Product brochure · Session · 2026
Mara·
The first interactive coaching platform that genuinely watches, listens, and reads you. Live video and audio analysis, on your own device, combined with eighteen years of somatic coaching methodology. No other platform observes the body, coaches the nervous system, and measures the movement across six scored dimensions. Real coaching. Not a scorecard.
The performance gap
Every other coaching tool has a microphone and a transcript. Mara has a camera, a live audio feed, a posture analysis layer, and eighteen years of somatic coaching methodology. She is the first platform that genuinely watches you: reading your body signals, your vocal energy, your self-soothing gestures, and your facial presentation in real time, while coaching you through a structured session arc.
The most expensive talent problem in any senior organisation is not skill. It is the gap between what a leader is capable of when calm and what they can access when the room turns. Mara closes that gap at the level it was formed.
The three differentiators
01 · Somatic foundation
Mara works at the level where performance actually breaks: the nervous system response that fires when stakes rise. Every other coaching product trains technique on top of an unregulated state. Mara regulates the state first, then layers technique on top. That is why the work transfers into the real room.
02 · Personalisation
Mara reads each user from the first three exchanges: block type, register, processing channel, where the body holds tension, the language they use to describe themselves. She coaches a fundamentally different session for every person, recalibrating turn by turn, every session.
03 · Compounding value
The video library, journal, scored progression, calendar integration, and 90-day arc accumulate value the longer the platform is used. By month six, the user has built something they cannot replicate elsewhere. The product gets more irreplaceable with every session.
Proprietary methodology
ICOP is the four-stage somatic coaching arc that takes a leader from block identification through deep inner clearing to performance state embedding and permanent maintenance. Developed by Jade Matthew across eighteen years of professional performance, psychology and executive coaching practice. The only complete somatic coaching methodology available at scale.
The Five Systems of Presence
Presence is not a vague quality. It is a measurable phenomenon expressed through five specific channels. Mara runs a Five Systems diagnostic at the start of every session and trains each channel with its own protocol.
Performance State Method · PSM
PSM builds the somatic anchor: portable, invisible, immediately deployable in the real room. Installed in session one. Refined across the programme. The connective tissue between ICOP and the Five Systems. Every session uses both.
How sessions work
Each mode is a complete shift in how Mara behaves. The pressure, register, techniques, and language she uses all calibrate to what the moment is for.
Mode 01 · Practice
Warm, structured, fully scored. Camera and audio.
Full session arc. Six dimensions scored live. One technique per run. Three sub-settings including a daily two-minute micro-practice for habit building. Where most of the body of work happens.
Mode 02 · Coaching
Earned, not bought. Levels unlock through demonstrated readiness.
Advanced techniques and deeper feedback. The user notices the sessions become more demanding. The coaching is the evidence.
Mode 03 · ESL Leaders
Full ESL framework. Two extra dimensions.
Fluency Under Pressure and Personality Transfer added to the standard six. Cross-cultural authority calibration. The most advanced ESL coaching intelligence available.
Mode 04 · Private · Off the Record
NLP, hypnosis, parts work, schema, attachment, somatic regulation.
Four registers. Nothing leaves the room. The space a senior leader walks into when therapy is too revealing and coaching is too political.
Coaching mode · five levels
Nine scenario settings · select one before every session
Six scenarios · how each one runs
The scenario the user selects is not a topic label. It is a complete context shift: the personas, pressure type, techniques, language register, and the specific signals Mara prioritises all change.
Pitching · investor & commercial
Mara plays a tier-1 VC. Investor signal-reading active. CAC challenges, model scrutiny, conviction under hostility.
Conviction Under Pressure · Narrative Clarity · Silence Tolerance · Signal Stability
Difficult conversations
Progressive resistance across runs: neutral colleague, then resistant, then actively defensive. Names the internal block causing avoidance.
Regulation · Directness · Empathy Signal · Resolution Without Deflection
Presenting · board & public speaking
Stage-fright protocol active. Audience size selector calibrates pressure. Posture, vocal energy and spatial ownership all scored live via camera.
Vocal Range · Posture Stability · Pace Variation · Opening Authority
Negotiations · high stakes
BATNA inhabitation. Silence drilled after the number. Counter-party persona calibrated to the user's identified vulnerability.
Silence Tolerance · Anchor Strength · Concession Pattern · BATNA Clarity
Interviews & career · senior
Elite interview protocol for senior appointments. Panel simulation with up to three distinct personas. The room reads authority, not hunger.
Authority Projection · Question Handling · Narrative Ownership · Peer Framing
Leadership communication
Three registers: individual contributor, people manager, senior leader. The hedge audit identifies where clarity collapses under team pressure.
