3 Brains Intelligence Coach training
Next cohort: 17 September 2026 · Early bird saves €150 · See all dates →
Making change easier.
Science has made it clear that we have 3 Brains.
The Head, the Heart and the Gut function as independent brains. What is the consequence when one of them is not included in the decision? We are struggling to keep the new behaviour.
And it is not a mindset problem, nor a lack of insight or will. It is biology, doing what it was designed to do, trying in its own way to keep us safe, successful and connected.
Health, happiness and long-lasting achievements only happen when all 3 work together.
350+
Certified coaches
44
Countries
97%
Satisfaction rate
40
ICF CCEUs · coach certification
ICF 40 CCEUs, plus EMCC 24 PD points
Taught by an ICF Master Certified Coach, the top 3% of the profession globally
Maximum 10 participants per cohort, so you are coached, not only taught
The issue when one brain rules
How much do you recognise this?
These are not personality traits; they are biological protection strategies, hired years ago by the 3 Brains to keep the person safe and successful, and still on the payroll long after the danger they were guarding against has passed.
Head Brain patterns
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Overthinking every decision
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Making it perfect even when it was not asked for
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Waking at three in the morning, full of thoughts
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Having second thoughts after the decision has been made
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Following the procedures as a golden rule
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Staying distant when emotions arise
The Head Brain needs to understand everything and have a perfect cause-and-effect analysis before it takes action.
Heart Brain patterns
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Saying yes when they meant no
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Caring more than has been asked
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Checking if their behaviour is appreciated
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Apologising for things that were not their fault
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Managing the atmosphere so nobody gets upset
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Feeling responsible for other people's emotions
The Heart Brain feels a need to establish and protect relationships at the cost of everything else.
Gut Brain patterns
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Going for the short-term win
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Trying to be in charge of what is going to happen
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Showing more interest in the result than in the people delivering it
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Resting only once everything is finished
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Following their own ideas and rules
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Performing certainty they do not have
The Gut Brain acts to win because losing is interpreted the same as not surviving, and it is always black and white.
The benefit of 3 Brains coaching for you and your clients is that, in my experience and in the experience of the 350 coaches who have followed this training, all of the patterns you have just read can become a thing of the past, the moment 3 Brains Intelligence enters the coaching conversation.
We are barking up the wrong tree
We mostly hear one story about where our memories, beliefs, and habits are stored.
Although there is the book The Body Keeps the Score, somatic work, breathwork, NLP, and a whole lineage of body-based practice, most of us are still taught that, in the end, the memories are stored in the head.
Although science has, in fact, proved that we have 3 Brains, each with its own memory, its own decision-making, and its own way of speaking.
Where do we feel a broken heart? Not in our head.
Where do we feel anxiety? Not in our head
And how many of us have not, at least once, after a decision we quietly regretted, asked ourselves one of these questions:
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Why didn't I think this through?
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Why didn't I follow my Heart?
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Why didn't I listen to my Gut feeling?
Is it not a little strange that in day-to-day life we use those sentences as though they carry wisdom, and still most of us have never used them in a structured way? Or that in the last eight years, when I have asked the question, which criteria do our Hearts and our Guts rely on when they make a decision?, most people simply did not know.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating
I have done this exercise with more than 4,000 coaches and leaders, and it shows that 95% have a serious issue with change, even though they understand it.
In my workshops and leadership trainings, I run an exercise, and what I have observed across many different rooms, in more than 15 countries and 4 continents, with all the professions you can imagine, is that the result is always the same.
The case seems simple: a financially struggling business faces an urgent decision to survive, which means making 50% of the employees redundant, and the board presents four options, A, B, C, and D, from which the participant can choose one that could apply for their team.
Only option A addresses the company's survival but carries harsh consequences, while B, C, and D might feel right, fair, or values-driven but do not address the topic at stake, the company's survival.
Most choose B, C, or D, and I can relate to why we might choose one of those options, and then comes the part that could sit uncomfortably: after I explain the consequences and why only A addresses the company's survival, I invite the room to reconsider their previous choice.
90%+
do not change, even with the evidence in front of them.
