for your organisation
Mara
Interactive performance coaching
Communication, leadership and performance under pressure.
Introducing Mara for Teams
Training the moments that matter.
Mara is interactive performance coaching for everyone in your organisation, on their phone and in the browser. They rehearse the real moment coming up, a board update, a hard conversation, a pitch, get scored straight after, and run it again. It is built on the ICOP Method, with Session's live coaching team behind it.
What they get
- Practise and PressureThe actual meeting, on camera, with Mara playing the person who pushes back and interrupts.
- A score every timePace, vocal range, energy, clarity, presence and impact, against their own starting point.
- Coaching, Breathing, Off the RecordThe method step by step, a reset before they speak, and a private space to think.
- Studio and second languageOn camera delivery, and leading with authority in a second language.
- Team toolsManagers set the roleplays, brief Mara on what is coming and see team progress.
- WorkshopsLive sessions designed around your team, with the same scenarios loaded into Mara afterwards.
Why it works
Three things go when the pressure is on. Mara trains all three.
Performance
Pain point → outcome
- Rushing and filling every silenceComfortable holding the pause
- The voice dropping when challengedA grounded voice that holds
- Eye contact going under questionsEye contact that stays when it gets hard
- Stiff and awkward on cameraPresent and easy to watch
- Pretending to be confidentA natural, relaxed speaker
Communication
Pain point → outcome
- Burying the pointThe key point first, in plain words
- Answers that run longShort answers that hold up under challenge
- Updates that leave the room unsureEveryone leaves with the same understanding
- Sounding blunt in a second languageThe right tone in English
- Avoiding the hard conversationHard conversations that go well
Mindset
Pain point → outcome
- Going blank when it mattersClear thinking in the moment
- Overthinking the night beforeA reset in the ninety seconds before they speak
- Replaying it for daysLetting it go and moving on
- Running on adrenaline all weekRecovering between the big moments
- Performing a version of themselvesSounding like themselves
Most training works on one circle. Mara works on all three at once, in the same rehearsal, so it holds up in the real room.
“Mara has completely changed how I communicate and has become my go to communication coach.”David Homewood, Global Head of Sales, Faro (Ametek)
Start smallA twelve week pilot for up to 20 people, measured from a baseline, with the fee credited against year one.
Session and Mara
We train your people to perform under pressure. Live with our team, and every day with Mara.
Jade MatthewMara founder · BBC award winning actress · Master NLP Practitioner and coach
Leaders from these organisations have trained with Session
- Netflix
- Deutsche Bank
- Sky
- BBC
- Faro
- BMA
Thursday, 9am
Say your head of technology has to explain an outage to the board on Thursday. She knows the answer completely.
Two minutes in, a board member interrupts her. She starts talking faster, her voice drops, she stops looking at people and she over explains. The board comes away thinking she isn't sure of her answer.
The same week, with Mara
- 01Monday night. She puts the meeting into Mara, and the Pressure room plays the board member who pushes hardest. It interrupts her and asks the question she's dreading.
- 02Straight after. She gets a scored debrief and runs it again straight away.
- 03Thursday morning. Before the meeting she takes ninety seconds in the Breathing room.
- 04On the day. Mara reminds her of the one thing she committed to. Afterwards she logs how it went.
Where Mara comes from
I built Mara from twenty years of this work.
I've worked as a professional actor for twenty years and I've coached more than a thousand people. Mara is built on that work and on the ICOP Method. It keeps the parts of traditional coaching that work, and it fits around a busy week, so your people can use it when they actually need it.
Kept from traditional coaching
What we keep
- A proven methodThe Performance State Method: inner confidence, outer presence.
- A clear goal for every sessionOne focus, agreed at the start.
- Reflection and debriefWhat happened, why, and what to change.
- AccountabilityThe one thing you committed to, followed up.
- Complete confidentialityWhat you say stays with you.
- Expert coaches behind itLive sessions with Session when you need a person.
What is different
What Mara adds
- Drills whenever you wantFive minutes on the phone, at 9pm or at 7am.
- Pressure simulatorsRehearse with interruptions, a clock and a hard audience.
- Built around youYour role, your moments and what you are working on.
- Pitched at your levelA new manager and a chief executive get different coaching, so no two programmes look the same.
- Measured progressEvery run scored against your own starting point.
