Pre-Therapy Session Actions:
your path to inner freedom
Preparing for your first session.
Thank you so much for your willingness to embark on this process of healing. I’m looking forward to diving in and starting this transformative work with you.
To ensure we make the absolute most of our first session, I’ve structured a few key preparatory activities for you below. Historically, clients who complete these steps see results faster.
— Bel, The Brain Coach
Pre-Session Activities
Three Areas of Focus
Please review all activities and try to complete the Brain Scan Process before the first session.
The Brain Scan Process
This audio-guided practice uses your breath to gently reset the "three brains” (gut, heart, head). It's a foundational stress regulation technique that creates a reliable Safe State for quick calm and recovery, usable almost anywhere.
The Safe State Process
Learn how to shift your nervous system out of chronic survival mode and back to a place of rest, repair and focus. This core practice builds inner resilience and helps you meet life's challenges from a calmer, more resourced foundation.
The Future Safe Haven Process
Uses mental rehearsal to establish a compassionate inner space and a healing compass point for your nervous system. It is key to rewiring protective patterns and building deep, lasting inner safety and clarity.
The Brain Scan Process
It’s an experiential tool and a stress transformation technique. Using the power of your breath, it is designed to reset the "three brains": the gut, heart, and head
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The Brain Scan is an experiential tool and a stress transformation technique. Using the power of your breath, it is designed to reset the "three brains": the gut, heart, and head.
Its practical purpose is to soothe your nervous system, reduce automatic stress responses, and guide your body and mind toward a Safe State - the ideal place for rest, repair, and calm.
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It offers a fast reset when stress or anxiety hijacks your system, usable almost anytime of the day.
It gives you a direct way to work with your nervous system instead of trying to think or talk-yourself-calm (which rarely works long term).
Over time, it helps reduce chronic stress patterns, anxiety, brain fog, and emotional reactivity.
It builds a crucial sense of safety and compassion within.
Clients have described this process as “life changing,” “the fastest reset I’ve ever had,” and “a hug for the whole system.” - Bel Masterman, The Brain Coach
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Your Practice Expectation
Your primary task is to listen and practice the Brain Scan Breath regularly.
Follow along with the guided audio instructions - ideally in a quiet space (headphones or a blindfold can deepen the effect).
Be curious, patient, and compassionate with yourself. Some days will feel easy, others more challenging; both are normal.
Simply notice any changes in your body, emotions, and thoughts without judgment.
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The nervous system learns best through repetition and consistency. Practice as often as possible—ideally first thing in the morning, last thing at night, and if you wake during the night.
The Brain Scan works by rewiring protective patterns formed long ago. It does this through gentle, repeated experiences of safety to tell the nervous system that the danger has passed. Eventually, this practice becomes your default for returning to a safe state after stress.
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In our first session, we’ll explore regulation processes to sense how your system responds and gently build your own personalised way of accessing a safe state throughout the day. The Brain Scan is one of the foundational practices, thus we’ll return to it often, so practicing beforehand can save us valuable time.
Remember, it’s less about "doing it perfectly" and more about building a relationship with your system over time.
The Safe State Process
This Process is about learning how to reset your nervous system so that stress doesn’t run the show. This is where healing, focus and connection happen.
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The Safe State Process is about learning how to reset your nervous system so that stress doesn’t run the show. Instead of being stuck in fight, flight, or numbness, you’ll discover how to gently guide yourself back into your Safe State - the part of the nervous system where healing, focus, and connection happen.
Think of it like taking an overloaded boat safely back to shore: repairing the sails, patching the hull, and preparing it to sail smoothly again. Safe State helps you take the weight out of the boat so you can meet life’s challenges from a calmer, more resourced place.
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In today’s world, most of us live in chronic stress mode, feeling tired but wired, foggy, or numbed out.
It helps you complete the natural stress cycle so your body can recover and rebalance instead of being held captive by looping stress hormones.
The benefits include reduced anxiety, clearer thinking, better focus, deeper rest, and more energy for the things that matter.
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Your Practice Expectation
Your primary task is to listen to the Safe State recording in a quiet place where you can sit or lie comfortably.
Practice along with the guidance (you don’t need to analyse, take notes, or “do it perfectly”).
Over time, use Safe State in everyday moments, like in traffic, at work, or before bed, so it becomes a natural way to reset yourself.
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Repetition is what teaches your nervous system that safety is possible. Each practice is like laying down new “wiring” inside or going to the gym.
Ideally, practice daily (morning and/or night is perfect, plus in-between moments during the day). The more you train this muscle, the stronger the neural pathways to Safe State become, eventually shifting from a go-to tool to the default state you live in.
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In our first session, time permitting, we’ll run through the Safe State practice and explore how your nervous system responds in real time. Safe State will be a core foundation for our work together, helping us meet protective patterns gently and giving you a reliable way to calm and reset.
The Future Safe Haven Process
This process uses imagery, sensation & emotion - the languages your nervous system truly understands, to help you practice feeling safe enough. Over time, this builds a stronger pathway back to calm, clarity and resilience.
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The Future Safe Haven Process embeds two important tools in your nervous system: a compassionate space where feelings can be held and a healing compass point.
It uses imagery, sensation, and emotion—the languages your nervous system truly understands—to help you practice feeling safe enough.” Over time, this builds a stronger pathway back to calm, clarity, and resilience, even when emotional storms hit.
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Many of us were never taught how to feel safe inside, or we’ve lost touch with that feeling through stress or life’s challenges.
Without an inner safe haven, small triggers can feel like tidal waves, leaving us anxious, depleted, or shut down.
This practice helps you rewire protective patterns and create new ones that guide you toward calm instead of panic.
Research shows that building a sense of inner safety improves emotional regulation, physical health, and overall well-being. Simply put: when we feel safe enough, everything works better.
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Your Practice Expectation
Your primary task is to listen to the Future Safe Haven recording in a quiet, comfortable space.
Allow yourself to imagine and feel what it would be like to be safe, supported, and resourced.
Jot down words or sensations that resonate with you (e.g., calm, freedom, peace) — these can become anchors you return to.
Curiosity is the priority. Sometimes safety feels calm, sometimes it shows up as tears, trembling, or warmth; all responses are valid.
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Repetition is how we rewire. Each practice strengthens the neural pathways to safety because the nervous system doesn’t distinguish between “real” or “imagined” safety.
Mental rehearsal works by building enough muscle. Regular practice helps this Safe Haven move from your go-to in stress to the resilient state you live in most of the time.
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Doing this powerful process will help set a compass point for healing in the nervous system. As a result, this exercise will save us valuable time in session, allowing us to move onto other important work quicker.
What can I expect in a typical first session?
The most important thing is choosing a therapist you feel safe with. In our initial session, we will:
Build a safe and trusting environment where you can share your story at your own pace.
Introduce grounding and emotional regulation techniques you can use immediately.
Co-create realistic goals for your personalised journey ahead.