Non-binding request for Petra Velzeboer
Petra Velzeboer
Cult survivor turned digital wellbeing expert helping leaders build resilient, high-performing teams in a world of constant change.
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5.00 of 5
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Reasons to book Petra Velzeboer
- Learn how to lead high-performing teams through digital overload, AI disruption and constant change without burning out your people.
- Practical tools to tackle technostress, hybrid strain and mental health challenges while strengthening trust and psychological safety.
- A powerful personal story combined with sharp business insight that challenges outdated wellbeing and drives real performance.
Non-binding request for Petra Velzeboer
From cult survivor to trusted advisor on performance, culture & digital wellbeing
Petra Velzeboer is a TEDx speaker, author and trusted advisor helping organisations rethink how high-performing teams thrive in today’s fast-moving, digitally overloaded world. With a direct and engaging style, she challenges outdated wellbeing approaches and replaces them with practical strategies that strengthen culture, trust and performance. Drawing on both lived experience and deep expertise, Petra equips leaders to navigate pressure, lead with clarity and build environments where people perform at their best without burning out.
Petra Velzeboer – Book a Speaker Who Redefines Performance
Petra Velzeboer is a globally recognised TEDx speaker, author and business consultant working at the intersection of leadership, culture and digital wellbeing. She advises leaders and organisations on how to build and sustain high-performing teams in an era shaped by digital overload, AI disruption and constant change. Her work focuses on what truly drives performance today: clarity, trust, psychological safety and healthy working practices that actually hold under pressure.
With a reputation for sharp insight and a no-nonsense delivery style, Petra moves beyond surface-level wellbeing. She challenges what she calls “bubble bath wellbeing” and replaces it with practical, actionable strategies that strengthen both people and performance at scale.
From Cult Survivor to Trusted Advisor
Petra’s journey is anything but conventional. Raised in a notorious extremist cult and later recovering from addiction, she rebuilt her life from rock bottom. This lived experience gives her a rare perspective on human behaviour, resilience and the hidden dynamics that shape teams and organisations.
She understands how fear, silence and unhealthy power structures can quietly erode performance and push talent out the door. Her work exposes these patterns, even in environments that appear healthy on the surface, helping organisations recognise where groupthink, pressure and change can impact performance over time.
This combination of personal resilience and professional expertise makes her especially effective in high-pressure, high-risk environments.
High-Performing Teams in a Digital World
Modern workplaces are evolving fast, and Petra helps leaders stay ahead. She equips organisations with tools to navigate:
- Technostress and digital overload
- Hybrid and remote working challenges
- AI anxiety and rapid transformation
- Rising mental health pressures at work
Her approach is both practical and energising. She focuses on helping leaders create clarity under pressure, build healthy authority and foster honest conversations that strengthen trust across teams.
Rather than slowing organisations down, Petra’s work enables people to perform at a higher level, sustainably.
Author & Thought Leader
Petra is the author of Begin with You and Digital Wellbeing: Recharge Your Focus and Reboot Your Life, where she explores how individuals and organisations can reset their relationship with work, technology and performance.
Her insights have been featured in major publications including Newsweek, Harvard Business Review and The Huffington Post. Her voice continues to shape conversations around leadership, culture and wellbeing in modern organisations.
Trusted by Global Organisations
Petra works with some of the world’s most recognised organisations, delivering keynotes and advisory services that create lasting impact. Her clients include Deloitte, PwC, Microsoft, KPMG, Channel 4, Novartis, US Bank, Monzo and Warner Media.
She is also increasingly sought after at cyber security conferences, where her expertise on human risk, psychological safety and trust plays a critical role in high-stakes environments.
Why Book Petra Velzeboer
Whether she is delivering a keynote, working closely with leadership teams or advising organisations through transformation, Petra brings clarity, honesty and energy to every engagement.
Audiences leave not just inspired, but challenged and equipped with tools they can apply immediately. Her sessions spark reflection, shift mindsets and create momentum for real change.
Petra Velzeboer is the speaker organisations turn to when they want to rethink performance, strengthen culture and lead confidently in a world that is evolving faster than ever before.
Customer Reviews
5 of 5
Petra was fantastic! Her presentation was insightful, energetic, and highly relevant. She connected wonderfully with the audience and left a very positive impression.
Nane ManukyanNewmag Publishing House | Evocabank
5 of 5
Petra takes the sensitive subject of mental health and makes it accessible to anyone regardless or their background or experience. Petra is a true partner, bringing awareness and sustainability of employees mental well-being into organisations. Examples include 1)developing a mental health ambassador programme to provide confidential support within the organisation. And 2) Developing managers in simple bite sized chunks to equip them with the confidence to manage mental health to support their best performance within team.
Kirstin Furber. Chief People OfficerClearScore
5 of 5
We invited Petra to speak at a conference with 50+ construction staff & everyone was blown away by the insight that Petra offered into our own selves. It was almost astounding to watch the shift in the room as it became ok for everyone to talk to each other. We are fortunate that this has reflected positively in productivity and we are hopeful that with Petra’s ongoing support, this dynamic has permanently changed for the better.