- No booking, no waitingOpen it and start. No waiting for the next session.
Team communication
For every team that has to explain, persuade or agree.
Change announced at an all hands that nobody believes.
Messages that sound sure, rehearsed on camera first.
Technical updates that leave the room unsure what was decided.
The key point first, in plain words.
Leadership
For managers and senior leaders carrying the hard moments.
Over explaining when the board or a regulator pushes back.
Short answers that hold up under challenge.
Hard feedback, a paused project, a team that needs telling.
The conversation happens, and it goes well.
Personal development
For how people handle the pressure, before and after the big moments.
Going blank in the minutes before speaking.
A reset in ninety seconds.
Leading in a second language and going quiet in meetings.
Sounding like themselves at their best in English.
Mindset
Stress, mental health, confidence and the fear of speakingCommunication
Bad communication, conflict in teams and trust in leadersPerformance
What it costs in output, engagement and resultsWho we are
Twenty years of performing under pressure, turned into a method.
Session was founded by Jade Matthew, who has worked as a professional actor for twenty years across television, film, radio and video games. Performers are trained to hold on to their ability when everything is on the line: the voice, the breath, the body, attention and timing.
Jade brought those principles into leadership and communication, alongside evidence informed psychology, performance psychology and practical nervous system regulation. Session has worked with more than a thousand people, from actors and students at LAMDA to founders, executives and leaders who have to walk into rooms that decide things.
That work became the ICOP Method, which sits behind our coaching, our workshops and Mara.
Our founder
Jade Matthew
- Clinical hypnotherapist
- Master NLP Practitioner
- BBC Audio Drama Award
- Screen and radio credits across BBC, HBO, Netflix, Channel 4, ITV and Sky
- More than 1,000 coaching clients
The Performance State Method
Inner confidence. Outer presence.
Identify
What actually happens, when, in which rooms, and what it is costing.
Clear
The patterns, beliefs and responses getting in the way.
Own
Practical tools to change state and behaviour: breath, voice, body and attention.
Perform
Rehearse the real situation until you respond differently when it matters.
Mara
A coach in every pocket, on phone and in the browser.
Mara is interactive, personalised coaching built on the ICOP Method. It works the way people actually change their behaviour: short, repeated practice in conditions close to the real moment, with clear feedback straight after.
Illustrative screens. Mara runs on mobile and in any modern browser.
How a session works
Record
Camera on, mic on. A pitch, a board update, a difficult conversation. Mara sets up a realistic scenario and listens.
Reveal
What your delivery actually did, measured rather than guessed, and the moment it changed.
Rehearse again
One reset, one technique, a second run. Watch both back to back.
What Mara measures
Every run is scored, so progress is tracked with data.
After every run Mara gives a score in six areas, held against the person's own starting point. Each person sees their own progress week by week, and the team admin sees how the team is moving as a whole.
Voice
Pace, pauses, vocal range, energy and clarity.
Body
Posture, eye contact, physical tension and body language.
Presence
How the delivery lands as a whole, and where it drops.
Impact
Whether the key point comes across when it matters most.
Before and after
IllustrativeAn example of the report each person and each team receives. Real figures come from your own baseline.
Inside a session
The rating updates while they speak.
LIVEBoard update · run 2 of 2 · 03:12Mara plays the board
“Before you give me the number, tell me why the timeline slipped.”
Your rating
Run it againScored against your own baseline
Voice and body are read in the browser and the recording stays on the device. Mara rates delivery, never accent or emotion. Illustrative screen, built from the live Practise Room.
Rehearse the moment before it happens.
Mara · interactive performance coachingInside Mara
Seven rooms, each built for a different moment.
Everyone gets every room. Most people start in Practise and move into the others as their moments come up.
Practise
Pick a scenario, run it and get a scored debrief.
How it helps
The daily habit. Ten minutes before a meeting that matters.
Pressure
Rehearse with the stakes turned up. Mara pushes back and interrupts.
How it helps
The real meeting feels like something you have already done.
Coaching
The full method, voice, body and mindset, guided step by step.
How it helps
Changes the underlying habit, not just the next run.
Studio
A prompter that follows your voice, with feedback line by line.
How it helps
All hands videos, investor updates, anything on camera.
Second Language Leaders
For people leading in a second language.
How it helps
Sounding like yourself at your best in English.