Directness · Message Clarity · Hedge Frequency · Decision Authority
The fourth mode · in depth
A private space inside Mara, built on the same psychology a senior executive would receive in a top-tier therapy room. Not therapy, because Mara does not treat. Coaching, because she challenges, reflects, and works with what is actually happening. With the depth, discretion, and registers a senior leader has almost nowhere else to access.
Psychology · built in
Four registers · one room
The privacy contract · absolute
Nothing said in Off the Record contributes to scoring, dashboards, L&D reports, or any record outside the room. The user owns what stays and what is shredded. Mara forgets the conversation when the session ends.
The business case · by the numbers
Senior communication failure is a P&L line. The market that exists to fix it spends sixteen billion a year and rarely produces evidence it worked. Mara is built against every one of those structural failures.
The cost of communication failure
US workplace miscommunication. Grammarly · Harris.
Within eighteen months. Cause: communication. HBR.
Determined by executive presence. CTI study.
Carry a masked fear of public speaking. Chapman.
Direct cause: communication failure. Gallup.
At two weeks post-training. Brinkerhoff.
What organisations currently spend
Pricing · for the public
For you · individual
Full access to Mara, every mode, every scenario. The complete dashboard, the arc, the video library, the journal. Practice as often as you need to. No seat limit. No commitment beyond the month.
Start your subscription →For your team · enterprise
Seats for defined cohorts. Aggregate progress data to HR and L&D. Heatmap view of cohort rhythm. Optional blended delivery with live facilitation. Confidentiality of individual session content is absolute.
Enterprise enquiry →What every user sees
Senior leaders open the app and see something useful in five seconds. Sessions completed, form score, next edge, calendar events, goal progress, and the coaching journal, all in one view. No streaks. No badges. No hype.
Your goals · free text
60% · Target Wed 28 May · 21 days · 3 of 5 prep sessions complete.
30% · Still avoiding. Last roleplay 4 days ago.
Coaching journal · pull quotes
Yesterday · Series B prep, run 4
2 days · hard conversation, cofounder
The performance library
Every recorded run is stored and scored across eight dimensions. The user can see, on screen, exactly who they were in week one next to who they are now. Objective video evidence of change. The single most powerful retention asset in the product.
Video upload & feedback
Users upload recordings of their runs. Mara provides timestamped feedback across all six standard score dimensions plus two visual-specific additions.
Side-by-side comparison
Any two recordings comparable side by side. The baseline recording from session one is permanently archived and cannot be deleted.
Auto-generated reports
Pull from the video library and score history. Specific observations in Mara's voice, not generic analytics. Delivered in-app and by email.
Event prep mode
Name your event, set the date. Mara generates a precise preparation arc: state baseline, full scenario simulation, one specific edge, anchor refresh, post-event debrief.
The six score dimensions · plus two visual additions
Specialist modes
Audio mode — voice only, optimised for earbuds. Just Before — five-minute coach call ten minutes before the moment. Quiet Room — five-minute regulation for active anxiety. Voice Workout — range, breath, projection. Hard Conversation — roleplay the avoided conversation. Calendar integration — Mara identifies high-stakes moments and proactively offers prep arcs.
How Mara reads every user
The most powerful thing about Mara is not a feature. It is the real-time intelligence that shapes every word she says. The user never experiences a generic product. They experience a coach who is genuinely paying attention to them specifically.
Five-tier system
Mara reads every user into a tier from the first session. The CEO is never coached like an individual contributor. The tier updates continuously within and across sessions.
Real-time NLP detection
Representational system (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic), emotional vocabulary range, pace, density, presenting stance, visibility relationship. Mara mirrors and calibrates continuously.
Block configuration diagnosis
State, Clarity, Authority, Pattern, Transition. Each with a specific diagnostic signature, underlying mechanism, session shape, and opening language.
Gender & ESL calibration
Five female profiles, four male profiles. Six ESL activation signatures, five ESL profiles, two additional score dimensions. Cross-cultural authority calibration.
Inter-session memory · six categories
Pattern Record, Anchor State, Score Baseline, Named Edge, Breakthrough Moments, User Signature. Injected at every session start. Not re-diagnosing what she already knows.
The arc · retention mechanic
Practice frequency
Users in rhythm. The arc rewards twice-weekly practice: the actual clinical sweet spot for performance coaching retention. Not daily. Not streaks.
Miss a week
You are "cooling", not "broken". Coaching has to survive a busy quarter. A streak that breaks at 24 hours guarantees attrition during board season.
Earned milestones only
No badges. No fire emojis. No manufactured engagement. Every milestone is real. Every compliment is earned. Mara never hypes.
