What is Advanced Applied Neuroscience?
Explore the Underlying Layer of Difficult Change
Advanced Applied Neuroscience (AAN) is a science-based coaching discipline for experienced executive and life coaches.
It focuses on an often missed layer of transformation which, when present, can make coaching very confusing and get change work stuck.
AAN works alongside established coaching approaches. It helps experienced coaches examine not only what may challenging for coaching clients, but as importantly, what makes some changes so difficult, and what is blocking transformation. It uses neuroscience to understand situations where insight, motivation, good questions, and skillful guidance are not producing the expected change.
"I'M INCREDIBLY IMPRESSED..."
"If you're passionate about empowering others and want to stay at the forefront of neuroscience-based change techniques, this program is a game-changer!"
💛Rene Batson, Professional Speaker | Advanced Neuroscience Practitioner and Coach| LEGO® Serious Play® Facilitator | Sparking Self-Discovery Through Brain-Based Immersive Learning
Already have a relevant coaching case in mind? Take a second look at the underlying layer that may be getting in the way:
Visible Challenge Vs. Underlying Layer
AAN distinguishes between the challenge itself and the underlying layer that prevents it from changing.
Micromanaging, indecision, people-pleasing, conflict avoidance, and difficulty setting boundaries describe what we can see. They do not, on their own, tell us what is getting in the way. A client may need a different plan, a more fitting goal, practical or environmental support, or they may need to unlearn a learned response to emotional discomfort.
AAN helps coaches investigate when that learned response is part of the difficulty. And when it is, AAN teaches experienced coaches how to support clients to unlearn these deep emotional patterns so they no longer keep clients stuck.
"SOMETHING I WILL INFUSE INTO MY WORK FOR YEARS."
"The entire course changed the lens through which I see the work I have been doing for nearly two decades."
💛Kelly Meerbott, PCC, Executive Coach | Trauma-informed, Neuroscience-backed change readiness | PCC, CCTS-I | TEDx Speaker
The AAN Layer
AAN focuses on unlearning and relearning automatic responses to emotional discomfort.
What does that mean exactly?
Over time, people develop learned ways of responding to emotional discomfort. Those responses can become so automatic that they are difficult to notice. They stop being choiceful, they can shape how we react, and can easily block us from making changes we genuinely want.
Some of these patterns look more like control and self-judgment. But even ones like reflection and intellectual understanding, when overused, can block transformation.
AAN teaches experienced coaches to see these patterns clearly. And then, once you can see this underlying layer with great clarity, AAN provides the science-based know-how to support coaching clients release these patterns so they stop getting in the way.
To get an intuitive sense of the layer AAN focuses on, think about one of your clients. What tends to happen when they feel hurt, angry, embarrassed, uncertain, or disappointed? Do they move toward control, self-judgment, appeasing, withdrawing, or something else? How do they react to emotional discomfort?
Now ask yourself: What might change in their life if that learned response no longer had to be the default, and they had greater access to choice in those moments?
"As an Executive Coach, I was eager to delve into the intersection of neuroscience and coaching, and this course exceeded my expectations in every way."
💛Bill Gardner, Managing Partner, Noetic Outcomes Consulting, LLC, Sr. Facilitator/Coach, Adjunct Professor, Forbes Contributor
"ONE OF MY PROFESSIONAL JOURNEY'S MOST TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCES."
Even highly reflective people are often unaware of this layer.
An emotionally charged moment arrives, an old response becomes active, and the person reacts. Because the pattern can feel fast, familiar, and necessary, it may be experienced not as something learned, but simply as “who I am.”
AAN helps coaches identify these underlying patterns and support clients in unlearning them, while developing more intentional, choice-based responses that can increasingly become the new default.
A Layer Outside Our Awareness
Emotional Discomfort
Hurt, anger, shame, grief, anxiety
01
Learned Response
02
Control, appeasing, self-judgment, withdrawal
Repeated Pattern
Reinforcing the link between discomfort & response
03
Reduced Choice
Response feels automatic & part of "Who I am"
04
A Layer That Blocks Transformation
Not all threat responses are emergency reactions like fight, flight, or freeze. Neuroscience research shows that in everyday situations, people may also rely on learned ways of protecting themselves from anticipated discomfort: pleasing to avoid disapproval, self-judgment to hold themselves to highest levels of accountability, controlling to avoid unpredictability, or over-explaining to avoid being misunderstood.