Breathing and mindset
Guided resets for the minutes before you speak, and after.
How it helps
A reset in under two minutes, and clear thinking.
Off the Record
Private coaching for a difficult moment. Nothing is recorded or kept.
How it helps
A clear head, privately.
On their phone before the meeting, in the browser at their desk.
Everything in Mara
The tools around the rooms.
The seven rooms are where people rehearse. Around them are the tools people use in the days before a moment, on the day itself and afterwards. Everyone gets all of them.
Before the moment
- Mindset preparationCues that get them into the right state before they speak, so they arrive steady.
- Voice warm upsA few minutes of voice and breath work, so they sound awake from the first sentence.
- Message StudioTurns a vague idea into one clear first line before they write it or say it.
- Difficult ConversationsPlans the conversation they have been putting off, with an opening line and an answer for the reply they are dreading.
Every day
- Daily PractiseOne short drill a day on camera, small enough that people keep doing it.
- Voice StrengthA guided twenty minute workout for a voice that carries without strain.
- The NoteAfter every session Mara writes back in plain words, with one thing to work on next time.
- Your progressEvery take and every score, held against where they started.
On the day and after
- Live sessionWhen the moment is close, a guided session that ends with a decision and a way to say it.
- Meeting ObserverRuns alongside a real Zoom, Meet or Teams call and reports how they came across. Off for company accounts unless you ask for it and everyone on the call agrees.
- AfterwardsFor when it did not go to plan: what happened, and what to do next time.
- Voice RecoveryA twenty minute session to release tension and bring the voice back to ease.
Know yourself
- Communication assessmentHow they come across under pressure, measured.
- ArchetypeThe shape their communication takes naturally, so they can use it on purpose.
- The MirrorThe habit people notice that nobody has ever mentioned to them.
- Live Communication TestMara interviews them on camera, has them say it, pushes back, then gives their communication type with the moments that show it.
Leading in a second language
Built for people who lead in their second language.
So in most international companies, many of your best people do their most important work in a language they didn't grow up speaking. Plenty write beautifully in English. The trouble comes when they have to say it out loud, in real time, with someone pushing back.
Pain points and outcomes
- 01Going quiet in meetingsThey know the answer but wait too long to find the words, and the conversation moves on.They speak up while the point is still live.
- 02Sounding blunter than they meanA direct translation lands as rude, or too soft, because the tone doesn't carry across.Direct when they mean to be, warm when they mean to be.
- 03Losing authority under challengeWhen someone interrupts, they speed up, their sentences get shorter and they come across as less sure than they are.Pace and sentences stay steady when someone pushes back.
- 04Great in writing, harder out loudThe email is perfect. The same point in the meeting comes out long and apologetic.The point comes out as short and clear as the email.
The English Performance Ladder
IllustrativeOne message said six ways, each harder than the last. Mara scores their English and their state separately.
In this example their English stays about the same on every rung. Their state score falls as the pressure goes up. So we work on the pressure, not their English.
Second Language Communication
Mara knows their first language. They say what they need to get across and the result they want, then speak it or write it, and Mara helps with English that carries the right tone and meaning.
The English Performance Ladder
The same message under rising pressure: a clock, an interruption, a changing audience, a noisy room. They see where the pressure starts to get to them, and practise from there.
Second Language Leaders
The executive side: the right register for a board, holding the floor when interrupted, and disagreeing clearly without sounding rude.
Figures: Ethnologue, 2026. Accent is never scored, and nobody is coached to sound like a native speaker. Their first language shapes the coaching, never the scale they are measured on.
Use it to train your staff
Use Mara to train your teams.
L&D teams and managers use Mara to run their own training. You set what people practise, Mara coaches each person on it, and you see whether the team is improving.
Set the roleplays
Write the conversations your people keep facing: the client who pushes on price, the team that needs bad news, the board question nobody wants. Mara plays the other side.
See the data
Who is practising, how often, which rooms, and how the team's scores are moving from the baseline. Team level, so people practise honestly.
Help team communication
Set one focus for a whole team: shorter updates, clearer handovers, calmer answers under challenge.
Feed it transcripts, get feedback
Paste in the transcript of a real meeting, a sales call or a training roleplay. Mara reads how the communication went and gives specific notes: where the point got lost, where the answer ran long, what to say instead.
