Dr. Birgit Sponheuer
Founder of BetterBraincare
Optimistic by default. Open and curious for people and topics. Strategic, analytical and creative thinker and doer. That’s how people who know me well would describe me. And that’s also what characterizes my work with BetterBraincare.
But please see for yourself!
“Health is not everything. But without health, everything is nothing.”
Arthur Schopenhauer
My work on BetterBraincare began exactly with this belief – and one question on my mind: How can we protect our health in the stressful world we live in, and find a healthier way to work to achieve more performance with less stress?
Based on profound experience in consulting and in leadership roles, as a mental coach and certified expert in resilience and stress management, I work with companies, leaders and private clients to answer exactly that question.
I learned from my own experience
Having spent 10 years in strategy consulting and another 10 years in different leadership roles in the pharma industry, working long hours and chronic stress were almost constant companions during these last 20 years. Often enough this is labeled as the price we pay for a steep learning curve and having a successful career. I never saw this as a problem, as long as the balance seemed right for me. But I certainly also learned one important lesson: the price we pay for a successful career must never be our own health and wellbeing!
It’s rather easy to overstretch and ultimately exceed our own limits. In fact I did multiple times. For several years, working late at night, on weekends and even during holidays was more the rule than the exception. Certainly not something that added to my health. A few years ago, I had my energy depots severely depleted over several months when a stressful work life was amplified by the experience of caring for, but ultimately losing a close relative to cancer. Another time I had to experience how fighting the toxic behavior of a line manager over several months was to no avail, and how I slowly turned more and more into a shadow of myself.
This is when I started to do some research on what I can do for myself. My goal: staying healthy, and getting out of that tunnel. I learned about the brain, how it works, and what it needs to perform – both mentally and physically. I found answers. This was the birthplace of BetterBraincare. My mission: to pass on that knowledge, and to inspire as many people as possible to create a better, healthier workplace. For more performance on the job, less stress, and better health long term.
The purpose of BetterBraincare
It’s on us to make New Work smarter, more human and most of all healthier. With BetterBraincare, I would like to contribute to that goal.
One key factor on this road is how we deal with work stress. The WHO labeled chronic stress as one of the most critical health hazards of our century. It is a precurser for many other diseases – like a trailer for a movie. And the problem is getting bigger, that much became clear during the last years of the pandemic.
With BetterBraincare, I would like to support leaders in shaping their companies into work places that are sustainable, healthy, performance driven, and put people first.
And I would like to inspire people to take better care of their brains. Helping them do their jobs full of energy, motivation and creativity while enjoying their lifes. Making their eyes sparkle despite heavy loads on their shoulders, and helping them to face teir challenges at their best, not chronically stressed.
And last but not least, if BetterBraincare helps only a single person to avoid spiraling into a burnout, to prevent a heart attack or even the development of Alzheimer’s disease later in life, I will have achieved more in my professional life than I have ever dreamed of!
My professional background
10 years in strategy consulting at Roland Berger
10 years in leadership- and senior executive positions in the pharma industry
Major focus of my professional roles was in healthcare, marketing, strategy, business development as well as organizational-, HR- and leadership development.
Education and training
Learning new things, diving deep into challenging research questions and acquiring new skills and competencies is not only one of the pillars of the Braincare training, the part I called “BetterLearning”, but also one of my greatest passions!
Here is a selection of my education and training from the last 25 years
- >1.500 hours of training in braincare-related disciplines, incl. neuroscience & neurobiology, health psychology, resilience & stress management, leadership, self-leadership, sleep, exercise, and nutrition
- Certified Mental Coach
Akademie für Neuromentaltraining, Salzburg, Austria - Certified Expert resilience and stress management
SRH Mobile University Riedlingen, Germany, in cooperation with SPIEGEL Akademie Hamburg, Germany - Executive Leadership Development Program
INSEAD Business School, Fontainebleau, France - PhD in Business and Economics, thesis on “Employer Branding”
Institute for Marketing & E-Commerce, HHL Graduate School of Management, Leipzig, Germany - Diploma in Business Administration
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany