Conversations that open something.
Lauren Polly, MEd., is a speaker, speech-language pathologist, and multi-award-winning author whose work explores the “more” in all of us — what becomes possible when we stop treating the versions of ourselves we’ve known, inherited, or been rewarded for as the whole story.
For more than 20 years, Lauren has worked at the intersection of communication, identity, expression, and human connection.
Her talks ask questions like:
What happens when success gives us a life that works but not one that feels fully alive?
Why can we feel lonely even when we’re surrounded by people who care about us?
How do labels, roles, expectations, and environments shape what we learn to express — and what gets left behind?
And what becomes possible when we discover there is more to us than what we’ve been told, shown, or conditioned to believe?
Through personal storytelling, communication expertise, perspective shifts, and practical reflection, Lauren creates talks that are thoughtful, deeply human, and designed to keep working on people long after they leave the room.
Women’s Event Keynote Author Feature
Interview with PBS’s Jim Masters
More than one talk. One central curiosity.
Lauren’s speaking is rooted in a question that has followed her throughout her life and career:
What else might be possible?
As a speech-language pathologist, she has spent decades helping people expand their ability to communicate, express themselves, and participate more fully in their lives.
As an author, she questioned a psychiatric diagnosis that shaped how she understood herself from adolescence and began exploring who she might be beyond the label.
As a speaker, she now brings that same curiosity to the ways all of us can become narrowed by roles, success, expectations, identity, and the versions of ourselves the world has learned to recognize.
Her talks can be delivered as keynotes, interactive workshops, facilitated conversations, professional development sessions, author events, or intimate community talks.
When Being Seen Isn't Being Known
What does it take to feel genuinely known by another person?
We can be surrounded, appreciated, and even loved while still keeping much of ourselves outside the conversation. Lauren explores how expression shapes connection — and what becomes possible when more of who we are participates in our relationships.
Themes: communication • expression • connection • relational depth
Signature Talks & Conversations
Lauren’s talks explore different facets of one central question:
What else might be possible when we stop treating the versions of ourselves we’ve known as the whole story?
The Colors We Leave Behind
How our environments shape expression — and what happens when we open the box again.
We begin with a full box of crayons, then learn which colors help us belong, succeed, and be understood. Lauren explores how our expressive range narrows over time — and what can happen when we start bringing some of those unused colors back onto the page.
Themes: creativity • expression • adaptation • possibility
Beyond the Version That Works
When if the life you’ve built asking for more of you?
The capable one. The dependable one. The leader. The expert. The one who has it together. The versions that help us succeed can also become the only places we know how to live from. Lauren explores what becomes possible when we expand beyond them without abandoning everything we’ve built.
Themes: success • identity • fulfillment • self-trust
Who Told You Who You Were?
What happens when the explanation we were given becomes the identity we live inside?
Beginning with her own experience of receiving a psychiatric diagnosis at fourteen, Lauren explores how labels, expectations, and other people’s interpretations shape who we believe ourselves to be — and what those stories may have missed.
Themes: labels • identity • self-perception • possibility
Workshops & Interactive Conversations
Less lecture. More discovery.
Some of Lauren’s most powerful work happens when the audience becomes part of the conversation.
Her workshops combine short teaching segments, personal storytelling, guided reflection, group discussion, and live Q&A.
Rather than delivering a fixed formula, Lauren creates enough structure to give the conversation direction while leaving room to respond to what is alive in the room.
Workshops can be developed around themes including:
Communication and feeling known
Identity beyond professional roles
Expression and relational depth
Success, fulfillment, and sustainable performance
Creativity and reclaiming range
Belonging, loneliness, and connection
Labels, self-perception, and possibility
Sessions can be tailored for leadership teams, healthcare professionals, women’s groups, creative communities, helping professionals, universities, retreats, and community organizations.
“What if there’s more to you than you’ve been led to believe?”
What Audiences Experience
Lauren’s talks blend emotionally resonant storytelling, communication expertise, humor, reflection, and practical insight.
Audiences often describe her speaking as warm, thoughtful, relatable, and unexpectedly personal.
She doesn’t approach speaking as a performance where the audience is simply there to receive information.
She creates a conversation.
A place where people can recognize something about themselves, question an assumption they may have been living from, and leave seeing their life or relationships from a slightly wider angle.
Her goal is not to hand people a new version of who they should become.
It is to help them notice what else might already be there.
Audience Take Aways
Recognize the roles, labels, and adaptations that have shaped how they see themselves.
Notice where success or belonging may have narrowed their range of expression.
Communicate with greater honesty, depth, and flexibility.
Understand why being surrounded by people does not always translate into feeling known.
Question assumptions about who they are and what is possible for them.
Create more room for curiosity, creativity, connection, and choice.
Bring more of themselves into the lives, relationships, and work they have already built.
“It isn’t about becoming better. It’s about becoming wider.”
Client Reviews
“Lauren’s true gift lies in her ability to connect – whether that is one on one or in a group of 100+. I’ve sat in her presence in both circumstances and truly felt seen, heard, and inspired to take action on the tools she shares.”
~ LeAnn, HR Manager, Los Angeles
“I was impressed at Lauren’s vast knowledge base, real-life examples, and the simple tools she shared. I was particularly impressed that she invited group participation and fielded questions so that everyone got help on the issues that were directly impacting them. We all left with a lot of practical tips to help lead our team into healthier dynamics.”
~ Joe, Cardiac Manager, Los Angeles
“A note to express my appreciation and gratitude for what you brought to Transport Topanga Literary Festival. It’s amazing to me that a person can be a container for so much transformation and still hold a brilliant, genuine smile and bounce in their step. Your triumph over doctors and labeling and pain is truly inspiring and educational. I hope our paths cross again.”
~ Kim, Director of Topanga Literary Festival
About Lauren Polly
Today, Lauren explores that question across mental health, identity, success, communication, expression, belonging, and human connection.
Her work is grounded in lived experience, more than 20 years of clinical and leadership experience, and a deep curiosity about how people become who they are — and what can happen when they stop treating that version as fixed.
Her original dedication in The Other Side of Bipolar still captures the mission behind her work today:
“To those who know more is possible than what they were told they can have and be.”
Lauren’s talks are an invitation to explore that possibility.
A career spent looking for what else is there.
Lauren Polly, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, is a speaker, speech-language pathologist, healthcare leader, and multi-award-winning author of The Other Side of Bipolar.
For more than two decades, Lauren has worked with communication in its most human form: helping people express themselves, connect with others, and participate more fully in their lives.
Her work was also shaped by a deeply personal question.
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder at fourteen, Lauren spent years understanding herself through a label that eventually proved too small to contain the whole story.
That experience became her award-winning book and gave rise to a question that still sits at the heart of her work:
What if there is more to us than what we’ve been told?
As Seen in:
A Fit For Many Rooms
Lauren’s speaking is especially suited for audiences interested in the human side of how we live, work, communicate, and connect.
Leadership & Professional Conferences
Healthcare & Helping Professionals
Women’s Conferences & Communities
Creative & Ideas-Based Gatherings
Universities & Educational Communities
Executive Retreats & Offsites
Literary & Author Events
Community Organizations
Workplace Culture & Well-Being Programs
Facilitated Conversations & Small-Group Workshops