You're running on willpower where you used to run on instinct.
There's a way back to thinking clearly, trusting your instincts and making decisions that come easier.
Back to Instinct is a private, brain-based 90-day program that changes the habits behind your reactions.
of business leaders have regretted, felt guilty about or questioned a decision they made in the past year. When you're on guard, your brain spends its energy watching for risk, and second-guessing becomes the default.
Source: Oracle and Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, "The Decision Dilemma" (2023) →
of leaders say their stress has gone up, and 40% of those leaders have considered leaving leadership to protect their well-being. Pressure that never lets up puts the career you built at risk.
Source: DDI Global Leadership Forecast 2025 →
When pressure never lets up, your brain stays on guard. It spends its energy watching for risk, so the part of you that makes clear decisions and stays calm under pressure runs on whatever is left. All you notice is that everything takes more effort. Brain-based coaching works right there, on the habits your brain runs when it's on guard.
Sara Stockinger
For eighteen years at Deloitte, one of the most demanding corporate environments in the world, I was the person who always delivered. My role kept changing, the pressure kept climbing and I kept saying yes.
From the outside it looked like success. Behind the scenes, I was running on exactly what I now help leaders move away from, willpower where instinct used to be. I waited too long to do anything about it. It put me in a hospital bed.
That experience sent me into applied neuroscience and brain-based coaching. It changed the way I work and lead. It rebuilt my trust in my own judgment and made me a stronger, more capable version of myself.
"That is what this work gave me. That is what I am here to give you."
Today I work with senior leaders at Big 4 consulting firms who are still delivering, but feel the cost of it growing. My approach strengthens decision-making and rebuilds trust in your instincts.
I'm Sara Stockinger, an ICF-ACC certified Executive Coach and the founder of Cognitive Coaching Solutions, grounded in brain-based coaching frameworks through the NeuroLeadership Institute. Before founding this practice, I spent eighteen years at Deloitte in talent acquisition.
"Shortly after working together I landed a new role, and earned a promotion a year later."
I came to Sara during one of the most uncertain periods of my career. The stress had reached a point where I was doubting myself in ways that were new to me.
Her process helped me identify what was draining my energy, get my focus back, and start making confident decisions again. Shortly after working together I landed a new role, and earned a promotion a year later.
Dal D., Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition
The Next Step
The next step is a Private Consultation, a 45-minute 1:1 session with me, Sara Stockinger, founder of Cognitive Coaching Solutions.
We'll find what's keeping you on guard and what it's costing you in your thinking, your decisions and your instinct. Forty-five minutes where the only agenda is you. You'll leave with a clear picture either way, whether or not it makes sense to work together after.
Book Your Private ConsultationNo cost. No commitment.
Where Behavior Starts
Under pressure, your brain runs your default habits before you have a chance to choose. Brain-based coaching works at that level, on the default habits that drive your judgment, decisions and performance under pressure.
What Keeps You on Guard
Too many decisions, constant interruptions and more information than anyone can process keep your brain watching for risk. The longer it lasts, the harder it gets to do your best strategic thinking and stay calm under pressure.
What Changes
I find the exact triggers taxing your brain (a threat to your standing, a loss of control, uncertainty about what's coming, an uneven playing field) and change how you respond to them. That is what makes the results last.
Back to Instinct: 90-Day Program
Back to Instinct is a 90-day program for senior leaders and C-suite executives who have been on guard for too long. Using applied neuroscience and brain-based coaching, this work targets the default habits driving stress, reactivity and a lack of clarity, then changes them.
The program has a clear structure, built for leaders who don't have room to add another open-ended commitment to an already full plate.
Eight 1-on-1 calls. Thirty minutes each. Private, virtual and built entirely around you.
Find What Puts You on Guard.
We map where your energy goes, find the habits you fall back on under pressure and name the gap between how you're leading now and how you want to lead.
What You Notice
You know exactly where your energy goes and what it is costing you.
