Leaders don’t have to burn out at peak times.
A one-to-one, four-month programme that keeps senior leaders sharp, steady and rested through their hardest periods: reporting seasons, transitions, deals and public exposure. Built individually for each CEO, founder, board member and family office team, and measured from start to finish.
At a glance
The Pressure Protocol is an executive burnout prevention and performance programme developed by Maia Manukian, a clinical psychologist and Certified Bioenergetic Analysis Therapist (IIBA), based in Nicosia, Cyprus. It works with how a leader’s nervous system carries pressure, using body-based methods, observation in the real work environment and validated measurement. It is not therapy, coaching or corporate wellness.
The problem
Senior leaders rarely break during the peak. They break after it: the reporting season ends, the deal closes, the board meets, and the body that held everything together lets go.
Reporting seasons, board cycles, launches and public appearances arrive on a calendar. The collapse that follows them is just as regular, and just as preventable.
Moving from CEO to the board, taking over a family business, or stepping into public view changes what the role demands from the body, long before anyone names it.
Under pressure, decisions are made by the nervous system first and explained afterwards. Insight helps. It does not change how the body reacts in the room.
of global GDP is lost to stressed or disengaged employees, according to Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace estimate. At the top of an organisation, every lost decision costs more. Source
Pressure check · 2 minutes
Six questions about the last three months. Answer for yourself, or for a leader you are responsible for. This is a quick orientation, not a clinical test, and nothing is stored or sent.
The key principle
There is no curriculum in the Protocol. Every protocol is designed around one leader: your body, your role, your calendar and the rooms where your decisions are made. Two clients never get the same programme.
The Pressure Protocol
The protocol is planned around the pressure points you already know are coming. Each phase prepares for the next one, and the last phase makes the work independent of me.
A 3.5-hour baseline: how your body carries pressure, where it leaks energy, what your peak calendar looks like. First measurement.
Preparation, pit-stops under load, and a deliberate exit from the peak. Second measurement after recovery.
Presence in the boardroom, public appearances, decisions under uncertainty. Optional observation in your real environment.
Preparing for the next season on your own, with tools that work without me. Final measurement and review.
Your state is measured three times with internationally validated instruments and combined into one State Index from 0 to 100. You see the change in numbers, not only in how you feel. Between sessions you get short audio practices for the morning, the pit-stop, the stage and the night.
| Instrument | What it shows |
|---|---|
| WHO-5 | Wellbeing index of the World Health Organization |
| PSS-10 | Perceived Stress Scale |
| Recovery | Sleep, morning energy and speed of recovery after peaks |
| Body markers | Clinical assessment of how pressure shows in posture, breath and tension |
What we work towards
Goals are set individually at the Check-up and measured at the end. These are the ones leaders bring most often.
Programmes
Flagship · individual leader
The full four-month protocol for one leader: check-up, peak, role and independence. For CEOs, founders and board members who carry the organisation through its hardest periods.
Per leaderfixed fee · 4 months
By invitation · ongoing
For those who want me close, not once a week. I work alongside you for an agreed number of days each month: before and after board meetings, in negotiations, on the road and at key events, with a direct line between them when pressure peaks. A private, long-term advisory role focused on state, decisions and how you show up.
Exclusive engagement: I take on one Private Advisor client at a time.
Monthly retainerminimum 3 months · by application
Premium
The protocol extended into your real environment. I observe you in board meetings, negotiations, travel and public appearances, and we work on what the body does there, not what you remember of it.
Per leaderby application · limited places
Leadership teams
A confidential state assessment of 5–8 senior leaders before a critical period, with a report to the CEO on where the team’s capacity will hold and where it will break. Individual results stay private.
Per team5–8 leaders · fixed fee
Transitions
For a CEO moving to the board, a successor taking over a family business, or a director taking a first board seat. The protocol focused on the first months in the new role.
Per leaderfixed fee
Organisations
A diagnostic of how the leadership system actually works: where decisions stall, where energy goes, what the organisation asks of its people that nobody says out loud.
Per organisationscoped individually
Fees are fixed per engagement and agreed before we start. They depend on the format, the number of leaders and where we work. The agreement can be with you personally or with your company.
Typical situations
Composite examples of situations the Protocol is built for. Client work is confidential and never published.
After years of running the company, a CEO moves to the board. The first results under the new structure are due within a quarter. The protocol is planned around that deadline and the first board meetings.
A second-generation successor steps into the family group. The family, the managers and the bank are all reading how he carries the role. The work focuses on presence, decisions and recovery in that first year.
A founder knows every fundraise ends in a month of exhaustion. This time the protocol starts before the roadshow, so the energy is still there for what comes after the money.
Who it is for
Who carry the business through reporting seasons, fundraising, restructuring and growth.
Entering a board, leading one, or moving from executive to strategic roles.
Small teams where almost everyone is senior, managing the family’s capital and its next generation.
