At 19 years old, Paris Prynkiewicz entered a psychiatric hospital during one of the most difficult periods of her life and received a diagnosis of bipolar I disorder. A few years later, she returned to the same behavioral-health setting in a professional capacity, working in case management. That transition from patient to provider became one of the most distinctive parts of her personal and professional story.
Today, she works publicly as Paris Scobie and has built a career around mental-health education, storytelling and advocacy. She is the author of Crooked Illness: Lessons From Inside & Outside Hospital Walls, creator and host of Live Well Bipolar, and a speaker whose work explores self-stigma, shame, isolation, relationships and the role of community in living well with bipolar disorder.
Older interviews, her memoir and some earlier podcast material appear under the name Paris Prynkiewicz, while her current professional work uses Paris Scobie. Together, those records document a career that has developed through psychology, healthcare administration, behavioral-health employment, writing, podcasting and public speaking.
Quick Facts
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Professional name | Paris Scobie |
| Earlier public name | Paris Prynkiewicz |
| Home state | Arizona |
| Undergraduate degree | B.A. in Psychology |
| University | University of Arizona Honors College |
| Graduation | May 2018 |
| Graduate degree | MBA in Healthcare Administration |
| Graduate institution | Western Governors University |
| Diagnosis milestone | Bipolar I disorder at age 19 |
| Podcast | Live Well Bipolar |
| Podcast launch | 2020 |
| Book | Crooked Illness: Lessons From Inside & Outside Hospital Walls |
| Husband | Dan Scobie |
From Paris Prynkiewicz to Paris Scobie
The two names associated with her work represent different stages of the same career. Paris Prynkiewicz appears on her memoir, earlier interviews and previous versions of her mental-health platform. The name remains particularly important for readers searching for Crooked Illness or discovering older podcast appearances connected with her advocacy.
Her current professional identity is Paris Scobie. Her speaking work, personal website and newer Live Well Bipolar material use that name while continuing the same focus on lived experience and mental-health education. Understanding the connection between the two names makes it easier to follow her career without treating her earlier and current work as separate profiles.
Her Education Began With Psychology and Storytelling
Paris began attending Paradise Valley Community College in 2012, where she studied psychology through the honors program. At the same time, she explored an interest in writing and journalism, including contributions to The Puma Press, the college’s student newspaper. Those experiences gave her an early opportunity to combine curiosity about human behavior with storytelling.
Writing also became personally meaningful during difficult periods in her life. A college counselor encouraged her to put her thoughts and emotions into words, helping strengthen a habit that later developed into memoir writing and podcast storytelling. In 2015, she transferred to the University of Arizona Honors College to continue her psychology education.
Psychology at the University of Arizona and Her Healthcare MBA
Paris completed her undergraduate education at the University of Arizona Honors College in May 2018, earning a degree in psychology. Her academic background aligned naturally with her interest in helping people and understanding how emotional health, behavior, relationships and life circumstances can influence an individual’s experience.
She later completed an MBA in Healthcare Administration at Western Governors University. The graduate degree added another dimension to her background by giving her exposure to the organizational and business side of healthcare. Together, psychology and healthcare administration provided a useful foundation for understanding behavioral health from both human and institutional perspectives.
The Patient-to-Provider Story That Defines Her Career
A pivotal point in Paris’s life occurred in December 2014. At 19, she experienced a severe mental-health crisis that resulted in psychiatric hospitalization and a diagnosis of bipolar I disorder. She has since spoken about the shame and fear she associated with the diagnosis and how difficult it once felt to imagine discussing that experience openly.
By age 22, her relationship with the behavioral-health system had changed dramatically. Paris returned to the same facility where she had once been a patient and worked there professionally in case management. The experience placed her in the unusual position of understanding hospitalization from the perspective of both someone receiving care and someone participating in the care system.
That transition became more than a career milestone. It exposed the difference between how treatment can look from inside an organization and how it can feel to the person receiving it. Paris’s later writing and speaking repeatedly draw on that contrast, particularly when addressing stigma, dignity, communication and the emotional impact of psychiatric care.