Meeting Observer for trainingUse it on practice meetings and training sessions. Mara reports on how things were said. Under our contract nothing it produces can be used to judge anyone's performance. Live listening is switched off for company accounts unless you ask for it and everyone in the meeting agrees.
Workshops and coaching
Live workshops designed for your team and one to one coaching, with Mara carrying the practice in between. More on the next page.
I now have a new range of tools and techniques to cope with the stresses of corporate, and everyday, life.John Macey · Chief People Officer, BMA
Workshops
Workshops designed around your team.
We build every workshop for the team in the room. We find out what they have coming up and where things tend to go wrong, then write the exercises around those moments. Afterwards the same scenarios go into Mara, so the practice carries on after the day.
We listen
A call with you and short conversations with the team about the moments they face and what they want to change.
We design it
Exercises, roleplays and scenarios written around their real meetings, presentations and conversations.
We run it live
Half a day to two days, at your offices or ours, in London, Berlin or Amsterdam, or remotely.
Mara carries it on
The workshop scenarios are loaded into Mara for everyone who took part, and progress is measured from where they started.
Workshops we often design
- Speaking up in meetings
- Presenting to the board
- Hard conversations and feedback
- Calm under pressure
- Leading in a second language
- On camera and all hands
- Pitching and selling
For HR and managers
Create team trainings that are practical, measurable and effective.
Each team has an admin login for HR or the team's manager. They tell Mara what the team is facing, and Mara builds it into everyone's practice. Nothing anyone says in Mara ever flows back to them.
Illustrative screen. Example moments and figures.
What admins can do
- Set upcoming moments, such as a board update or an all hands
- Create roleplays for the conversations the team keeps facing
- Choose the focus areas they want practised
- See who is practising and how often, and how the team is improving
What admins never see
- Recordings, which never leave the person's device
- What anyone said to Mara, or what Mara said back
- Individual scores, rankings or reports
- Who struggled with what
How this compares
One programme instead of four separate tools.
Most companies buy speaking practice from one place, coaching from another and training from a third, and none of them are connected. Session brings them together around the moments your people actually face.
| Session and Mara | Yoodli | BetterUp | CoachHub | Classroom training | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rehearses the real moment coming up | |||||
| Measures voice and body, not just words | |||||
| Trains the psychology of pressure | |||||
| Expert live coaching included | |||||
| Daily practice on phone and browser | |||||
| Managers can brief it on upcoming moments | |||||
| Built for leaders working in a second language | |||||
| Progress measured from a baseline |
Based on what each company publishes about its own product, September 2026. Products change, so check with each provider.
Privacy
Private by design, agreed in writing.
Many coaching tools keep what people say to them on their own servers, for their own use. With Mara, the recording stays on the person's device. What reaches us is the coaching conversation and the scores, so Mara can coach on them, and every commitment below goes into the contract.
only the coaching text and the scores
team level only
- 01
Recordings never leave the device
Posture, eye contact and voice are measured in the person's own browser, and the recording stays on their device. It never reaches us.
- 02
Private by default
Conversations and individual scores are never shared with managers or HR and never used in performance reviews. Admins see who is practising and team improvement.
- 03
We measure what the room can see and hear
Voice, pace, posture, eye contact. Mara does not infer emotions or mental state.
- 04
Nothing trains any model
Nothing your people say or record is used to train any model, ours or any provider's.
- 05
Processed in the EU
The coaching runs in Frankfurt. A data processing agreement under GDPR is signed before anyone starts.
- 06
Deleted automatically
Session data is deleted after ninety days and every deletion run is logged. Everything is deleted when the contract ends.
- 07
Built for works councils
A workplace mode that coaches delivery only, and a briefing for your works council before rollout.
What each provider says it does with your people's data
Taken from each company's own published privacy policy and help pages, checked on 25 September 2026. Where a policy doesn't say, we say so.
