Biography
Mel Irons has a Bachelor of Psychology, graduating with First Class Honours, and has just submitted a Psychology PhD on the topics of social media in disasters, community resilience and psychological first aid.
She is also completing a Diploma of Languages having lived in France for a year when she left high school. Mel has a Cert III and IV in Fitness and directs a highly successful group personal training and health coaching business, where she trains over 230 people a week, with help from four outstanding trainers.
It is a priority of Mel’s to look after not only the physical health of her clients but to promote the importance of mental health as well.
A goal of her business is to help clients commit to long-term behaviour change.
Through the business, Booty, Mel offers fitness sessions such as weights classes, running and Pilates, as well as offering Booty ‘extras’ such as psychological skills training, mindfulness and one-on-one coaching sessions.
Mel has first-hand experience of taking a tiny kernel of an idea and turning it into a reality, when she created a Facebook page on a whim, in order to try to help the affected community during the Tasmanian Bushfires of 2013. Through the page, and quite suddenly and unexpectedly, Mel helped to connect a community and found herself at the centre of a social media whirlwind whereby volunteers were organised, information was shared, offers of help and requests for help were linked, and people were provided with ongoing emotional and psychological support. Mel intimately understands the importance of quality leadership, the development of community engagement, and the fostering and harnessing of teamwork. Without the community rallying around to help, she recognised she would have been powerless, thus Mel has excellent skills in driving a team, and engaging and motivating people to make a difference.
As a result of her experiences and her research, Mel has been invited to speak at more than 100 events in the last two years, at home, nationally and internationally, as well as running workshops at local schools. Mel is passionate and knowledgeable about a wide range of topics including teamwork, community engagement, the use of social media for social change, volunteering, helping people to make a difference, physical wellbeing, fitness, positive psychology, motivation, psychological health, employee management, employee engagement and self-efficacy.