Her patient-to-provider journey ultimately helped shape her identity as an advocate. Rather than treating hospitalization as an experience to hide, she gradually began using it as the foundation for conversations about recovery and self-stigma. This dual perspective remains the strongest connecting thread across her book, podcast and speaking work.
How Master Your M.E.N.T.A.L. Shaped Her Early Platform
Before Live Well Bipolar became the central identity of her podcasting work, Paris developed an earlier platform called Master Your M.E.N.T.A.L. The framework organized several habits she personally associated with supporting her mental health. It was designed as a practical self-management concept rather than a replacement for professional treatment.
The acronym represented six areas: Mindset, consuming constructive information; Engagement, maintaining supportive connections; Nutrition, paying attention to food, hydration and sleep; Talk About It, communicating honestly in therapy and relationships; Accountability, taking responsibility for actions and solutions; and Love Yourself, including practices such as movement, meditation and gratitude.
These ideas help explain the evolution of her broader advocacy. Themes such as routine, self-awareness, communication and supportive relationships later became regular subjects in Live Well Bipolar. The framework also reflected her preference for discussing mental health through concrete daily experiences rather than only through diagnostic terminology.
Over time, her public work expanded beyond the acronym itself. Live Well Bipolar created space for many different people to describe what helps them manage bipolar disorder, reinforcing the idea that successful routines and support systems can look different from one individual to another.
Building the Live Well Bipolar Podcast
Paris launched the podcast project that became Live Well Bipolar in 2020. The show eventually developed an archive of roughly 245 episodes, while her professional biography has described its audience as reaching listeners in more than 130 countries. That longevity makes podcasting one of the most substantial parts of her advocacy career.
The program focuses heavily on lived experience. Episodes have explored diagnosis, medication, relationships, misdiagnosis, sobriety, employment, creativity, depression, caregiving and family life. Paris also records solo discussions about therapy, routines, emotional setbacks and lessons she has gathered through her own experiences.
A major strength of the format is its willingness to include people surrounding someone with a diagnosis. Her husband, Dan Scobie, has appeared to discuss relationships and supporting a spouse living with bipolar disorder. Other conversations have similarly explored how mental health affects partners, relatives and caregivers rather than focusing exclusively on the diagnosed individual.
In May 2024, Paris announced a major career change when she left her conventional professional role to pursue mental-health speaking and advocacy full time. That decision positioned Live Well Bipolar, public speaking and related projects at the center of her professional life instead of maintaining them alongside another primary occupation.
Crooked Illness and the Story Behind the Book
Paris published Crooked Illness: Lessons From Inside & Outside Hospital Walls in October 2021. The paperback contains 202 pages and carries ISBN 9781737926108. Its title reflects the memoir’s defining perspective: examining behavioral healthcare from both the patient side and the provider side of the hospital environment.
The book explores psychiatric hospitalization, stigma, identity and the process of moving forward after experiences that can initially feel life-defining. Rather than presenting bipolar disorder as a simple before-and-after recovery story, the memoir centers on learning how to live with the diagnosis while challenging the shame that can become attached to it.
Three themes run especially strongly through the project: confronting self-stigma, rebuilding a sense of direction after hospitalization and understanding that progress can involve setbacks as well as achievements. Those ideas later became recurring elements of Paris’s podcast interviews and public speaking.
An unabridged audiobook expanded the memoir into another format, with Paris narrating the work herself. The audio edition runs for approximately 5 hours and 40 minutes. Her decision to narrate the story personally preserved the first-person voice of a memoir built around experiences that are closely connected to her advocacy.
From NAMI Volunteer to Full-Time Mental Health Speaker
Public speaking became another important part of Paris’s career through mental-health advocacy and volunteer involvement connected with NAMI Valley of the Sun. Her presentations frequently focus on self-stigma, particularly the shame, isolation and fear that can discourage people from talking about mental-health conditions or seeking meaningful support.
