Petra Velzeboer is a dynamic, entertaining and practical storyteller who is sure to bring life, laughter and insight to your audience. A global TEDx speaker, psychotherapist, author, and CEO of mental health consultancy PVL, she brings expertise on topics that impact employees, managers and C-suite leadership with the aim of evolving our workplaces and cultures for the new world of work.
The future of work is a hot topic which Petra speaks on with passion and excitement, complimenting the narratives around AI and enhancing this debate by bringing people into the forefront! With a new angle on wellbeing, her focus on mental health and resilience in a world of change is one that challenges ‘bubble bath wellbeing’ and instead focuses on positive psychology, elite performance, and creating dynamic teams that you will retain as they grow and evolve together – creating a future of work that is good for our health and sustainable for long term success.
Her inspiration and motivation come from her unique and compelling story which she tells with vulnerability, authenticity and dynamic challenge to her audiences worldwide. Born and raised in a notorious cult she knows first-hand what a toxic culture feels like and what it takes to build resilience and take responsibility for good mental health. When she finally left the cult, she spiralled into addiction, depression and anxiety leaving her a desperate suicidal mother of two young children. Hitting several crash points, she finally decided to let go of her victim mindset and begin to build a life that was worth living.
She’s known for comparing cults to corporates and adapting her message to suit audiences of employees, senior leadership teams and HR or DEI teams.
Petra is the author of ‘Begin with You’ published by Kogan Page, a practical insight into thriving in adversity and challenging toxicity, groupthink and culty behaviours in a world that is desperate for change.
Featured in Newsweek, the Huffington Post, BBC Radio, Stylist and many more she’s known for her no-bullsh*t approach to challenging behaviours and motivating leaders, employees, HR professionals and wellbeing champions to truly be the change they wish to see at work.
28% of UK employees either left their job in 2021 or are planning to leave it in 2022. 61% of respondents saying this was due to poor mental health. (Deloitte, 2022). The average cost of an employee exit is 33% of their annual salary. (Work Institute Retention Report). The pandemic turned the world of work on its head, creating shock waves across the globe. This presented a unique opportunity to re-evaluate the way we’ve always done work. Petra’s background of being raised in a notorious cult and seeing many similarities in the world of work today, drives her to challenge outdated work practices and usher in a new way of working. She challenges companies to shift their focus and prioritise investment in human capital, wellbeing, and mental health – offering clear and practical tools to translate to leaders everyday lives. Petra poses a question that completely changes the way we have viewed work: What if work was good for our mental health, not something we had to recover from afterwards?
A cost of $322 billion in turnover and lost productivity globally due to employee burnout (Gallup 2022). You’ve likely heard the word Burnout a lot in recent years, but what does Burnout really mean? How can we understand this condition, prevent it from happening and support individuals to recover should they become burnt out? This session normalises why burnout happens and explains how to spot early signals and put preventative behaviours in place. It also explores how to recover and rebuild for those who have been experiencing burnout.
Presenteeism costs £775 per employee per month. This is £9.3m per year for an organisation of 1000 employees. (Champion Health, 2022). The buzzword of resilience is the way many leaders focus on wellbeing. They want people to soldier on, man-up, keep delivering amidst waves of uncertainty and restructure and they outsource to helplines and professionals when the going gets tough. This approach often puts blame on the individual for what is actually a systemic challenge – one of evolving our working practices and ways that we create belonging and a sense of team in a hybrid world. Petra offers a new approach, one of investing in mindset and understanding the language to explicitly create space for our people to thrive. This in turn improves productivity and ensures we retain talent longer term.
Petra brings a unique angle to the world of work. Raised in a notorious cult, she knows first-hand what toxicity looks like and is able to assess the PR version of well-being vs authentic psychological safety. She challenges leaders and individuals to take ownership of their culture, offering practical tools for evolving our workplaces for the future.
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