The first time I saw Damien O’Brien, he was standing on stage at CreativeMornings Lausanne in a red suit and bowtie that didn’t exactly whisper “blend in.” Flashy. Bold. A little theatrical. His hair had a mind of its own. He felt larger than life, the kind of presence that fills a room before you’ve even caught your breath.
Then he started speaking.
And it became clear that he really was larger than life. Not because of bravado or performance, though he certainly had both, but because his life had been shaped by so many challenges, losses, and hard-earned reckonings that it had grown into something far bigger than himself.
Today, that “something” is Coffee Foundation, a Swiss-based initiative using one of life’s simplest rituals, sharing a coffee, to tackle one of society’s most complicated silences: mental health.
The Perfect Life (That Wasn’t)
When Damien arrived in Switzerland over twenty years ago, he appeared to have cracked the code. Corporate success. Money. Business-class travel. A Swiss passport. A family.
From the outside, it was the perfect life. In a culture that values precision, performance, and polish, perfection is a powerful mask.
Inside, though, Damien was unravelling.
He grew up in the social housing neighbourhoods of South Sydney and Mt Druitt, in cycles of violence and abuse where chaos was normal. He lost his mother to suicide. His brother to addiction. These aren’t chapters you simply “get over.” They are wounds you carry, whether you acknowledge them or not.
For years, Damien didn’t. He ran. From pain. From trauma. From himself. Alcohol. Gambling. Self-sabotage.
“I created a façade and wore the mask of the funny guy,” he says. “The crazy, fun guy.”
Eventually, the running stopped.
After hitting rock bottom, Damien was hospitalised at CHUV in Lausanne, detoxing and hallucinating, held together by nurses he still calls his real superheroes. It was there, stripped of every illusion, that he asked himself a question he had avoided his entire life: What is my purpose for being here?
“I finally surrendered. I accepted that I was ill and that I wanted a second chance at life.”
Why Coffee?
During his recovery, Damien noticed something quietly obvious.
So many serious conversations, at work, with HR, with friends, begin the same way: “Have you got time for a coffee?”
Why, he wondered, couldn’t mental health be talked about in the same way?
Coffee lowers the stakes. You are not in a therapist’s office. You have something warm in your hands. A reason to sit. A reason to pause.
“Coffee is a Trojan horse,” Damien says. “It sets the stage for real conversation. It gives people a way to say, ‘How are you, really?’”
And just like that, Coffee Foundation was born.
Fighting Stigma, One Cup at a Time
Coffee Foundation’s mission is simple, but not easy: break stigma, spark conversation, and rebuild the “village” many of us have lost. Informal support networks where people notice, check in, and do not let each other struggle alone.
Damien does this publicly, loudly, and unapologetically. Events across Switzerland. Talks at universities. Pop-ups. Campaigns like “Take Five” and “Call Us Crazy,” deliberately playful and deliberately disarming.
He knows not everyone gets it.
“I feel like a circus clown sometimes,” he laughs. “But if that’s the price of starting conversations, I’ll pay it.”
And the conversations are happening. Students from Geneva to Zurich. Messages from people saying they have taken the hardest step, the first, and reached out for support. Quiet thank-yous. Hands held in crowded rooms.
One moment still stays with him: a young woman with autism who pushed herself to attend a busy event in Lausanne, just to tell him how his story had helped her make sense of her own.
“That,” he says, “hit me right in the heart.”
Switzerland, Silence, and Showing Up
Switzerland’s coffee culture, Damien believes, is both the challenge and the opportunity. In a country known for precision and privacy, the coffee break may be one of the last remaining face-to-face rituals, a rare moment where small talk can become something more meaningful.
But emotional reserve runs deep, and stigma still lingers.
Mental health services are overwhelmed. Prevention is not easily funded. And yet, the need is everywhere.
Coffee Foundation does not pretend to fix the system. Instead, it does something arguably just as powerful. It invites people to notice, to ask, and to stay.
“Not everyone wants you to solve their problems,” Damien says. “Sometimes they just want to be heard.”
What’s Next
Momentum is building. International awards. A TEDx talk in Geneva. Talks at IMD Lausanne. New partnerships. A growing presence in public spaces. Big dreams of community hubs and regular events, places where conversations feel normal, not brave.
Ask Damien where he hopes this all leads, and he does not hesitate.
“Imagine a Switzerland where ‘Take Five’ is as normal as saying ‘bon appétit’.”
It is an ambitious vision.
But then again, Damien has never been small.
The Takeaway
Damien O’Brien is not asking us to become experts in mental health. He is asking us to do something far simpler, and far harder. Lower the mask. Sit down. Have the coffee. Start the conversation.
Because more often than not, that’s where something beautiful begins.
Photos by Hayley Hay Photography