And the coaches and leaders in those workshops, whose entire work is helping others change old patterns, could not overcome their own in that moment.
What it shows is that our past experiences, beliefs, and values override the real evidence in front of us when only one or two brains are involved in decision-making.
Over the years, I heard responses like:
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“I can’t remove myself from my values”
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“My heart rules.”
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"A business is its employees; we need diversity in a team to create good work"
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"But that change would have been a betrayal of who I am"
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"Years later, I will remember I never took an unfair decision"
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"Can we not be in a position to understand what you are saying, but after reflection, we disagree?
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What makes me wonder: If I have serious difficulties with change, with full awareness, in a workshop without real consequences, with a hypothetical decision, what do we need to change something that matters, in real life with real consequences, and maybe under pressure?
It's like we drive into a dead-end street, and because every cell in our body says it is a two-way street, we keep going.
The map is wrong, but we trust the map over the road.
That is what 3 Brains Intelligence™ is built on: letting you question the map and see the real road by activating all 3 Brains
Mastering 3 Brains intelligence coaching provides you: the framework, the diagnostic tools, and the structured methodology to question the map - yours, and your clients' - and drive the road, and as a bonus, delivers you 40 ICF CCEUs."
What brought us here will not bring us there
Only 3% of us have all 3 Brains aligned.
The other 97% naturally listen to one or two.
Across 5,218 professionals tested in 42 countries- coaches, leaders, clients, all of us- 48% are Head-dominant, 41% Heart-dominant, and 11% Gut-dominant. One brain takes the lead while the other two play along or get overruled.
This is honest biology, and once you can name which brain is leading, you can work from all three of them.
What the research shows
Research shows that if we follow one, or maybe two, of our Brains when we try to change, roughly 92% of us will not succeed in holding the new behaviour, habit, or belief past the two-week mark, and for roughly 8% of us, it actually works. Strava, which tracks millions of resolutions across its platform, has a name for the day: usually the second week of January, year after year, they call it Quitters Day.
Nothing is wrong with us. Our biology did what our biology does.
The Biology
What is the job description, the strengths, and the pitfalls of our 3 Brains?
Head Brain
86 billion neurons
Our strategic advisor, holding logic, strategy, prediction, and cause and effect, and the only one of the three with a full concept of past, present, and future.
Protects against being wrong
Heart Brain
40,000 neurons · Armour, Oxford 1994
Our compass, holding connection, values, courage, and belonging, and the place where burnout is quietly stored, and where courage tends to come from.
Protects against rejection
Gut Brain
500 million neurons · Gershon, HarperCollins 1998
Our engine, holding instinct, drive, survival, and action, and the place where trauma is stored, and where instinct lives, in the present tense only.
Protects against losing
Up to now, the way many of us have been trying to change has been a little like pushing a stone up a hill, on our own, in a direction the stone was not particularly interested in going, which is why every attempt has been so easy to let slide back into the old comfort zone. What happens when their Head, their Heart, and their Gut finally agree is almost the opposite, and it is closer to that same stone rolling by itself, down the hill, in the direction they actually want it to go, without anyone having to push it at all.
A short personal note
How I first came to this.
When I first became aware of the 3 Brains in 2017, I was puzzled, because I could recognise myself, painfully accurately, in one of the traps above. And I remember thinking, if this is doing this to me, with everything I have learned, what must it be doing to my clients. Which is where this training began, quietly, one insight at a time, and over the years grew into the eight sessions that follow.
The program and your benefits
Eight sessions. Each one adds a specific coaching capacity, in the next session with your next client.
The training runs across four blocks of two consecutive days, always Thursday and Friday, four hours per session, roughly one month from start to certificate. Recordings included. Maximum ten participants per cohort.
01 Three Brains exist
Head, Heart, and Gut as three decision systems, each with its own objective, needs, strengths, pitfalls, and allergies. Biology, not metaphor.
What you can do afterwards
Explain to a client why they are in conflict with themselves, in a way that lands as physiology rather than as a personality test.
02 You can hear them
The three-brain preference assessment, discussed one coach at a time. Then the core exercise: fingers on the forehead, the heart, the gut, and speak a sentence out loud at each position.
