Paul Spinks
Paramedic, Counsellor, Workshop Counsellor and Keynote Speaker
With two decades of experience as a Rural and Remote Ambulance Paramedic and Trauma Counsellor, Paul Spinks insights into the human struggle are both poignant and profound. His dynamic career trajectory, from commercial pilot to international safety seminar facilitator, uniquely equips him to deliver a potent and thought-provoking message about how we navigate the intricacies of our daily lives and businesses.
Quick Contact
As Paul began his career as an Advanced Australian Care Paramedic, he was aware that the job would require him to provide a supportive and calming voice to people and their families during one of the most vulnerable and stressful moments in their lives.
With an extensive background in trauma counselling, Paul was not only prepared, but also highly skilled to meet this challenge. What Paul was unprepared for was the extent that mental health played in the number of daily call outs for his crew.
Day after day, Paul found he and his team faced people in situations and circumstances of great peril, driven by their inability to cope and deal with life.
Stunned by the extent that mental health was impacting how he did his job on a daily basis, Paul went on a journey of discovery himself and was shocked to discover the mental health epidemic that had gripped Australia.
From the fact that 1 in 2 Australian’s will suffer a mental health episode at least once in their lives, or as Paul puts its during his many speaking engagements, “if I’m not talking about you, I am most certainly talking about your partner, kids, friends or work colleagues.”
Given the seriousness of the issue, with mental health today the number one cause of death in people aged 15-44, Paul made the decision that much more needed to be done to tackle this epidemic.
“Are we micro-managing ourselves sick, or are we micro-managing ourselves well”
Paul made the decision to take his message to the public, scaling back his work as a paramedic and getting in front of as many people as possible to share his message that we are “micro-managing ourselves sick.”
That the way we are living our lives in the modern age is responsible for the record levels of medications to combat depression and explains why those who live in war torn countries fight every day to survive, whilst so many in Australia make the decision to end their personal fight.
How what we eat and the lack of physical activity is contributing to this epidemic, with our physical and mental health connected to our well-being in life.
From the urban stress of Australia’s cities to the regional drug epidemics and drought-induced farmer suicides destroying Australia’s country towns, Paul has seen the pressures modern life puts on people, families and businesses, resulting in soaring medication prescriptions in the last decade.
“If only parents, relatives, supervisors and bosses could all spend a week for a ride along in an Ambulance, it would change the way they live their own lives and impact the lives of others forever”
You will be shocked to learn how cracks form in your mental and physical health and why we must try new approaches to turn around what is a national tragedy.
Whether at home or work, we need to address our behaviours in a way that is not only life changing, but lifesaving and it is time to move away from yesterday methods and focus on real solutions that will have a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of all Australians.
Paul sees mental health is the number one epidemic in this country that is holding us back and a key area of Paul’s work to raise awareness is through Australian workplaces, as he believes they have a key role to play in working with their staff to help them through difficult times in their lives.
For those employers caught with a yesterday view of the world and do not believe that this is their duty of care to help protect their staff’s mental and physical health will ultimately feel it in the bottom line.
Through his presentations Paul takes his audience on a straight talking, no nonsense journey into their personal lives, bravely sharing stories of his own struggles, challenging to audience to reset and rethink how they live their lives, before they find their mental health spiralling undetected and out of control.
Topics
The Wake Up Call Presentations
It’s astonishing to think where war torn and third world countries are desperately finding ways to stay alive, we are finding ways to end ours or medicate ourselves just to front the day. What have we got so horribly wrong?
It’s usually a crisis of some kind that makes people rethink their life and chances are, if you have just called an Ambulance, you are amid some kind of crisis! Conversations in the back of the Ambulance always reveal one constant no matter what your status – people just want to know they are going to be ok and see their families again. And in this time of fear and weakness they would change almost everything about themselves if they were granted a second chance. What a shame this stuff can’t be bottled! Perhaps this presentation just might be the next best thing.
If you are seeking a life transformation, strap on your seatbelts and allow me to put a new spin on all things sanity and reality. This no nonsense, no fluff and extremely raw presentation is delivered warts and all from an Ambo/Adventurer perspective, and who has tracked through the lounge rooms and corridors of countless families and businesses.
This presentation cuts to the core and takes your wellbeing to a new level.
From how the neurones respond in our heads and how we manage the daily onslaught of input, to the desperate calls that follow to 000 when we take our eyes of our physical selves. Our current stats on managing ourselves into a frenzy in both our countries is at epidemic proportions and this is an opportunity for the people to see and learn from the “Game Changer.”
Be prepared; this seminar is a timely reminder to challenge what we value the most and to align our lives to those values.
The Workshop One Step Further
One of the most consistent comments that come from those that have attended The Wake Up Call, is its rawness and realness and how it shifted the way people think. After all, is that not the basis of any decent presentation?
Lots of presenters may be able to move a room, but for how long and how far is the real measure. Nothing like the toughness of life and death decisions to have you thinking further than ever before and outside the square. Many have written to me to say that the wake-up call changed their life some have even said it saved their life!
The sequel of The Wake Up Call builds on the fundamental knowledge gained in the first presentation and takes all matters one step further.
Being a workshop there is more time and more interaction to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty and plenty of interactive group exercises.
Where budgets and time permits biofeedback is used either on a few or all the audience including world-class body compositions and mind imaging equipment partnering with Evolt 360.