See What Drives Your Reactions.
We find which situations put you on guard fastest and the assumptions you jump to under pressure.
What You Notice
You stay calmer under pressure and respond with intention instead of reacting.
Build Your New Defaults.
You lock in the new response so it becomes your instinct, practicing it on your hardest real conversations and decisions.
What You Notice
You lead from your instinct and trust your decisions. You spend far less time replaying them afterward.
These are the outcomes senior leaders often experience through this work.
You read the situation right, even when the pressure is high. Fewer stalled timelines and less time in reactive loops.
You act on your read sooner and spend less energy double-checking it.
The calls that used to eat your afternoon take less time and less second-guessing.
You protect the one thing that took you decades to build:
your instinct.
Leading a team through this kind of pressure? Cognitive Coaching Solutions also offers in-person leadership team workshops. See the workshops.
"Sara brought a level of practical insight I had not encountered before."
I have worked with good mentors over the years, but Sara brought a level of practical insight I had not encountered before. I was questioning my own judgment more than I ever had, and the daily demands of supporting my team through significant change had become genuinely exhausting.
Our sessions gave me a clear way to protect my time, handle difficult conversations with more confidence, and lead with greater steadiness. Getting through a major restructuring since then has been a very different experience. I look forward to continuing the momentum we have started.
Claire K., Recruitment Senior Manager
"Those changes have been immediate and lasting."
I had worked with other coaches before and kept covering the same ground without real progress. Sara was different from the start.
I came to her managing a complex new project with a stretched team and a demanding timeline. Through our sessions I learned how to protect my calendar, set clear expectations early, and stay composed when it mattered most. Those changes have been immediate and lasting.
N.M., Director, Enterprise Sales
Brain-based coaching starts with how your brain responds to pressure. When you've been on guard for a long time, your brain runs default habits before you have a chance to choose, like over-checking, second-guessing or working late to prove yourself.
We find what puts you on guard, see which habits it sets off and build new responses for the situations you face every week. If you've worked with coaches before and kept covering the same ground, this is where the work goes further.
Clients describe clearer thinking under pressure, trusting their first answer again and decisions that take less effort.
The habits that were running in the background become visible, then replaceable. Because the change is built into how you respond, it lasts after the 90 days end.
The leaders who get the most from this work say the same thing: they feel like themselves again, with more room to handle the pressure around them.
Back to Instinct is concentrated by design. Real change takes focused, repeated attention within a set timeline.
The 90 days move through three phases, from finding what puts you on guard to seeing what drives your reactions to building your new defaults. The early calls map your starting point. The later calls apply the new response to whatever is live in your world right now.
After the 90 days, alumni can book ongoing sessions whenever a new pressure comes up, so your new defaults keep working as your role changes.
Every call is conducted via video with Sara Stockinger. No travel required. Between calls you have chat support on weekdays with a reply within one business day, so you're never waiting until the next session to work through something live.
Back to Instinct includes 8 one-on-one, 30-minute coaching calls over 90 days, a pre-engagement intake to map your starting point before Call 1 and a self-assessment from the NeuroLeadership Institute to guide your coaching calls. Every call is transcribed. The transcript and a written summary of each call are delivered in your private client portal and yours to keep. The process is built around your role, your pressure points and the outcomes you need to produce.
Yes. The work is between you and me only. Your firm is never informed, and nothing from our work is shared with anyone unless you choose to share it.
You work with me directly, and every transcript and summary lives in your own private portal.
The senior leaders who reach out are almost never in a slower period. They are in the middle of a demanding quarter, a significant organizational shift, or feeling more pressure than they have in years. That is usually what brought them here.
Back to Instinct is built around 30-minute calls over 90 days, designed to fit into a full calendar. If you are feeling the friction now, that is a reason to start. Starting now means your first three calls land inside the pressure you are already facing.
If you're about to step into a new role, starting now means you walk in already trusting your first answer.
No cost. No commitment.