Media, conferences, investors: more visibility than the role used to require.
I only work with leaders who choose to do the work. That is why the results hold.
For companies
For boards, CEOs and Chief People Officers who need a senior leader at full capacity through a critical period.
The Protocol works with the state a leader is in when the decision is made. That is where performance is won or lost, and it is the part most programmes never reach.
For family offices
Family offices protect assets, structures and continuity. The hardest risks often sit with people: a team of senior specialists carrying the family’s decisions, a successor stepping in too early, choices made under pressure that the family lives with for decades.
I spent years in finance and multi-family office advisory before clinical work. I know how a family office works from the inside: the confidentiality, the long horizons, and how personal and financial decisions are tied together.
Discuss a family office partnershipThe difference
| Corporate wellness | Executive coaching | Therapy | The Pressure Protocol | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approach | Standard for everyone | Framework-based | Method-based | Built individually for one leader |
| Works with | All employees | Goals and behaviour | Personal history | The leader’s nervous system under real pressure |
| Method | Check-ups, talks, events | Conversation | Conversation | Body-based work, observation in the real environment |
| Timing | Annual calendar | Open-ended | Open-ended | Four months, planned around your peaks |
| Where it happens | Office events | Meeting room or video | Practice room | Online, in person, and in your real environment |
| Result | Participation | Self-reported | Personal | Measured three times, State Index 0–100 |
About
I am a clinical psychologist and a Certified Bioenergetic Analysis Therapist (IIBA). Before clinical work I spent years in finance and multi-family office advisory, so I know the rooms where my clients make decisions: the board, the deal, the family table.
I read state in the body: how pressure shows in posture, breath and voice long before it shows in results. The Protocol is built on that skill and on clinical rigour, without esoterics.
Where
Most sessions work online. The Check-up and observation visits are done in person, so I come to you for short in-person blocks.
Nicosia and Limassol: in-person sessions and observation.
Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, Doha: in-person blocks for the Check-up and observation.
Anywhere your work takes you: online sessions, with in-person blocks arranged for key moments.
Questions
Executive burnout is the exhaustion that builds up when a leader’s nervous system carries more pressure than it recovers from. It often shows after a peak: poor sleep, a crash after reporting season, slower decisions, irritability in the room. Because the peaks are predictable, much of it can be prevented by preparing the body before the pressure arrives, which is what the Protocol is designed to do.
Coaching works through conversation about goals and behaviour. The Protocol works with the body: how your nervous system reacts in the boardroom, on stage and in negotiations, including observation in your real environment. The result is measured with validated instruments, not only self-reported.
Executive health and longevity programmes measure the heart, blood, metabolism and sleep. The Protocol adds the missing layer: how the nervous system carries and recovers from pressure. It works well alongside an executive check-up or a longevity clinic.
No. The Protocol works with performance under pressure in your professional role. Personal topics stay outside the protocol. If medical or therapeutic help is needed, we pause and find the right specialist.
At the first, sixth and final sessions you complete the WHO-5 wellbeing index and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), rate your recovery, and I assess body markers. Together they form the State Index from 0 to 100.
Confirmation that you take part and, only with your consent, the change in your State Index. The content of sessions stays between us.
Yes. Most sessions work online. The Check-up and observation visits are best in person: in Cyprus, or during an in-person block in your city.
You choose what I see: a board meeting, a negotiation, a rehearsal or a recording. I watch how your body handles the situation, then we work on it. Nobody in the room needs to know why I am there.
Yes. I work with family office teams, where almost everyone is senior, through a Pressure Check-up for the team or individual protocols. Family offices and private banks can also offer the Protocol to the families they serve as a discreet service. Nothing about the family is shared with the office without consent.
No. Every protocol is built individually after the Check-up, around your body, your role, your calendar and your environment. The structure of four months and three measurements stays; the content is yours.
Yes, as a Private Advisor, in two formats. For a leader: I work alongside you for an agreed number of days each month, in your environment and on the road, with a direct line between meetings. For a firm: a trading firm, fund or family office retains me for agreed days each month with its key people, while individual work stays confidential. Both run on a monthly retainer for a minimum of three months, by application. It is an exclusive engagement: I take on one Private Advisor client at a time.
The individual Pressure Protocol starts from €15,000 per leader for four months. Team, family office and organisation formats are quoted individually. Every fee is fixed and agreed in writing before we start.
Either. The protocol can be contracted with you personally or with your company. The content and confidentiality are the same.
Four to six weeks before your next known peak: a reporting season, a board appointment, a launch or a major public appearance. That leaves time for the Check-up and preparation, so the peak falls inside the protocol and the remaining months go to recovery, the role and independence.
Contact
We look at your next peak, what you need from it, and whether the Protocol is the right fit. If you were referred by a client, mention their name. It helps me understand the context.
I work with a small number of leaders at a time, so start dates depend on availability. Ideally, we start four to six weeks before your next peak, so the peak falls inside the four months.