Keynote · Mental health
Mental fitness is a skill. Build it before you need it.
Brad Hook is a mental health speaker based in New Zealand, speaking internationally: neuroscience-based, prevention-first and built to engage the sceptics in the room. Creator of reminder.co.nz, a free mental well-being campaign for New Zealand.
Why Brad
Prevention-first, brain-deep, proven on real teams.
The need is not abstract. One in seven New Zealand adults (14.3%) experienced high or very high psychological distress in the four weeks before the latest New Zealand Health Survey, nearly double the rate of 2019/20, and for people aged 15 to 24 it is more than one in five. Awareness matters, and awareness alone does not build capacity. Brad's sessions focus on what does: self-awareness first, then practical adjustment with real-world tools.
Brad spent close to a decade at the Resilience Institute, where he co-created mental health at work programmes alongside founder Dr Sven Hansen and clinical psychologist Dr Carrie Johansson, the Denver-based "Sensible Psychologist". He has delivered mental well-being and mental fitness programmes for organisations from PwC and Shell to Fonterra and Sport New Zealand. And because not every organisation can afford to bring in a speaker, he built reminder.co.nz: a free, research-based mental well-being campaign covering the most common challenges people face, with practical tools, videos and crisis numbers. It is his standing contribution to mental health awareness in New Zealand.
His expertise is the neuroscience of the predictive brain, which offers a genuinely useful lens on mental health. Your brain runs on a body budget, and chronic depletion can tip it into conservation mode: a survival instinct that says "reduce energy consumption to increase the chances of survival". Understood that way, the foundations of mental well-being become practical rather than mysterious. Brad works across five dimensions: agility (regulating the nervous system), vitality (replenishing the body budget), mindset (fact-checking the stories we tell ourselves and each other), purpose (one of the strongest buffers against stress) and belonging (because mental well-being is a collective outcome).
A note on scope, offered with care: these sessions are education and prevention, not therapy. Brad is a well-being and performance educator, not a clinician, and every session includes signs worth noticing in ourselves and the people we work with and care for. If you or someone on your team needs urgent support in New Zealand, free help is always available: call or text 1737, any time.
What the keynote covers
From brain science to Monday morning.
The predictive brain, made practical
Your eyes are not windows. The brain interprets signals from the world (exteroception) and from the body (interoception), cross-referenced against its expectations (priors). Improve the quality of the signals and you improve the experience. Audiences leave seeing their own minds differently.
State-shift, live in the room
The session practises what it teaches: light movement, real conversation, and a live heart-rate variability demonstration showing that calm coherence is accessible to every one of us, on demand.
Tools that survive the week
Evidence-backed practices drawn from acceptance and commitment therapy, emotional granularity, gratitude and agency: chosen because the research supports them and they are simple enough to use under real load.
A story that lands
Brad shares his own burnout and recovery: the adventure that became "burn bright, not out". Stories of adversity and triumph leave people feeling their own challenges are workable. Expect engagement rather than eye rolls, and occasionally a tear.
How it works
Keynote, workshop or a full awareness week.
The keynote runs 45 to 60 minutes and extends into half-day or full-day workshops. Mental Health Awareness Week (12 to 18 October) is the natural moment: Brad delivers single sessions, leadership briefings and full week programmes, and those dates fill early.
Every session is designed against the mandated-wellness eye roll. Work is often the biggest stressor in people's lives, and the workplace can also be the best source of genuinely useful tools. Sessions are interactive, industry-aware and followed by a comprehensive post-session pack with interactive tools, so the ideas keep working long after the hour. Sport New Zealand's feedback: "an engaging and insightful presentation on wellbeing and performance that resonated strongly with our audience."
And if budget is the barrier, start with <a href="https://www.reminder.co.nz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reminder.co.nz</a>: free, research-based and built for exactly this purpose. Empower your people first; bring Brad in when you are ready to go deeper.
