Combining coaching and therapy, I work at the root: the beliefs, patterns and old protections that shape how you lead, love and live. One to one, in small groups of peers, and on mountain trails.
Under pressure, we rarely rise to our skills. We fall back on patterns we learned long ago, often for good reasons that no longer apply.
Most leadership training adds techniques on top. My work goes underneath: to the inner operating system of beliefs, values, reactive habits and emotional responses that runs everything else. With compassionate awareness, the parts of us that once had to protect us can update their roles. What emerges is a more authentic, centred and effective version of you, at work and at home.
“Become the person you want to be, and the leader your work needs.”
The question behind every program I run, whether we meet in a coaching room, around the fire at the chalet or on a snowy summit.
Each journey is limited to a small circle so there is room for honest work. Open a journey for the full program, or send me a short email about yourself. I reply personally to every application.
Deep Work Founder Intensive #3 · Schliersee
Fully booked
A year with a hand-selected group of peers to radically upgrade your internal operating system: limiting beliefs, reactive patterns and the life experience underneath them.
Four days in the Alps for up to 10 founders, working with Internal Family Systems on the patterns that once drove your success and now limit it. With Alexander Volz.
Four days walking with deep life questions in a group of up to 12 peers, over seven summits from Brecherspitz to Ruchenköpfe. Nights in the chalet and in mountain huts.
A nature-led pilgrimage into coherence, companionship and clarity, staying in centuries-old houses at 1,600 metres in the Italian Alps. Together we walk the essential questions of our time through silence, dialogue and ritual, with a one-night solo quest at its heart.
The next step for founders who have completed Leading from True Self: self-authoring your next chapter, with a ritual quest in nature at its heart. Program details to come.
A six-month program with three and a half days at the chalet and five online sessions to build a partnership that can scale with your company. Co-led with Susanne Stillhammer.
One or two days at our chalet, just the two of you and the two of us. To deepen a good relationship or to heal deeper pain, tailored after briefing calls.
Program
Retreats designed for your group, at our chalet in Schliersee or at a location of your choice. I regularly host retreats for founder and leadership teams, peer forums and networks, for example chapters of the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO).
Enquire by email
Workshops on leadership, team dynamics and company culture, designed around what your team is facing right now. Off-site at the chalet or in your company.
Enquire by email
“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
John Muir
Therapy, coaching or mindfulness? Most people who come to me have tried one of them and found it was not enough on its own. I combine all three.
We work on what you bring: the overdrive that has stopped serving you, the need for control, anxiety or people-pleasing, a conflict that keeps repeating, a transition you are standing in. Leadership assessments make your patterns visible, Internal Family Systems reaches the parts of you that drive them, mindfulness and somatic practice steady you, and practical experiments carry the change into your week.
Whether we work one to one or in a group, the aim is the same: shifts that hold on a Monday morning, week after week, year after year.
Clarity about your essence, your purpose and what is calling you next.
Limiting beliefs, reactive habits and protective patterns updated at the root, instead of managed on the surface.
Leading from Self, with compassion, curiosity and courage, rather than from the parts that took over under stress.
A centred, resilient presence under pressure, grounded in somatic and emotional awareness.
Honest feedback, clear boundaries and conflict as a source of growth, with partners, co-founders and teams.
Managing your energy and resources on four levels, so the change lasts in day-to-day life.
I combine proven methods from trauma work, coaching and leadership science with somatic practice, nature and ritual. The work is highly experiential: insight, emotional processing and practical experiments in your real situations.
Coaching and therapy for founders, CEOs and leaders. In my practice in Munich, at the chalet in Schliersee, or online.
IFS-based couple therapy, with me or together with my wife Monika, as regular sessions or private couples retreats at the chalet.
Workshops for leadership teams on leadership, team dynamics and culture, and tailored retreats for peer forums, networks and teams.
Year-long cohorts, founder intensives and walking journeys in the Alps. See the dates above.
I trained as a life scientist and was a researcher at the University of Cambridge. My work there won prizes, but a call for more direct impact led me to McKinsey & Company. There I co-founded the sustainability and development practices, became a Senior Partner and was co-dean of its senior leadership programs. Over 20 years at McKinsey, I worked with business, government and NGO leaders on transformational change in more than 25 countries. Along the way I came to see that outer change can only be truly transformational when it comes from an evolved inner place. I began focusing on coaching and leadership development at McKinsey in 2012, and in 2019 I decided to dedicate myself fully to inner work. Since then I have worked as a coach and therapist, engaging in individual, organisational and societal change from the inside out.
The red thread through all of it has been a fascination with life, both nature and people, and a commitment to depth, whether in research, in business or in inner work. What has guided me along the way is the timeless search for what is “true, good and beautiful”, and a spiritual path that accompanies my outer work.
Monika and I raised three sons together, and we live in Schliersee, at the foot of the Alps.
“Jens stands out amongst Executive Coaches in that he combines his own experience as senior leader and as a family man with great therapeutic skills and warm empathy.”
“Deep Work truly lives up to its name. I’ve experienced a number of coaching programs, but this was the first time I reached real depth so quickly.”
“Jens can seamlessly pull from a broad range of practices from the fields of coaching, developmental learning, therapy, consulting, to meet the unique needs of individuals or groups.”
“Working with Jens has profoundly shaped me both as a person and as a founder. I’m incredibly grateful to be part of this community.”
“Few retreats have created such lasting change for me. The IFS work confronted me with who I am as a leader and helped me shift from leading out of fear to leading from trust. Five stars without hesitation.”
“Deep Work has had a lasting impact on both my personal growth and leadership. The combination of deep sessions with Jens and the supportive, highly selective community makes it unique.”
“What stood out most for me was the depth of the sessions with Jens and the strength of the peer group. The level of openness and support in this community is rare.”
“Deep Work gave me clarity and strengthened my leadership. The exchange with other participants is incredibly valuable, and being part of a selective group makes the experience even more meaningful.”
“Jens has made a huge difference in my development towards becoming a full human being.”
“Jens has been supporting our leadership team’s evolution very skilfully through various high-impact trainings in personal awareness, leadership and mindfulness.”
“I love working with Jens and his partners. The combination of a structured approach with deep inner experience and a focus on results is rare and truly transformational. If you get a chance to work with him, don’t miss it!”
“Jens could find some shadow sides of my leadership competence by making my personal trauma visible, but in a very mindful way. During and after the coaching sessions I am sensing my growth very clearly.”
“Jens has been supporting me through a major life-stage transition. I saw him as an experienced ‘mountain guide’ who helped me to listen to myself, reflect, discover my real ambition and develop a course of action that led me into a new mental balance.”
Most of my in-person work happens in our home in Schliersee: a passive-energy-plus chalet with a workshop space, spa and a garden with a natural pond. Trails start at the door, and Munich is an hour away by train.
Tell me a little about yourself and what you are looking for, whether that is one of the journeys, one-to-one work or something else. I read and answer every message myself.