During my psychology studies I was convinced that success simply meant working hard enough. So that is what I did. Some days I studied up to sixteen hours.
But I kept getting ill. Fever. Aching muscles. Flu-like symptoms.
It later turned out these were stress symptoms, but the strange thing was that I didn't feel stressed at all.
Until the day of my most important exam. There I had a complete blackout. Everything I had studied seemed to have vanished.
That moment changed my life.
For the first time, I began to seriously doubt myself.
Was it me?
Was I perhaps not intelligent enough after all?
Why did it feel like my brain let me down at exactly the most important moment?
“How could it be that despite all my efforts I still didn't succeed?”
Shortly after that blackout I took a training course abroad. There I learned techniques to first bring my brain to rest and then use imagination more consciously.
Even before the course began, something trivial happened. I had lost my entry ticket. Luckily my name was on the participant list, so I could join anyway.
During one of the exercises something remarkable happened. While we brought our brains completely to rest, I suddenly thought: "Where did I put that entry ticket?" And instantly a clear memory image appeared. I saw myself at the hotel breakfast table.
During the lunch break I drove back. And indeed. They had found my entry ticket there.
My life didn't change because I found my ticket. It changed because I suddenly understood what our brain is capable of when you first learn to let it recover. For the first time I felt: "This is the key."
“Maybe the problem was never how much I worked. Maybe I was simply using my brain the wrong way.”
From that moment on I practised every day. Not only to understand the techniques. But to repeat them so often that I could use them within seconds. Today we call that conditioning.
After a few weeks I already felt this would fundamentally change my life. I enrolled to complete not one, but two academic years at the same time.
Where I used to study up to sixteen hours a day, I now consciously limited myself to a maximum of eight hours during the exam period.
The result surprised even me. I passed both academic years in the first exam session. With great distinction. Whereas before I needed two sessions and studied twice as much.
Not because I had become smarter. But because I had learned to use my brain differently.
That's when I knew: I want to teach this to everyone.
16 hours of study
Before, every day
8 hours of study
Deliberately limited
2 academic years at once
Double workload
First exam session
Passed straight away
Great distinction
Better than ever
In 1993 I started as a self-employed trainer on the side. No company, no plan. Just a few evenings a week, a classroom and a group of people curious about what a brain can really do when you first learn to let it recover.
I gave them exactly what I had tested on myself: short exercises, lots of repetition, conditioning until it became automatic. And after just a few weeks the reactions came.
“I sleep better.”
“I have more energy.”
“I get more done in less time.”
“I can concentrate better.”
That was the moment something started to shift for me. This method didn't only help students who wanted to study better. It helped people at home, in their relationships and in their calm. And it helped people at work, where the pressure is often highest.
The more groups I guided, the clearer it became that one insight kept returning.
Mental fitness is not a luxury for exceptional situations. It is a basic skill.
That is why in 1997 I chose to give up my security and dedicate myself fully to Prana. I began guiding organisations: teams, leaders and employees who have to perform under pressure every day.
The results kept repeating themselves. More and more people discovered that you don't have to work harder to get more out of yourself, but that you have to learn to use your brain differently.
Prana grew along. What began as my personal mission is today carried by a team of trainers and coaches who first experienced the Mental Fitness Method themselves and now share it together.
Together we have since guided thousands of participants and organisations.
The method kept developing for more than thirty years. Not from theory or behind a desk, but by guiding thousands of people and continually looking at what actually worked in their daily lives.
The first focus was entirely on brain recovery. Without rest there is nothing to train. Then it became clear that recovery alone wasn't enough: unconscious beliefs and automatic patterns kept holding people back. That is how Selfcoaching® came about. Over the years it grew further into the four mental muscle groups. Today all that experience comes together in the Mental Fitness Studio.
Recovery
Bringing the brain to rest first
Reconditioning
Changing unconscious beliefs and patterns — Selfcoaching®
Four mental muscle groups
Training resilience, focus, connection and self-direction in a targeted way
Mental Fitness Studio
All that experience together in one training environment
In the beginning I guided every participant myself. But as the method grew, so did my conviction that this had to become bigger than one person. Mental fitness should never depend on a single trainer. That is why we build on the same mission together today.
Our team consists of trainers and coaches who don't just know the Mental Fitness Method. They applied it to themselves first. They know from experience what it means to let your brain recover. To change automatic patterns. And to train mental skills every day.
That is why they speak not only from knowledge, but also from personal experience. It makes our guidance authentic. We don't pass on theory, we live what we teach.
Iris Willems
Founder and managing director
Founder of Prana and developer of the Mental Fitness Method.
Iris first developed the method on herself, then together with thousands of participants. Today she passes it on to trainers and coaches.
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Geert Vermaerke
Partner/trainer/coach
Specialised in mental fitness, leadership and personal growth.
Geert guides leaders and teams in improving their communication, dealing with change and achieving their goals.
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Kenny Vandennoortgaete
Partner/trainer/coach
Guides organisations and participants in strengthening mental skills and sustainable behaviour change.
Kenny translates the method into concrete workplace training, with lasting behaviour change as the goal.
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Dominique De Troyer
Partner/trainer/coach
French-language guidance for organisations and individual participants.
Dominique runs the French-language programmes, both within organisations and in individual coaching.
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Rebecca Casier
Trainer & Coach
French-language guidance focused on mental fitness and personal development.
Rebecca combines mental fitness with personal development and guides participants in French.
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Patrik Onsea
Trainer/coach
Guides organisations and participants in strengthening mental skills and sustainable behaviour change.
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Eef Van Thuyne
Certified Selfcoaching® Trainer
Yves Mollekens
Certified Selfcoaching® Trainer
Ingrid Box
Certified Selfcoaching® Trainer
“You don't learn mental fitness from a book. You learn it best from people who apply it themselves every day.”
Celine and Renaat make sure members are helped quickly, the app runs smoothly and technical innovation continues behind the scenes. They are the invisible engine that keeps the Mental Fitness Studio running.
Celine Denolf
Client happiness & support
Celine is there for all member questions and provides warm, personal support.
info@prana.beRenaat De Vos
App developer & IT/AI specialist
Renaat builds and maintains the technical infrastructure and keeps the app and AI coach reliable.
IT@prana.beDo you feel a calling to guide others in their personal growth and mental resilience?
Do you want to work with a proven, in-depth model that truly gets people moving?
“How can people learn to use their brain in a way that makes them stronger instead of drained?”
For more than thirty years we have helped people answer that question for themselves.
