Henare O'Brien speaks at the Keep It Real Youth Expo in Hastings in 2012. Photo/File
Henare O'Brien speaks at the Keep It Real Youth Expo in Hastings in 2012. Photo/File
Former Hawks basketballer Henare O'Brien will have plenty of his own experiences to call upon when he runs a personal development day in Havelock North later this month.
Bali-based O'Brien is the older brother of fellow former Hawk and Hawke's Bay's 2019 Person of the Year, Patrick O'Brien, who wasone of two people killed in a November 15 car accident on the Hawke's Bay Expressway.
He will stage the seminar at the Havelock North Community Centre on January 26, a week after he plays for the Hastings Boys' High School Old Boys basketball team in a January 18 match against their Napier Boys' High School counterparts which is being played to celebrate his brother's life.
Along with his wife Kate, 17-year-old daughter Bailey and 12-year-old son Zion, O'Brien has lived in Bali for the last five years.
When he returned home for his brother's funeral and heard about the issues related to suicide and depression Patrick encountered during his community work, O'Brien realised Hawke's Bay people may benefit from one of his seminars.
"Ironically just over two years ago I burnt out from my work and entered into depression lasting three months. I was bed-bound and had to deal with my own suicidal thoughts.
The late Patrick O'Brien - brother of former Hawks basketballer Henare O'Brien.
After travelling around, coaching and helping people I had run out of my own mojo juice," recalled the Flaxmere-raised former Havelock North schoolteacher who along with his wife has run personal development programmes all over the world for the last 10 years.
"Gratefully with the support of my wife and children I was able to come through that and I've been steadily making my way back into life since then. I'm now looking at where my talents could be best used again."
O'Brien said his seminar will best suit people who are interested in deeper types of discussions and want to grow personally or professionally.
"A willingness to want to change and grow will be an asset to bring to this day. At times it may not be easy so we are encouraging people to come with an open mind and heart."
A Generative Perspective of Learning will be adopted during the seminar. This investigates what wants to come through a person rather than explaining, expecting or telling people what to do.
"Yes there will be parts of that during the seminar but the objective of Generative Learning is to shift things around so that people are at more choice in what they personally can do or at least look at doing next," O'Brien said.
"In saying that I'm not coming in saying I have the answers at all but I want us to work together to find and place ideas into the day for discussion and then take a look at those ideas from a different perspective that may help ease some of these issues.
"To be honest I don't know if I can help but I'm praying that even putting something like this together we can come together really helping each other with the things that come up and the things that really matter to us," O'Brien said.
While running workshops in New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Middle East, O'Brien and his wife Kate have organised some of the world's largest online audio/visual personal development summits and interviewed hundreds of the world's leading scientists, teachers, trainers and authors in human potential.
They have trained with people in the leadership arena who have worked with NZ Steel, NASA, Reebok & Global organisations to help implement change and leadership in organisations worldwide and were invited into the world's biggest transformational community by Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, whose books have sold over 1 billion copies worldwide.
"We didn't expect these opportunities to come along in this way. They happened while we were trying things. Giving things a go like Kiwis do," O'Brien said.
Participants in the seminar will be charged a donation to the Te Anahera O Te Rangi Charitable Trust which was formed by Patrick O'Brien and wife Theresa in memory of their late daughter.
WHERE TO GET HELP:
If you are worried about your or someone else's mental health, the best place to get help is your GP or local mental health provider. However, if you or someone else is in danger or endangering others, call police immediately on 111.