Managing Director The Built World Ben WardThe Built World Ben Ward
5 of 5
Petra has been instrumental in helping me bring our wellbeing strategy to life. She delivered some brilliant training to our line managers and upskilled some employees to be our mental health ambassadors. Petra has also worked closely with some of our senior team coaching them and helping them reach their full potential. Over the last year, she has helped us introduce some really positive changes in the workplace, and i am extremely grateful
Sally Smithson HR Director FLM Ltd
5 of 5
Petra has worked with MVF to support our internal MH strategy. Through her tailored coaching sessions she builds a structured plan to achieve specific goals during the coaching period. The impact of my sessions with Petra has helped to build my confidence around language and in turn enabled me to create a space for open discussions about MH at MVF. Petra's style is direct and empathetic and her clinical support and advice offers an extra edge to the work you do with her. I highly recommend coaching sessions with Petra, whether you are just starting on your mental health strategy or looking to develop it further.
Hannah MeredithMVF Global
5 of 5
We wanted to close our conference with a memorable moment – and Petra delivered on an often-ignored issue: our mental health. With positive vibes, an energetic speech, get-together touchy moments and many wake-up calls, the participants were taken on an emotional roller-coaster of positive attitudes towards our… mind.”
UNIBA Partners, October 2019UNIBA Partners
5 of 5
We wanted to hold a dynamic session on mental health that would really provide some valuable takeaways for staff during National Inclusion Week. Petra’s personality and down to earth nature helped to ensure her session really got through to our employees. We wouldn’t hesitate to work with Petra again and the feedback we have received following the session has been incredibly positive’
Hugo Drummond Event Organiser,The Guinness Partnership.
5 of 5
Petra's keynote speech at the UnA conference was incredible. With such a tricky subject to discuss, she got the point across in a way that isn't too clinical or condescending but was instead, magnificent. Petra is funny, engaging, to the point and actually knows what she's talking about! I feel that she's given me everyday tools to start making mental health a daily conversation with friends, family and colleagues.
Philipa DavisUNA Alliance
5 of 5
Petra certainly knows her stuff and has the ability to put it across in a no nonsense, practical and highly inspirational way. She brings the perfect balance of support and challenge to everything that she does. We were lucky to have Petra support a number of events at William Hill and it was a pleasure to work with her. A pleasure that I hope that we will be able to repeat again soon.
Rachel Greenway, Talent & Capability DirectorWilliam Hill
5 of 5
We had the pleasure of having Petra speak at an internal Guardian employee event for mental health awareness week 2019. The honesty in which she shared her personal experience was quite moving. She was both informative and inspirational. I would highly recommend her talks.
Tina Moynihan, Event ProducerThe Guardian News & Media
5 of 5
Inspirational! The talk was targeted at the right level and staff really felt they got a lot out of it.
Alison JacobEdgware Primary School
Rated 5.00/5 based on 11 customer reviews
Keynotes
Keynote by Petra Velzeboer:
Digital Wellbeing: Recharge Focus in a Distracted AI World
A practical and uplifting keynote that helps people take back control of attention, energy and technology, reducing burnout while improving focus, creativity and performance in an always on world.
Keynote by Petra Velzeboer:
Leading Under Pressure: Resilience through Change
This session equips leaders to stay clear, grounded and effective during rapid change, showing how to lead with confidence, protect performance and support teams without absorbing toxic pressure.
Keynote by Petra Velzeboer:
From Burnout to Performance: Helping Teams Thrive Through Change
A powerful reset on burnout prevention that reframes wellbeing as a performance strategy, giving teams the tools to recover faster, work smarter and sustain high performance over time.
Keynote by Petra Velzeboer:
Adversity to Resilience: Cult Survivor to Thought Leader
Petra’s personal story of surviving an extremist cult and addiction delivers a compelling message about responsibility, courage and growth, leaving audiences inspired and equipped to navigate adversity with strength and clarity.
Petra Velzeboer 2026: Keynote Speaker. Digital Wellbeing, AI, Leadership and Mental Health at Work
Watch Petra Velzeboer in action!
Reframing Diagnosis and the Road to Recovery | Petra Velzeboer | TEDxJönköping University
Watch Petra Velzeboer in action!
Three Ways to Live the Life You Want | Petra Velzeboer | TEDxOxford
Blog posts by Petra Velzeboer
Mental Health and Ambition: How to work your way up
So, you’ve got lots of ambition, you want to be successful and really make a difference in your world. You’ve always dreamed big BUT, you struggle with your mental health. Many people feel that once they get diagnosed with a mental health condition - that’s it. They must accept their diagnosis and p
Books by Petra Velzeboer
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Digital WellbeingRecharge Your Focus and Reboot Your LifeBy Petra Velzeboer -
Begin With YouInvest in Your Mental Well-being and Satisfaction at WorkBy Petra Velzeboer
