25 years of research. One answer. Your audience needs to hear it.
Professor James M. Elliott — trauma researcher, author and keynote speaker.
James M. Elliott
Keynote Speaker. Professor at the University of Sydney. Director of the Kolling Institute. NASA consultant. Former professional baseball player with the San Diego Padres Baseball Club. Published author. And a man who has done the hardest work of all — and written honestly about every step of it.
200+ peer-reviewed publications $30M+ research funding. NASA Astronaut Spine Working Group. 3 published books. Readers in 30+ countries
"Trauma is not destiny. The question is whether we build the courage to find out."
Published Works
Books that tell the truth about things people avoid.
James writes the way he speaks — directly, without performance, and with a generosity that comes from knowing exactly how much it costs to stay silent.
Available now
(dis)Connected
The memoir nobody expected from one of Australia's most respected researchers — and the one readers cannot stop talking about. A raw, honest account of surviving childhood sexual abuse, carrying that silence through a career in professional baseball and academic medicine, and eventually choosing disclosure over protection. It is not a self-help book. It is a piece of literary nonfiction that happens to have the power to change lives.
Reviews
"I read your book in two sittings and was truly moved by the honesty with which you described the impact of childhood sexual abuse on your life. Your story is a testament to resilience."
M.F., PhD
"Thank you for trusting readers like me with your story. It's courageous, and it matters."
Hayley W.
"After devouring your book in a single afternoon I settled on two feelings: galvanised and grateful." Kate L.
Things People Say
Available Now
A lifetime of collected wisdom — from Glasgow pubs to university lecture halls — on love, loss, leadership, and the human condition. James has been listening and writing things down for decades. This is what he found.
"Like a sushi train of wisdom, served up in bite-sized insights from a kitchen of a thousand chefs."Dr. Ashton Reeve, Musculoskeletal Radiologist, Sydney
For the (g)Love of the Game
Coming 2026
Founded in 2021, jamesmelliott.com is a website dedicated to promoting books and literature. Our team of passionate writers and book lovers work tirelessly to bring you the latest news, reviews, and recommendations.
Get notified on launch→
KEYNOTE SPEAKING
The rooms that need waking up.
There are speakers who inform. There are speakers who inspire. And then, occasionally, there are speakers who say the thing a room has been waiting years to hear — in the only way it can be said: from someone who has actually lived it.
James Elliott is the third kind. He brings world-class scientific authority and the lived personal experience of the exact subjects he addresses. That combination — rigour and rawness, data and story — is what makes the difference between a talk people politely applaud and one that genuinely changes something in the room.
Audiences do not leave informed. They leave different.
- 01 — Making the Invisible Visible · Clinical Innovation & Precision Medicine
- 02 — From the Diamond to the Director · Leadership & High Performance
- 03 — Trauma Is Not Destiny · Biopsychosocial Medicine
- 04 — Human Judgment in the Age of AI · AI Ethics & Healthcare Technology
"Having had several opportunities to listen to James and to share the stage with him over more than 15 years, I can sincerely say that he is one of the most engaging speakers I have ever had the privilege of learning from. He has a knack for taking complex topics and expressing them in a way that makes sense, with an uncanny ability to adapt his language and style to the audience in front of him. He perfectly integrates humour, storytelling, sincerity, and intellectual expertise into narratives that leave his listeners transformed. I have personally become a better speaker through my time spent listening to and learning from James Elliott."
Professor Dave Walton - Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
A life that defies a single introduction.
James M. Elliott has spent his career asking the questions most people are too afraid to ask — about injury, about pain, about what it costs a person to carry trauma quietly through a life — and then doing the painstaking work of finding answers.
He is a Professor at the University of Sydney, Director of the Kolling Institute, a physiotherapist, an award-winning researcher, a keynote speaker, a published author, and a former professional baseball player who once signed with the San Diego Padres and never quite lost the belief that showing up fully — to the game, to the work, to the people around you — is the only way worth playing.
His books are honest in the way that good books have to be. His research has changed how clinicians think about recovery. His speaking has changed how people think about themselves.
If you are here because you are hurting, or healing, or simply trying to understand — you are in the right place.
Future Blogs
So. What brings you here today?
Whether you're here for the books or here to put James in front of your audience — you're in the right place. Both paths start with one click.
or start with his story - read about James here →
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James writes about trauma, recovery, sport, science, and the quiet courage it takes to live honestly. No noise. No filler. Just words worth reading — when he has something worth saying.
James M. Elliott