In this episode, I speak with Sam Cox. Sam was raised in South Devon and throughout his school years developed a taste for the outdoors living close to both the beach and Dartmoor. This sense of adventure continued after he left school and joined the Royal Marines in 2010. He has tested himself throughout the globe’s harshest environments from the humidity of the jungles in Brunei, the heat of Central Asia, to the depths of the iciest temperatures in Norway. He will be using these...

Today I want to ask the question, could the Pygmalion effect be having an impact on individual mental health outcomes? The Pygmalion or Rosenthal effect is a psychological phenomenon in which the leader's high expectations can lead to improved performance and low expectations lead to worsened performance. Subconsciously influencing their actions and behaviours in relation to those individuals leading to the realisation of those expectations.

Are we asking the right questions about veteran suicide in Australia? Should we look at it as a wicked problem, where each individual has their own multifactorial circumstances and co-dependency from their own environment that we can find specific interventions for?  Rather than grouping everyone into a causal effect theory from Defence Service? Rather than classify everyone who has one day of service as a veteran, should we look at separate groups of long-term ex-serving Defence members,...

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking to Shuan O'gorman. Shaun O’Gorman is a Human Behaviour, High Performance and Resilience consultant, keynote speaker, and author. After joining the Queensland Police Service in 1989, Shaun worked in the Police Dog Squad for many years as well as the Covert and Surveillance unit working on Major and Organised Crime. While in the K9 unit Shaun was involved in daily high-risk critical incidents ranging from violent street brawls, high-speed...

Welcome to the Critical Response Performance and Innovation podcast, this episode's guest is Andy Bell. Andy Bell is a Senior Lecturer in Paramedicine at Griffith University, Gold Coast Australia.  He is a PhD candidate at the University of Southern Queensland and most recently took up a full-time role as Paramedic Team Leader for TacMed Australia.  His role at TacMed includes the clinical governance, educational development and team leadership of a group of specialized Tactical Paramedics,...

Today's episode is a special edition dedicated to those who serve in the QPS and broader Law Enforcement community, as a special thank you for doing what you do in keeping us safe and to try and offer something back to help, in your time of need.  In this interview, I have the pleasure of being joined by Melanie Freeman to cover topics around leadership, social connection and growth following traumatic events.  Melanie is a registered psychologist and management consultant and has practised...

In this episode, I talk with Nathan Durbridge about leadership and considerations for managing the health and wellbeing of healthcare staff during periods of intense disease outbreaks.  Nathan is the Deputy Nurse Manager Quality and Risk for Alfred Health Emergency, Nathan is responsible for the delivery of the National Safety and Quality Health Standards across both the Alfred Emergency & Trauma Centre and Sandringham Emergency Departments.  Nathan has extensive experience and...

In today’s episode I speak with Dr Dan Pronk about self-care and developing resilience for front line health care workers during times of increased pressure, specifically as we are experiencing right now in Australia. Dan openly shares from his experience working extensively in high pressure, high threat environments and personal experience with both acute and chronic trauma with the contextual understanding of the risks, impacts and constraints. To provide a number of personal habits he has...

Values are generally considered part of our morale compass that guides our behaviours around who we want to be and where we want to head in life. If we don't know who we are though, how do we know where we want to go and the behaviours that we need to develop along that path.  As well well as how we act when our path conflicts with our values, or our intended destination changes.  This episode looks into some considerations for values and some different contexts and situations that may help...

In this episode we talk about IDENTITY, a lot of the complexity we introduce into our world comes from how we form our identity and the emotional impact that can have. So in this episode we explore; - Where our identity comes from,  - How this determines who we are - How it impacts how we see our self value   - How we compare ourselves to others  - How does this impact the way we seek reward and avoid punishment  - How this influences our thinking and decision making - How this impacts our...

In this episode its an absolute pleasure to speak with the Author of the great new book, The Sporting Parent. Nathan Parnham is a strength and conditioning specialist located in Brisbane Australia. His career spans close to two decades in working in both amateur and professional sport. This includes setting up several successful high school athletic development programs throughout the country across both government and private schooling sectors. In doing so he has proven his worth and...

In Episode #5 of the Solo-cast we discus several of the factors associated with increased risk of male aggression from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. We discuss what those risk factors are, what really underlies these factors and the interventions that have shown to mitigate these risks. If we want to reduce aggression and then we need to understand how these behaviours evolve and what responsibility we each have. 

Think about how you think. When you are faced with something important or the unknown, do you think about what could go wrong, what will cause you to fail or what you are afraid of? What if your thoughts focused on what if everything went to plan, everything went right, I'm am good enough to do this, I will belong here or I deserve this?  Think about children, a child will see something new an unknown and see it as opportunity and focus only on getting after it, they don't fear failure, set...

Listen in to understand how we develop resilience or lack of through our learned behaviour. How from an early age we learn how to respond, or react to situations of adversity, setback or challenge through observing the behaviour and actions of those with significant influence over us. Or even how our own responses are observed by those who we hold influence over.  If you want to be more resilient, find more resilient people to to improve your learned behaviour. This episode is supported by...

Making the CHOICE to be mentally strong or resilient in the face of adversity is literally the first step in being mentally strong. To achieve what you want from life you need to lean into discomfort and make the choice to take whatever comes at you.  Avoidance however, is also a choice!

Welcome to the new Solo-cast, this weekly podcast will bring you the latest evidence based concepts, theories and research aimed at developing the behaviours and habits to optimise your mental and physical performance to get you to your peal potential.

Rachel Vickery is a Human Behaviour and High-Performance Consultant, optimising performance, culture, communication and resilience in high pressure, high-stress and high stakes scenarios. She consults with Professional and Elite athletes, coaches and organisations; and other high-performance arenas including C-suite execs, trauma and emergency medicine personnel, elite military teams and tactical professionals as examples.  In the sports world Rachel has worked with individuals and teams in...

Shannon is a seasoned former Physical Training Instructor (PTI) from the NZDF. With over 19 years of experience as a strength and conditioning coach her lifestyle and family life revolve around sport, health, physical fitness, adventure, and hunting. She is married to a serving member who spent 22 years in the Defence Force and has two young sons. Aside from her work with military personnel, She has trained sportsmen and women from grassroots to national level. She has competed in numerous...

In this episode I am extremely fortunate enough to be joined by Jeremy Robinson, Jeremy has worked as a strength and conditioning coach and educator for over 15 years having worked with junior, semi and professional athletes and the various specialised tactical professions including law enforcement and military. Jeremy has a post-graduate degree in exercise science strength and conditioning and is recognised by the ASCA as an elite-level coach on the ASCA Professional Coaching Scheme and...

In this episode, I am fortunate enough to be joined by International Rally Driver Molly Taylor. Molly talks about her journey into professional motorsport and becoming both the youngest and the first-ever female Australian Rally Champion. We also discuss the devastating feeling of watching the title defence slip away and the importance of what she learned from that and the subsequent growth. Molly is not only a champion on the track, she has also shown a desire to push herself outside of her...

This episode we speak to Rick Pedley-Smith from PF Welfare and engagement and Adam Demamial from Boys to the Bush. These two not for profits are working with at risk boys to try and improve the lives of some of the most troubled youths and keep them from continuing the cycle by showing them a better way and providing mentoring programs to help them establish a better life.