Building capacity: The Change Room mentor Matt Elliott (third from left) with Mid North Coast Local Health District Health, Safety and Wellbeing manager Simon Joice, Port Macquarie Base Hospital Registered Nurse Joanne Roper, MNCLHD Chief Executive Stewart Dowrick and Maintenance Electrician Danny Moss.
PEOPLE have not been sitting quietly with their eyes shut for thousands of years because it doesn’t work.
There’s a lot to be said for taking the time to reflect inwardly and make connections between one’s physical, mental and emotional capacity.
All three states of being are the foundation of resilience, self belief and wellness.
Frontline workers at Mid North Coast Health District were given the opportunity to meet and speak with sporting great Matt Elliot, who has brought everything he learned on the field into a space where making change is saving lives.
It comes after hospital staff have endured one of the most difficult and challenging years.
Matt Elliott and John Daley are the founders of The Change Room. The duo started the business in 2016 with the aim to provide the best possible ways to recover from injury and build mental health and resilience to the people who needed it most.
Matt realised the tools he had used for 30 years coaching professional athletes were also applicable to everyday health and wellbeing.
Matt draws on his 28-year NRL career as a coach and player to motivate people into finding a new lease on life.
The Change Room evolved after Matt was faced with serious and debilitating condition doctors said he would live with for the rest of his life. After a year of suffering, he turned to the techniques his mates used to beat their injuries and illnesses.
Six weeks later and he says he was cured. His doctors were stunned.
“It’s based on a high performance model. But it’s really a human performance model – if it works for an athlete, it works for a non-athlete,” Matt said.
He works primarily with individuals managing psychological and physical injuries, but found those people did not have access to the information they needed to take charge of their own rehabilitation and journey to wellness.
“We started getting results very quickly. We have had some very profound results from people losing significant amounts of weight to reversing type 2 diabetes,” he said.
“I got a message the other day from someone we had worked with and they said they would not be here if it wasn’t for what we had done for them.
“Once we’ve got people leaning in, we provide them with things they can implement in their own life that aren’t difficult.
“Resilience is your ability to bounce back. Physical or emotional resilience is your ability to bounce back to where you once were. But if you have felt poor for a long time, and you get the tools for resilience, you are only bouncing back to that state.
“What we are doing is working on building capacity.
“I work on getting in charge of how you feel – I know how to feel bad, I’ve done a pretty good at that. I felt numb for a long time.
“Rather than take a medication I wanted to work out how I could develop my emotional capacity.
“Part of the message is about making people understand what emotions are and what our emotional state does to us chemically and hormonally and how we can take charge of that.”
Matt joined forces with John to develop methodology around using health, nutrition and exercise to heal.
They enlisted a team of internationally-renowned health and physical intelligence specialists; all experts in injury repair, overcoming adversity and mental resilience.
They teach participants new ways to manage stress, fortify health and activate healing.
The Change Room has grown to a team of mentors and staff, including league legend Anthony Minichiello, who deliver programs in regions around NSW and across Australia through an online platform.
The Change Room also runs a regular podcast.
DECEMBER 14 2020 – 4:00PM
Tracey Fairhurst, Port News