What you can do afterwards
Get a client to feel the disagreement inside them, rather than describe it.
03 Getting into state, CCT
Curiosity, Compassion, Trust. Trained as the coach's own daily practice first, because mirror neurons make the coach's state contagious.
What you can do afterwards
Regulate deliberately before and during a session, and bring a client into a workable state.
04 Why people don't change
New learning versus old learning. Brain waves and the first seven years. The law of association. Five memory types. Why the body spends as little energy as possible.
What you can do afterwards
Explain to a client exactly why willpower did not carry the change, without either of you taking the blame.
05 Beliefs
Belief, value, and justice system. Why a belief was intelligent when it was formed. The permission technique, which lifts a decades-old condition without the client having to relive anything.
What you can do afterwards
Release a thirty-year-old belief in one conversation, without the client disclosing the story behind it.
06 Resetting the system
The physical work. Peripheral vision, eye movements, breathing, full-body resets for a stuck autonomic nervous system, for the moments when talking has stopped working.
What you can do afterwards
Take a client out of a loop in under a minute, in the room, without discussion.
07 Highly impactful events
Getting control back over something that happened, without being told what it was. The scope, the sequence, and the boundary that keeps this inside a coaching contract.
What you can do afterwards
Work with impactful events inside a coaching contract, and know exactly when to refer out.
08 Integration
Live coaching, assessed. You coach a real case in front of the group, using the full framework, and you certify at the end.
What you can do afterwards
Practise, with the certificate to say the training has been completed.
What's included
Everything you need to certify
and apply from day one.
40 ICF CCEUs
28 CC + 12 RD, a complete renewal cycle, plus 24 EMCC PD points.
3 Brains Dominance Test
Licensed for client use from the day you certify.
164-page manual
All frameworks, tools, and techniques are references you will return to for years.
Commercial application rights
Use and integrate the 3 Brains methodology in your coaching practice and programs.
8 live sessions + recordings
4 hours per session and recordings available if you miss a session.
Global coach community
350+ certified coaches in 44 countries. LinkedIn community + first year of webinars free.
Investment & Dates
3 Brains Intelligence has it all
A complete ICF renewal cycle (40 CCEUs), mastering how to coach the 3 wisdom (Brains) centres, and the right to use the 3 Brains Test with your personalised code with every client from the day you certify.
Let's be honest, for many coaches, the CCEUs were the reason they enquired and enrolled, but what they describe afterwards is a transformational shift in how they work with their clients: they now know which Brain is speaking and which is silent and how to coach the whole person.
€1,995
€1,845 early bird if you register 6+ weeks before start date ·
Payment plans available, please be quick as places are limited to ten per cohort.
I have complete confidence in the quality and results you will achieve, so if you complete the first session in full and decide training is not for you, write to me, and I will refund you in full, no questions asked.
3 Brains Coach Certification
The Autumn 2026 Afternoon cohort. The complete certification pathway. Over multiple live sessions, you'll master the tools, frameworks, and coaching practices to align Head, Heart, and Gut in yourself and your clients.
Thursdays and Fridays 15:00 to 19:00 Madrid time. Comfortable for Europe, the UK, and the Americas
€1,845
3 Brains Coach Certification
The Autumn 2026 Morning cohort. The complete certification pathway. Over multiple live sessions, you'll master the tools, frameworks, and coaching practices to align Head, Heart, and Gut in yourself and your clients.
Thursdays and Fridays, 09:00 to 13:00 Madrid time. Comfortable for Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia.
€1,845
3 Brains Coach Certification
The end of the year 2026, Afternoon cohort. The complete certification pathway. Over multiple live sessions, you'll master the tools, frameworks, and coaching practices to align Head, Heart, and Gut in yourself and your clients.
Thursdays and Fridays 15:00 to 19:00 Madrid time. Comfortable for Europe, the UK, and the Americas
€1,845
"I don't promise success, but I will do my extreme best."
Christoffel Sneijders, on record, first day of every cohort
What coaches say
"I signed up for the CCEUs.