Her speaking activity expanded significantly in 2024. She presented at the Mental Health America of Arizona SEEDS Conference, delivered a keynote at a NAMI conference in Colorado in June 2024, and served as the closing keynote speaker at the Help Hope Healing Conference in Virginia in September 2024.
The patient-to-provider experience gives these presentations a distinctive foundation. Paris can discuss mental-health stigma not only from the perspective of someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but also as someone who later worked inside behavioral healthcare. That combination allows her to explore how language, assumptions and workplace culture can influence both patients and professionals.
Moving into speaking full time represented a significant shift in her career. By making advocacy her primary professional focus, she brought together areas that had previously developed alongside one another: personal storytelling, behavioral-health experience, podcasting, writing and education about the consequences of stigma.
Family, Relationships and the Role of Support
Family and close relationships appear regularly in Paris’s public discussions because she often emphasizes that mental health is shaped partly by the quality of a person’s support system. Her husband, Dan Scobie, has participated publicly in conversations about marriage, bipolar disorder and the experience of supporting a partner through mental-health challenges.
Their discussions add a caregiver and relationship perspective to her advocacy. Instead of portraying bipolar disorder as something that affects only one individual, these conversations acknowledge the importance of communication, boundaries, patience and mutual understanding within a partnership.
Paris has also included family voices in her podcast, including conversations involving her younger sister Vienna Prynkiewicz. Her brother Alexander Hamilton Prynkiewicz (FaZe Adapt) is also part of her family, known publicly for his work in gaming and online content creation, while her father, Peter, has appeared in personal stories about support and gratitude, illustrating how family relationships have remained connected to the larger themes of community and recovery in her work.
Paris and Dan announced in 2025 that they were expecting a daughter. Their daughter, Sofia Rose, was born on February 17, 2026. Parenthood added another major personal milestone to a public story already centered on relationships, mental health and navigating significant life transitions.
Official Channels and Social Media Presence
Paris maintains a professional website that brings together her speaking work, Live Well Bipolar podcast and Crooked Illness. Her Instagram presence at @paris.scobie combines mental-health content with personal reflections, while her professional LinkedIn profile focuses more directly on speaking, advocacy and career-related activity.
She also uses the Live Well Bipolar newsletter to share longer-form thoughts and updates. Together, these channels function as extensions of her wider advocacy platform, allowing readers and listeners to move between podcast episodes, written content, speaking information and community-focused mental-health discussions.
FAQs
Who is Paris Prynkiewicz?
Paris Prynkiewicz, professionally known as Paris Scobie, is an author, podcaster and speaker focused on bipolar advocacy and mental-health education.
Is Paris Prynkiewicz the same person as Paris Scobie?
Yes. Paris Prynkiewicz and Paris Scobie are the same person. Her earlier book and media work use Prynkiewicz, while newer professional work uses Scobie.
What did Paris Prynkiewicz study?
Paris earned a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Arizona Honors College and later completed an MBA in Healthcare Administration.
What is Crooked Illness about?
Crooked Illness explores Paris’s psychiatric hospitalization, bipolar diagnosis and later experience working inside the same behavioral-health environment.
What is Live Well Bipolar?
Live Well Bipolar is Paris Scobie’s podcast featuring personal conversations about bipolar disorder, relationships, treatment, stigma and everyday life.
Conclusion
Paris Prynkiewicz’s career is best understood as a connected progression rather than a collection of separate achievements. Her psychology education, healthcare administration training, psychiatric hospitalization, behavioral-health case-management experience, writing and podcasting all contributed to a professional focus on mental-health education and reducing stigma.
Her strongest contribution is the perspective created by experiencing behavioral healthcare from both sides of the hospital environment. Through Crooked Illness, Live Well Bipolar and professional speaking, she has turned that experience into a platform centered on honest conversation, supportive relationships and the belief that a diagnosis can become part of a person’s story without becoming the entirety of it.
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