We decode what others overlook.
Mental recoding for people who no longer want to work on symptoms.
Not learning to live with a problem, but finding out what keeps producing it.
Many people understood their issue long ago. They have reflected, analysed, developed and changed their behaviour. And still the same pattern comes back.
We do not start with the visible problem. We look for what is at work beneath it. We call this work mental recoding.
No programmes. No prescribed series of sessions. Often it takes only one intensive appointment.
One encounter. One central issue.
The two of us work with one person on one issue that genuinely matters. It is not about finding yet another explanation for why something is difficult.
We look for where the pattern began, and we work from there.
Our aim is not to accompany people for as long as possible. Our aim is to find the decisive point.
For people who carry more than others see.
Responsibility changes the questions.
Entrepreneurs, managing directors and people in prominent roles have to make decisions that cannot be derived from figures, strategies or conventional leadership tools alone.
That is precisely where we combine our experience of business and leadership with mental recoding. We understand organisations and leadership from our own experience, and at the same time we look at the person behind the function.
Questions people typically bring to us.
Why does this particular person, or this particular constellation, always trigger the same reaction in me?
Why can I not make a decision that ought to be clear?
What is happening in my leadership team beyond the official roles?
Am I still the right person for this role, or am I merely holding on to something?
Why does a particular pattern repeat itself in leadership, in a partnership or among shareholders?
After an exit, a success or a gain in power, what is actually left of me?
- Not as a seminar.
- Not as leadership coaching.
- But as personal work with the person who carries the responsibility.
Some call it intuition. Some call it perception. Traditionally it is called the aura.
Our perception of people goes beyond what is said out loud in a conversation. For more than 25 years we have also perceived something that is traditionally called the aura. People explain this in different ways.
As natural scientists we do not claim to be able to explain scientifically why we perceive what we perceive.
What matters for our work is what becomes visible through it.
We do not have to choose between reason and perception. We work with both.
Two natural scientists with doctorates. Decades of experience in research, business, leadership and mediation. And, for more than 25 years, an unusual perception of people and of the patterns at work beneath what is visible.
Natural science
Analytical thinking, research, and the discipline of telling perception and interpretation apart.
People and leadership
Decades of experience with organisations, leadership, conflict and the dynamics between people.
Unusual perception
More than 25 years of working with what we ourselves also describe as perceiving the aura.
Dr Daniela Schüngel
Natural scientist · Certified mediator
A doctorate in the natural sciences, with experience in research and in business. Her focus is on grasping complex situations as a whole, making connections and dynamics visible, and drawing from them the clarity needed for decisions that hold.
Dr Michael Schüngel
Natural scientist · Certified mediator
A doctorate in the natural sciences and many years of leadership experience. His focus is on identifying deeper patterns of thought, perception and reaction, particularly where everyday analysis no longer reaches. Through mental recoding he makes these patterns accessible and opens up new ways of thinking and acting.
When what actually matters becomes visible.
Selected glimpses of our work. Personal details have been altered or left out to protect our clients.
Entrepreneur · Succession
He could make the decision. Just not for himself.
The succession was commercially prepared. Even so, every final decision was postponed again and again. Working together, it emerged that the real block lay neither in the company nor with the successor.
Once the underlying personal pattern lost its force, the decision became possible.
Senior executive · Success
Everything achieved. And still not arrived.
By any objective measure, a successful executive had achieved almost everything she had worked towards for years. Yet the feeling of having to achieve still more remained. Behind the apparent ambition lay a far older pattern.
After that, success no longer had to prove what had been there all along.
Entrepreneurial couple · Conflict
The argument was not the problem.
Two people ran a company together and, on certain decisions, had been falling into the same escalation for years. Both knew their arguments. Both understood the other's position. Still the pattern repeated itself.
Only when it became visible what was actually being activated between them did the conflict lose its former dynamic.
Founder · Sale of the company
The figures said yes. Something in him said no.
An entrepreneur faced a commercially attractive transaction. Rationally, much spoke in favour of it. Even so, he could not take the final step. The cause did not lie in the transaction.
The decision was bound up with something personal that had formed long before the company existed.
Executive · Team
The team was not the problem.
