Available to book
Michelle Elman
Transform workplace wellbeing with Michelle Elman, speaker, boundaries expert and bestselling author. Michelle works with organisations to improve self-worth, mental health and authentic communication, delivering impactful insights featured on ITV, BBC and in four internationally-translated books.
Michelle Elman is a life coach, author and broadcaster known for helping people create better relationships with themselves through honest, empathetic conversations about boundaries, self-worth and mental health. Her work blends personal experience with professional insight, making her a relatable and compelling voice in the fields of wellbeing and personal development. After undergoing 15 operations by the age of 20 and living with hydrocephalus, Michelle began sharing her journey publicly to challenge perceptions around scars, illness and body image. She gained widespread recognition through her Scarred Not Scared campaign, which became a rallying point for greater visibility of people living with physical differences.
Her ability to speak candidly about vulnerability and trauma has since led to numerous TV and radio appearances, including coaching on ITV’s This Morning, BBC3 documentaries and W Channel’s Adulting with Emily Atack. Michelle is the author of four best-selling books, with a fifth due for release in 2025. Her writing has been translated into multiple languages and recognised internationally, with Cosmopolitan naming The Joy of Being Selfish one of the best books on mental health. She is also the host of the top-rated podcast In All Honesty, and a regular columnist for Happiful magazine.
A trained Master NLP Practitioner and Psychology graduate, Michelle brings both academic grounding and real-life experience to her work. Her talks are known for their emotional honesty, humour and accessible style, offering audiences practical tools and thought-provoking insights. With an online community of over 500,000 people, Michelle continues to shape the conversation around boundaries, confidence and emotional wellbeing. Her presence is both warm and authoritative, and her message resonates across a wide range of audiences, from school pupils to corporate leaders.
Topics, sessions and talks
Michelle Elman shares her personal journey of navigating life with visible scars, medical trauma and societal beauty standards. Drawing on 15 surgeries by the age of 20, she explores the pressure to conform and the emotional toll of hiding parts of ourselves. Through vulnerability and reflection, Michelle challenges how we view bodies and encourages audiences to shift their inner dialogue towards compassion and acceptance.
Michelle Elman demystifies the often-misunderstood concept of boundaries, offering a clear and structured approach to setting limits without guilt. She explores how poor boundaries can affect relationships, wellbeing and productivity, and explains why saying no is an essential part of self-care. With a frank and accessible delivery, she provides practical language and frameworks to help people assert themselves and maintain healthier connections.
Reframing selfishness as a form of self-preservation, Michelle Elman unpacks the stigma surrounding putting yourself first. She highlights how people-pleasing, guilt and overextending ourselves can lead to burnout and resentment. Audiences are invited to rethink the value of their time and energy, with Michelle’s trademark clarity and humour helping to normalise self-prioritisation as a vital life skill.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
To book Michelle Elman, email michelle.elman@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Michelle's availability and speaking fee. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and about your audience.
Michelle Elman structures her talks around personal narrative drawn directly from lived experience — most notably her 15 surgeries before the age of 20 — which she uses as a foundation for introducing practical frameworks, such as boundary-setting language and tools for reframing self-worth. This blend of autobiographical disclosure and transferable methodology gives audiences both an emotional entry point and concrete takeaways.
Michelle Elman speaks on body image and medical trauma, boundary-setting, and self-prioritisation over people-pleasing. She is the author of four best-selling books, with Cosmopolitan naming The Joy of Being Selfish one of the best books on mental health, and founded the Scarred Not Scared campaign after undergoing 15 surgeries by the age of 20.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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