These responses can become automatic even when the situation is not an emergency. Their presence alone does not tell us what is happening and the coach still needs to explore the person’s experience and context.
When a learned response is keeping us stuck, we can focus on unlearning and relearning it. In AAN, that means helping an old response lose its power as the default, while developing a more flexible response in its place. The aim is greater choice in the type of difficult moments when the pattern would otherwise take over.
The good news for coaching is that neuroscience can map out this rewiring process.
Our Second Look Lab is designed to help you spot specific patterns within this layer. The AAN Foundations course will teach you how to guide coaching clients to unlearn and relearn these deep emotional patterns. And the AAN Certification provides mentoring for experienced coaches who wish to develop mastery of AAN.
What AAN Will Teach You
"I UNDERSTAND HUMAN NATURE IN A WAY I COULDN'T BEFORE..."
"As an experienced professional coach with 4 other coaching certifications, I've been shocked by the speed and life changing changes my clients have achieved as I've used the Advanced Applied Neuroscience methodology..."
💛Lisa Brewer, PCC, CPCC, Certified Leadership & Wellness Coach | Helping Senior Managers & Directors Strengthen Influence, Relationships & Confidence to Advance their Careers
-
How threat and prediction can shape some responses before deliberate choice catches up.
-
How learned responses to emotional discomfort can keep people stuck.
-
Why insight can be accurate and still fail to support transformation in difficult moments.
-
How to use AAN to see this underlying layer in coaching.
-
How to support clients to unlearn the deeper patterns which live there, and develop more choice-based responses as the new default.
Even experienced coaches can find themselves unsure what is keeping a specific coaching client stuck, how much to challenge, or what to explore next. Explore questions about difficult coaching moments in practice:
Is This For Me?
AAN is designed for executive and life coaches who are already good at what they do:
-
You're an experienced coach, consultant, or change facilitator, often already certified through ICF, CTI, or similar.
-
You already know your way around coaching models and frameworks. AAN doesn't replace those. It adds a missing layer underneath them.
-
No neuroscience background required. Some of our participants hold PhDs in the subject but many have never studied it at all. Both do equally well.
What changes isn't your coaching philosophy. It's what you're able to do with clients who understand themselves well and still struggle to change in the moments that matter.
Read how experienced coaches use their newfound ability to see and work with the AAN layer:
"WILL CHANGE YOUR WORLD!"
"After almost 20 years practicing as an ICF trained and certified coach and 12 years as a practicing Organizational Development practitioner...I didn't "get it" until I came to Reut at KCI. I thought I understood the neuroscientific principles of change but I was missing a key piece and now that I have access to Advanced Applied Neuroscience, it's a whole different story."
💛Grace Trepte, MSOD, PCC Neuroscience-Based Change Facilitator
Common Questions
Is this program relevant if I work with neurodivergent clients? AAN can be relevant when a neurodivergent client is also working with learned responses to emotional discomfort. It does not mean that every difficulty with follow-through or regulation is an emotional pattern. Executive function demands, sensory load, communication differences, and environmental fit may also need attention. Ask us how the course relates to the clients you support.
Will this conflict with the coaching model I already use? Honestly, it depends. AAN complements many coaching approaches and modalities, but not all. Reach out and share what you already use. We'll happily tell you with complete transparency where it's likely to fit. Or explore the Second Look Lab Workbook for more concrete examples.
Do I need a neuroscience background? No. Some participants come in with a PhD in the subject; many have never studied it at all. Both groups do equally well.
How rigorous is the material? The material is accessible, but the level of inquiry is designed for experienced coaches so the level of rigor is fairly high. Expect to question assumptions, reflect on your own responses, and explore applications with curiosity. No neuroscience background is required.
Questions about the neuroscience or the way AAN may fit with your coaching approach?