Swipe to compare →
| Mara | Yoodli | BetterUp | CoachHub | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where the recording goes | Stays on device Never uploaded to us |
Analysed by Yoodli Recordings you enable are analysed. Admins can set automatic deletion |
May be recorded Coaching sessions may be recorded when coach and member both consent |
Unclear Its data page says no session recordings. Its platform policy lists camera and microphone recording |
| Used to improve their models or product | Never Not by us, and every provider we use is contracted not to |
Yes, unless you opt out Used to improve its speech coach. Each user can opt out in settings |
Partly Not used for general purpose or third party models. May be used to improve its own products |
Yes Its policy lists enhancing products and AI optimisation as uses |
| What the employer can see | Team level only Who practises and team improvement. Never content or individual scores |
More detail Team leads can view recordings members share, and each member's skill trends |
Aggregated No session content. De identified or aggregated reports |
Aggregated AIMY conversations are not shared with HR. Anonymised insights only |
| Where it is processed | EU Coaching runs in Frankfurt. Stored in the UK |
Not specified May be your country or any other |
US or EU Customers can choose |
EU Stored in the European Union |
Sources: Yoodli privacy policy and help centre (yoodli.ai/privacy-policy; support.yoodli.ai). BetterUp Privacy Notice effective 10 July 2026 and betterup.com/trust-and-security. CoachHub platform privacy policy (30 June 2025), coachhub.com/data-privacy and coachhub.com/aimy. Mara: thesessionlab.com/security. Where a browser can't run Mara's speech model, its built in speech recognition is used instead, and in Chrome that service is run by Google. We list it on our security page.
Security
Your security, legal and procurement teams will want to know where data goes and who can reach it. This is the short version. The detailed IT and architecture pack goes to your team under a mutual NDA.
Encryption and access
Encrypted in transit and at rest. Access is limited to named people, and admin actions are logged.
Sign in
Microsoft sign in, and single sign on with your own identity provider for company licences. Accounts can be set up in bulk.
Hosting and subprocessors
Coaching runs in Frankfurt. Every subprocessor is listed on our security page and in the data processing agreement.
Retention and deletion
Session data deleted after ninety days, every run logged. People can delete sooner.
Incident response
If an incident affects your data we tell you without undue delay and work with your team until it is closed.
Continuity and exit
A written exit plan: your data returned or deleted, and the service wound down in an orderly way.
Published and ready to read. Privacy notice, security overview, subprocessor list and data processing agreement at thesessionlab.com/privacy, /security and /dpa.
Request the IT pack under NDAHow we would roll this out
Start with your teams. Measure it. Then roll it out.
The goal is Mara for everyone, with coaching for the leaders who need it most. The quickest route there is twelve weeks with your own teams, so the decision to go wider is made on your own numbers.
Start with your teams
Up to 20 people. Launch training, full Mara access, a baseline at the start, measurement at the end and a written report.
Mara for everyone
A company licence, launched with team training in each location. Team admins brief Mara on what is coming up.
Coaching for your leadership
One to one coaching for the leaders carrying the biggest moments: boards, investors, regulators and all hands.
Investment
Licensing Mara.
Twelve week pilot
- Up to 20 people
- Launch training with Session
- Every Mara room
- A baseline at the start and a measurement at the end
- A team report and a recommendation for what comes next
- The fee is credited against year one if you continue
Company licence
- Mara for everyone, on phone and browser
- Team training to launch it in each location
- Admin console for HR and managers
- Dedicated onboarding and support
- Pilot fee credited against year one
Team licences, for individual departments
| Seats | Includes | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Every room, team admin console | |
| 25 | Every room, team admin console | |
| 50 | Every room, team admin console, launch training | |
| 100 | Every room, team admin console, launch training |
Live coaching and workshops
Mara is where people practise every day. The live work is where the pattern changes. Every programme includes Mara, so the work carries on between sessions.
Executive Performance Intensive
Twelve weeks for a leader with high stakes moments ahead, with Mara throughout and a measured before and after.
High Stakes Preparation
Focused preparation for one moment: a board meeting, an investor update or a major all hands.
Workshops
Half day to two day programmes, live, at your offices or ours.
Keynotes
Performing under pressure, with a live demonstration using someone from the room.
All prices are a guide and to be confirmed with you. They exclude VAT.
Next step
Try Mara for fifteen minutes. Then let's talk about your team.
Jade Matthew
Founder
hello@thesessionlab.com
thesessionlab.com
mara.thesessionlab.com
© 2026 Mara Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. Session and the ICOP Method are the property of Jade Matthew, used by Mara Performance Ltd under licence. This document is confidential and was shared with you under the confidentiality terms you accepted to open it. It may not be copied, shared or reproduced, in whole or in part, without written permission. Mara Performance Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 17476869. Privacy · Security · DPA · Terms