About Michael Elwan
I'm Michael Elwan; Founder and Director of Lived Experience Solutions (LEXs), Accredited Social Worker (AASW 681846), therapist, and PhD candidate in mental health. My work sits at the intersection of lived and living experience, therapy, supervision, and systems change. I support individuals, practitioners, and organisations to work more thoughtfully with complexity; with care, clarity, and integrity.
Where I come from
I was born in Alexandria, Egypt. I was raised by my grandparents, my first experience of unconditional love, and lost them both within a year. At fourteen, I became my father's carer after a massive stroke left him blind. He died when I was sixteen. Not long after, I cared for my mother through years of mental health challenges until she ended her life.
In my culture, grief was carried in silence. Masculinity meant endurance. Vulnerability had little language. What I now understand as trauma was, at the time, simply life.
When I migrated to Australia in my late twenties, I arrived alone; no family, no safety net, and English as my second language. What I carried with me was a sense of purpose, shaped by what I had lost and what I had seen. I started from the ground up; volunteering, working nights in residential care and youth work, and studying in every spare hour.
What shapes my work
Those experiences shaped how I work. They taught me that pain is rarely simple, and that people are often carrying more than others can see; grief, responsibility, migration, stigma, identity, and the long afterlife of survival. They also taught me that support must be both human and rigorous. It must honour lived reality without losing professional clarity.
Over time, that path led me into senior management, advisory, and practice roles across mental health, suicide prevention, disability, and community services. Today, my work spans therapy, social work supervision, peer work supervision, training, consultancy, and public speaking. I also serve as a state and national advisor across multiple governance and policy groups, while continuing doctoral research on how lived and living experience can be held with dignity and integrity in leadership and organisational life.
Qualifications and memberships
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Master of Social Work (Specialisation: Counselling for Loss and Grief), University of New England
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Graduate Certificate in Mental Health, Australian Catholic University
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Diploma in Psychology (Merit), Austin Peay State University
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MicroMasters in Organisational Psychology (High Distinction), University of Canterbury
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MicroMasters in Business Leadership (High Distinction), University of Queensland
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MBA (Distinction), Cardiff Metropolitan University
Accredited Social Worker (AASW 681846); full member of the Australian Association of Social Workers; member of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy.
Recognition
Between 2025 and 2026, my work and LEXs have been recognised through being:
🏆Winner - 2025 AASW National Excellence Awards (Social Worker of the Year) Australia’s highest individual honour in social work.
🏆Winner - 2026 Suicide Prevention Australia LiFE Award (Outstanding Contribution), Western Australia
🏆Winner - 2026 Suicide Prevention Australia LiFE Award (Priority Populations), Western Australia - Lived Experience Solutions (LEXs)
🏆Winner - 2026 Western Australian Multicultural Awards (Outstanding Individual Achievement Award)
🏆Winner - 2025 WA Mental Health Awards (Lived Experience Impact & Inspiration)
🏅Finalist - 2025 WA Multicultural Awards (Sir Ronald Wilson Leadership Award)
🏅Finalist - 2025 R U OK? Barbara Hocking Memorial Awards (Conversation Leader)
I have spoken at national conferences, contributed to research translation with the ALIVE National Centre, and published in peer-reviewed literature.
Why I founded LEXs
I founded LEXs to create a practice where care feels human again. LEXs is grounded in lived and living experience, cultural humility, and a deep belief in human dignity. Through therapy, supervision, training, and consultancy, I work with people and organisations to create spaces that feel safer, fairer, and more capable of holding complexity well.