What I found was the advantage of 3 Brains coaching, it takes you to a whole different level. "
Pauline Barnas, PCC
ICF Professional Certified Coach · Warsaw, Poland
"Having spent over two decades as an MCC coach, I've encountered countless training programs. Finding a program as unique as this is a rarity — where clients effortlessly break free from limitations and experience benefits that stick. As an MCC, I wholeheartedly encourage each of you to explore this framework."
Karen Keller, Ph.D., MCC
“I was truly delighted with this programme, in particular the quality of the content, materials and research, complemented by Christoffel’s abundance of knowledge and expertise, which he shares with generosity and humility.
The 3-brains concept really lands with my clients, supporting them to unpack complex unspoken thoughts, feelings and behaviours to arrive at solutions with greater clarity and confidence. “
Jane Emmanuel, PCC
PCC Assessor and mentor on the ICF-accredited Coaching Development training course and Coach Supervisor
"I have integrated the concepts and the tools into my coaching practice from the very first session, and they have added another dimension to the work.
I very much enjoyed the programme and found the clarity of the 3 Brains Coaching very useful."
Sheena Bailey, MCC
Highly recommend Christoffel’s 3 Brains certification course 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Christoffel is one of the rare instructors who gives genuine care and attention to every participant.
When you are in Christoffel’s course, you feel ’seen’ and supported. He remembers vital details about every single person and tailors his feedback and approach accordingly.
Christoffel cares about his students’ outcomes and spares no effort to address every question or concern.
I don’t think there was anyone (in the course) who wasn’t touched by Christoffel’s awesome heart ❤️, which does absolute wonders in combination with his great skills.
There is a lightness of spirit about him and an ego-free confidence that attracts a similarly amazing group of people (to the course).
Christoffel is a truly great coach with whom it is a blessing to meet, difficult to part (you don't want the course to end) and impossible to forget.
Kamila Shakirova
MAcc, US CPA, Local CPA, Auditor of RoK, ACC Caoch
"Understanding our human reactions
Learning from your research on the 3 Brains helped me understand our human reactions on a much deeper level.
Thanks for being such a lovely host!
It was great to meet superstar coaches from all over the world!”🌍🙏🏾🌍
Judith de H.
Senior Practitioner NOBCO and EMCC
Dear Chris,
A big THANK YOU from all my Brains!
You are a brilliant trainer, and I would really like to have you as a testimonial for my Internal Coaching Academy (ICA) in the future to promote your innovative coaching approach and methodology, which are immensely valuable.
I have particularly appreciated your teaching style, your adherence to ICF competencies and above all, your enthusiasm and passion for the "little Child in you" :-)😍
Un grande abbraccio e arrivederci !
Rossella PCC coach
"I consider my application to the 3 Brains Coach Training as one of the best investments.
Christoffel is an amazing professional and trainer, able to create a great atmosphere of trust, humour and support in the class, sharing his deep and profound knowledge of the topic, and giving very concrete techniques I can use in my coaching practice.
I appreciate his energy during all lessons, sparkling through the screen.
I honestly recommend this training to everyone interested in their own development as a coach, as well as to those who want to broaden their coaching portfolio.
Hana Vykoupilová PCC
"I have completed countless courses, including leadership and NLP training, and yet the 3 Brains training conducted by Christoffel really is that "missing link"
All humans instinctively know of the different feelings and thoughts we have, and yet Christoffel gives WHY and HOW information that is useful.
Your own life will benefit from doing this training, as will countless other lives in the people you associate with and coach"
Dr Ian Hainsworth
coach and general practitioner
If you compare these sessions to some of the advanced courses that I've taken at ICF, they're saying the same thing.
There's nothing new about it; there's nothing that I think would help me further penetrate my client and help them with their needs.
The advantage of 3 Brains coaching is that it takes you to a whole different level.
So you're actually thinking about where these emotions and thinking come from. But you're only looking - and this is the beauty of it - you're only looking at 3 Brains, not trying to do a million things.
It is in your head, in your heart, or in your gut.
There is nothing else.
So let's forget about all these other books, these bookshelves. This is it!
It is enough to get it, and maybe you think: Oh, that can't be the case. Right? With every doggone time in our coaching over these 3 days, it gets out there.
