Available to book
Brendan Kelly
Happiness
Mental Health
Resilience
Transform workplace wellbeing with Brendan Kelly, speaker, psychiatrist and mental health expert. Brendan works with organisations to build resilience, enhance happiness, and navigate mental health challenges, delivering evidence-based strategies backed by 20+ books and Trinity College Dublin expertise.
Meditation
Positive Psychology
Personal Wellbeing
Academic
Psychology
Mindset
Thought Leader
Broadcaster
Healthcare
Author
Inspirational
Personal Development
Doctor
Mental Health Awareness
Motivational
Professor Brendan Kelly is a psychiatrist, professor, and author who translates complex mental health concepts into accessible insights for diverse audiences. His expertise bridges academic research and practical applications of happiness, resilience, and mindfulness.
As Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin and Consultant Psychiatrist at Tallaght University Hospital, Brendan has authored over 20 books, including The Science of Happiness, Resilience, and The Modern Psychiatrist's Guide to Contemporary Practice. His work regularly appears in prestigious academic journals and mainstream media outlets.
Brendan helps organisations navigate today's mental health challenges by combining historical perspective with cutting-edge research. His work, in addition, addresses anxiety surrounding technological change, workplace stress, and post-pandemic resilience. His background in medicine, law, history, and Buddhist studies provides multidimensional solutions to complex problems.
Audiences leave Brendan's presentations with evidence-based strategies for building personal resilience, practical tools for enhancing workplace wellbeing, and fresh perspectives on happiness grounded in scientific research rather than trendy quick fixes.
Book Brendan Kelly for an engaging keynote that delivers serious mental health insights with warmth, humour, and the rare ability to make complex ideas accessible to everyone.
Topics, sessions and talks
Professor Brendan Kelly explores what modern science reveals about the pursuit of happiness, drawing from his bestselling book The Science of Happiness. Examining global trends and surprising insights, such as why 47 is the age of greatest unhappiness, he reveals practical, research-based principles and strategies that help foster a more fulfilling life. Blending psychology, philosophy and humour, Brendan offers a compelling framework for creating the conditions in which happiness can flourish, even amidst the challenges of modern living.
Based on his personal experiment detailed in The Doctor Who Sat For a Year, Brendan brings insight, warmth and wit to the realities of incorporating meditation into a busy life. He shares what happened when he, a psychiatrist and self-confessed ‘Zen failure’, attempted to sit quietly for 15 minutes each day over the course of a year. The result is a reflection on mindfulness, not as perfection but as presence, and how small changes in awareness can transform how we relate to ourselves and others.
Through the lens of Ireland’s experience of Covid-19 and the historical legacy of pandemics, Brendan explores the paradox of human fragility and strength. Drawing from his book Resilience, he examines how societies remember, or forget, major traumas and what we can learn from figures such as Sir William Wilde. With clarity and compassion, Brendan outlines how hardship can be a catalyst for wisdom, adaptability and deeper connection, both individually and collectively.
With experience as both an academic and a frontline clinician, Brendan offers an accessible yet thorough overview of mental health. He demystifies key conditions, including depression, schizophrenia and anxiety, while exploring the evolution of psychiatry and mental health care systems. With deep empathy and a strong call for justice and reform, he equips audiences to better understand mental illness, challenge stigma and support those affected.
Brendan addresses the psychological unease surrounding artificial intelligence and new technologies through a historical and human lens. Tracing the cyclical pattern of panic and adjustment that has followed innovations from steam engines to social media, he reveals how today’s anxieties about AI reflect deeper concerns about autonomy and control. Bridging history, ethics and mental health, Brendan offers a grounded approach to engaging with technology in a balanced and person-centred way.
Brendan Kelly transforms complex mental health concepts into practical strategies for happiness and resilience, drawing from his extensive background as a psychiatrist, professor, and author of over 20 books. Book this multidisciplinary expert to give your team evidence-based tools for enhancing workplace wellbeing and personal resilience, delivered with warmth and accessibility.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Email brendan.kelly@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Prof. Brendan's availability and fees. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and a bit about your audience.
Brendan Kelly structures his sessions around his own published research and personal experimentation, drawing directly from books such as The Science of Happiness and The Doctor Who Sat For a Year to ground each talk in documented evidence and first-person experience.
Brendan Kelly's sessions cover the science of happiness, mindfulness and meditation, and resilience in the context of pandemic and historical trauma. He is Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin and author of more than 20 books, including the bestselling The Science of Happiness.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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