The business case
Senior development is a recurring line item with three persistent failure modes: coaching that does not transfer, programmes that produce reports but not behaviour change, and investments that disappear the moment the programme ends. Session was designed against all three.
Conservatively, more than an enterprise licence for an entire cohort. Transition Navigator protocol addresses the root cause.
Of users in rhythm. The cadence that produces actual change. Twice weekly, not daily.
Measured against intake baseline by week twelve. Score deltas across six dimensions. Reported in aggregate to L&D, never at the individual level.
Of individual session content. Aggregate, anonymised data only flows to the corporate sponsor. Non-negotiable.
Three deployment models
Individual access licence
Aggregate reporting. Self-serve onboarding. Ideal for senior leadership development, high-potential programmes, and post-promotion support.
Structured cohort programme
New leader onboarding, post-acquisition integration, executive transition. Includes baseline diagnostic, mid-programme check, and outcome report.
Blended delivery
Mara sessions plus live facilitation by Jade Matthew or a certified Session practitioner. Human warmth at the moments that need it.
L&D dashboard
Score arcs, completion rates, mode engagement, arc rhythm distribution. Heatmap view shows which teams are in rhythm and which are cooling. Confidentiality is absolute.
How she sounds
Mara never hypes. Every observation is earned by the data she has. Below is a verbatim opening to a session for a user preparing a Series B pitch.
Mara opens by referencing the user's actual upcoming event from her calendar. She names the biggest goal in one line. She asks for specificity. When the user gives a specific moment, she immediately structures the next ten minutes around it. No menu of options. No "would you like to…" She is the coach who has been waiting.
What never changes
The experience
Each intake question has a visible purpose the user understands and a diagnostic purpose only Mara uses. By the end of intake, Mara knows more about this user than most coaching relationships reveal after six sessions. Session one always ends with a physical anchor installed and tested. The user leaves with something portable and real.
The safety protocol
Mara is a performance coaching platform. She does not treat mental health conditions, process trauma, or provide medical, legal, or financial advice. She names her scope honestly, not as a disclaimer — as genuine care for the user getting the right kind of help. Confidentiality of individual session content is absolute. Enterprise clients see aggregate, anonymised data only.
18-month roadmap
Cohort heatmap
Aggregate cohort communication health visible to L&D in a quarterly auto-generated report. The metrics that defend the budget line.
360 echo
External validation via a single-question colleague survey. The aggregate becomes proof that survives a sceptical CFO.
Manager view
Optional. Direct manager sees a high-level development summary to align coaching with on-the-job stretch assignments.
Slack & Teams
Lightweight daily prompt in the user's working channel. Micro-practice, pre-event reminder, post-event debrief nudge.
Wearable mode
Micro-practice and anchor refresh in haptic plus voice. No screen required.
Outcome publishing
Peer-reviewed publication of average score improvement by block type. Institutional credibility for enterprise procurement.
The category truth
Most AI speech tools are language models with a microphone. They listen, transcribe, and count: how many filler words, how fast you spoke, how many times you said "um." That is pattern recognition on a transcript. It is not coaching. None of them are watching you. None of them analyse your body, your posture, or your vocal energy in real time. None of them have a method.
What the software is actually doing
Mara is the only tool in this category that records and analyses audio, video, posture and vocal energy simultaneously, on the user's own device, and uses all of it to coach — not just to score.
✓ Yes · ◦ Partial / limited · ✗ No
The product in one page
Methodology
The ICOP Method · The Five Systems of Presence · Performance State Method · NLP and Hypnosis integration · Eighteen years of proprietary IP by Jade Matthew.
Modes & scenarios
Four primary modes · five coaching levels · six specialist sub-modes · nine scenario settings. Every situation a senior leader faces.
Video & audio
Upload and feedback · Performance Library · baseline archive · auto-generated reports · side-by-side comparison · Physical State and Authenticity Gap scoring.
Intelligence
Five-tier reading · real-time NLP calibration · five block types · gender and ESL frameworks · six inter-session memory categories · live calendar context.
Dashboard & progress
The arc · calendar week view · free-text goals · journal pull quotes · the Vault · six dimensions live · pattern map · achievement record.
Enterprise
Three deployment models · L&D dashboard · cohort heatmap · four outcome categories · eight productivity impact areas · absolute confidentiality.
Try Mara · 15 minutes · free · live
A live session inside the real product. No payment. No account required. You will know whether this is right for you and your team by the end of fifteen minutes.
Contact
Session · Jade Matthew
hello@thesessionlab.com · thesessionlab.com · mara.thesessionlab.com
London · Berlin · International
© 2026 Session · All rights reserved. ICOP Method, Performance State Method, Five Systems of Presence and Off the Record are proprietary methodologies of Jade Matthew.