That's why I'd recommend anybody take this training
Ted Hawkins
Executive coach, Ex partner PWC
“Thank you, Christoffel
I can honestly say that this was one of the most enjoyable, interactive and genuine training programmes that I have experienced.
The combination of your style and the subject matter created a very safe space for me, at least, and I have taken a great deal from this training.
In fact, after the first day, I recommended that my three closest colleagues (covering UK, Israel and South America) read your book and have a look at your work.
All the very best, and I look forward to being in touch again soon.
Claire K. PCC
Business Psychologist & Coaching Professional
Thank you so much for your kindness and for this fantastic training. I enjoyed every second of it!
Thinking about what was particularly valuable for me, I would have to pick "experiencing 3 Brains coaching" in person.
Each time we practised coaching with a partner, I walked away with significant insights into areas of my life where I felt stuck.
By the end of the course, I had found answers, got unstuck, and felt renewed energy flow. Also, the opportunity to review and let go of some old beliefs that no longer serve us was extremely valuable!
You provided a wealth of wonderful information, tips, tricks, food for thought, inspiring moments, and first-hand experiences, bringing this training to life and making it stick! It’s pretty darn perfect, if I may say so, as a perfectionist!
Regina Fasholt PCC
Coach and Psychologist
Lisa & Lindsay
Couples Coaches
Ludo
PCC, ICF Certified Coach
Bénédicte
Coach
Tatjana
headhunter and coach
What could change in your practice
Four ways the training can show up in your work.
Overcome self-limiting beliefs
A structured way to help a client dismantle the beliefs that have been holding the pattern, without the client having to disclose the story behind them.
"I walked away with significant insights into areas of my life where I felt stuck, and by the end of the training I had found answers, got unstuck, and felt renewed energy flow. The opportunity to review and let go of old beliefs that no longer serve us was extremely valuable."
Highly experienced coach
Coach the who, not only the what
A diagnostic lens that names which Brain is leading and which Brain has gone silent, so the coach can work with the who underneath the what the client brought.
"Going through coaching sessions through the lens of the 3 Brains, by design, is coaching the who. It takes us away from the tactical, transactional coaching, and it changes a lot of things."
Ludo Pasquereau, PCC · ICF Certified Coach
Let go of old impactful experiences
Tools for working with an impactful event inside a coaching contract, without the client disclosing what it was, and with the referral boundary always visible.
"The tools and techniques taught were powerful, and the whole process connected me with a love of coaching. In the course, I cleared many blocks to success in relationships, health, and career, and helped others do the same."
Executive coach
A CCEU renewal that changes how you coach
40 ICF CCEUs collected and logged, alongside a set of tools the coach can use from the day after the first session, and that the client notices immediately.
"Initially I was sceptical about the course, but I needed coaching education hours and signed up. The 3 Brains method simplified my coaching approach and allowed me to help my clients efficiently identify challenges resulting from disconnects between the Heart, Head, and Gut."
Ted Hawkins · Executive Coach, ex-partner PricewaterhouseCoopers
Christoffel Sneijders MCC
Christoffel teaches the way coaches say they wish more masters did, light, funny, hands on, judgment free, and safe enough to be human in front of, with the kind of structure that gives you tools you use the next day.
He built 3 Brains Intelligence from 33 years of clinical observation, working at the intersection of coaching, psychotherapy, neuroscience, and embodiment with over 13,000 clients across 33 countries.
The methodology is grounded in data from 5,218 real assessments across 44 countries, reflecting what actually drives human behaviour. Research shows that 97% of us have 1 or 2 dominant brains that shape how we listen, so being able to coach people to benefit from all 3 is one of the most valuable things this training offers.
My quest was to understand what the subconscious mind is, who is in charge of us, and where our beliefs and experiences that form us are stored.
The answer was always with us: follow your heart, listen to your gut instinct and think it through.
My personal experience: most programs reach one brain.
And our clients need all 3 to thrive.
350+ coaches in 44 countries have brought their existing method — cognitive, somatic, emotional, or integrative — and left with something none of their previous training gave them: a structured way to reach all three brains in the same session. That is why change holds.
Early bird €1,845 · Payment plans available · Spaces limited · ICF accredited 40 CCEUs