What sets Brad apart is his ability to translate high-performance concepts into something tangible and actionable. We've seen the impact firsthand — not just in the moment, but in how our people keep applying the tools in their day-to-day roles.
Brad delivered an engaging and insightful presentation on wellbeing and performance that resonated strongly with our audience. The session attracted excellent feedback from attendees, who valued the practical relevance of his FLAME framework and his engaging presentation style.
Quite honestly, the star of the two days training. His subject matter expertise was exceptional; delivery style was masterful and was a true inspiration to witness speak.
Bradley delivered an engaging, informative, and practical presentation that held everyone's attention and gave us plenty to reflect on. We would be happy to recommend Bradley to any organisation looking for a professional, insightful, and engaging speaker.
What a presentation — I honestly was blown away. All of what you presented resonated with me and my journey so far, from professional sport to my vocational life.
Engaging, thoughtful and deeply practical. Everyone is still talking about it days later!
The majority of attendees rated the session a perfect 5 out of 5, and many highlighted Brad's content as a personal highlight of the programme.
Brad's stories are engaging, and certainly resonated with all of us. We can highly recommend Brad.
Absolutely brilliant, engaging, practical, and energizing.
Outstanding presenter, facilitator, communicator and educator.
A special shout out to Bradley Hook, whose presentation skills were on a whole other TED Talk level!
My biggest takeaway was learning about his FLAME Method, a clear, actionable framework designed to help us “burn bright, not out” by redesigning our habits for the modern world. This framework is exactly what we need to sustain high energy levels, perform at our peak, and most importantly, avoid burnout.
Genuinely helps people improve their wellbeing and health.
It was great to hear Brad talk, and I've had a couple of good wins coming out of the session. My three-year-old's sleep routine is down to about 30 minutes — it used to take a couple of hours!
Trusted by leading organisations
Questions
Booking a mental health speaker: the practical bits.
What does Brad's mental health keynote cover?
The neuroscience of the predictive brain and the body budget, why chronic depletion tips the brain into conservation mode, and the five trainable dimensions of mental fitness: agility, vitality, mindset, purpose and belonging. Sessions include a live heart-rate variability demonstration, practical tools drawn from ACT, emotional granularity and gratitude research, and Brad's own story of burnout and recovery. It is educational and preventive, never clinical.
Is this suitable for Mental Health Awareness Week?
Yes, it is the most requested slot. New Zealand's Mental Health Awareness Week runs 12 to 18 October, and Brad delivers everything from a single lunchtime session to a full week programme with leadership briefings. Those weeks book out early, so enquire well ahead. If you want free resources for your internal campaign, reminder.co.nz was built for exactly that.
How is this different from other mental health speakers in New Zealand?
New Zealand has excellent mental health speakers, including Sir John Kirwan, Mike King, Jazz Thornton, Jehan Casinader, Dr Lucy Hone and Julia Grace, and their advocacy matters enormously. Brad's session is a different instrument: neuroscience-based mental fitness rather than lived-experience advocacy alone, prevention-first, highly interactive, and followed by a post-session pack of interactive tools. Many organisations pair both approaches across a year.
Is the session clinical? What about people in real distress?
No. These sessions are education and prevention, delivered by a well-being educator rather than a clinician, and they include the signs of mental distress worth noticing in ourselves and others. Brad is careful to signpost professional support: in New Zealand, anyone can call or text 1737 free, any time, and reminder.co.nz lists crisis numbers alongside its tools.
How do I book, and how far ahead should I plan?
Bookings run through FLAME at flame.live, or contact Brad directly. For Mental Health Awareness Week, two to three months ahead is wise; standalone sessions can often be arranged within a few weeks. Every booking includes a discovery call so the session fits your industry, team dynamics and current pressures.
Go deeper
Brad writes extensively about mental fitness.
Book the mental health keynote.
Enquiries and bookings run through FLAME. For Mental Health Awareness Week, earlier is better.