundaries possible.
Understand when attention becomes monitoring, and jealousy becomes control.
Redefine strength through empathy, accountability and advocacy.
What if the most important relationship lessons were taught before the first serious relationship ever began?
Richard Celestin challenges parents, educators, mentors and communities to stop waiting for harm—and start teaching what healthy love actually looks and feels like.
Keynotes, assemblies and workshops can be customized for students, educators, families, men’s programs and community organizations.
Healthy relationships before unhealthy patterns begin.
A candid conversation about masculinity, accountability and advocacy.
Recognizing behaviors that can be mistaken for affection or protection.
Before this became a presentation, a workshop or a TEDx talk, it was personal. Richard’s younger sister, Cathiana Lisa B. Celestin, lost her life to domestic violence in 2020.
Her legacy now creates conversations that may change what happens to someone else’s sister, daughter, son, friend, classmate or loved one.
A ready-to-use healthy relationships lesson built for high schools, colleges, advisory programs and youth organizations.
Richard is an attorney, educator, educational consultant, author, professional speaker and longtime youth advocate working at the intersection of law, education, leadership and violence prevention.
For more than 15 years, he has partnered with the Department of Education, community-based organizations and higher education institutions to teach communication, accountability, emotional intelligence, advocacy, critical thinking, leadership and consequential decision-making.
years serving youth
core programs
urgent mission
Start a conversation your students, families or organization will remember—and use.