Despite considerable social skill, an experienced executive kept clashing with the same type of person. Different companies, different individuals, almost the same dynamic.
The recurring element was not the other person.
Business family · Generations
A conflict older than the current problem.
On the surface it was about responsibility, shares and the future of the company. In fact, roles and expectations were at work between those involved that had formed long before the current decision.
Once that level shifted, it became possible for the first time to discuss the matter at hand without carrying on the old conflict at the same time.
CEO · Control
What had made him successful began to limit him.
Control, precision and a sense of responsibility had taken an entrepreneur a long way. At some point, however, he could barely delegate and was carrying decisions others could long since have made. The answer was not to learn delegation techniques.
What mattered was to understand why control had become necessary for him in the first place.
After an exit
What remains when you are no longer needed?
The company was sold. Financially, everything had been achieved. What was meant to look like freedom felt surprisingly empty. The next business plan was not the answer.
The first question was who this person actually was without the role he had held.
Person in the public eye
Successful outwardly. Unfree within.
People who are seen in public often learn very precisely which version of themselves works. At some point the line between the person and that version can blur.
Our work began where role, expectation and one's own core were no longer the same thing.
Decision · Life course
There was no problem. Only the feeling of standing in the wrong life.
Successful at work, a family, security, no crisis. And yet an ever stronger sense: This is no longer me. It was not about throwing everything over.
First it had to become visible what belonged to this person and what he had taken to be his own for years, although it had never really been his.
Private · Partnership
Always the same person. Only with a different face.
A client realised that her relationships kept ending at a similar point, despite entirely different partners. She had understood this pattern long ago.
Understanding, however, had not changed it. That is exactly where the mental recoding began.
Private · Self-worth
A lifetime spent trying to become good enough.
Outwardly successful, reflective and assured. Inwardly the conviction remained that she had to meet expectations in order to deserve recognition. The question was not how she might become more confident.
The question was why she had to prove herself at all.
Private · A recurring pattern
Everything was, in fact, fine.
And still there was this one point at which she kept getting caught. She could explain it. She knew where it might have come from. She had learned to handle it. It had simply never gone away.
Sometimes that is precisely the moment at which we begin.
What people want to know beforehand.
What is mental recoding?
Mental recoding is our name for work that does not start with the visible problem but with the pattern that keeps producing it. We look for the place where a pattern formed, and we work from there.
Is this coaching, consulting or therapy?
None of these. Coaching works on goals and behaviour, consulting on solutions, psychotherapy on the treatment of illness. Our work is not medical treatment and is no substitute for treatment by a physician or psychotherapist. It is for people who are in good health and want to work on a recurring pattern.
What sets you apart from coaches?
Three things. We are two natural scientists with doctorates, and we always work as a pair with one person. We sell no programmes and no session packages; often a single intensive encounter is enough. And we work in addition with a perception that goes beyond what is said, without claiming a scientific explanation for it.
Who is this work for?
For people who understood their issue long ago and still find that it stays. Often these are entrepreneurs, managing directors, owners and people in exposed positions of responsibility, as well as private individuals with a recurring personal pattern.
How does a Private Session work?
You write to us confidentially about what it concerns. If the work suits your situation, we arrange an appointment of about two to three hours, in person or in a confidential video format. Daniela and Michael work with you together on one central issue.
How many appointments does it take?
Often a single appointment is enough. We do not work in set programmes and we do not arrange automatic follow-ups. Our aim is not to accompany people for as long as possible but to find the decisive point.
What does a Private Session cost?
A Private Session is in the mid four-figure range. We agree the exact terms with you personally in advance. There are no packages, no discounts and no free initial consultations.
How confidential is the work?
Entirely. We record nothing, pass nothing on and name no clients to third parties, not even anonymously. Enquiries are read by the two of us alone.
Where do you work?
We work in person in the German-speaking countries and beyond, and in a confidential video format. For appointments outside the German-speaking countries, travel is agreed separately.
Sometimes all it takes is the right encounter.
We work with few people at any one time and give each issue the time it needs.
If you feel our work might suit your situation, write to us confidentially. You do not need to put it all into words and you do not need to prove anything. It is enough for us to understand what your concern is and who you are.
We read every enquiry ourselves and reply personally within a few days.
Personal introductions are always welcome.
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