Take Back Control of Your Mind.

Clear-headed performance is a state where you make decisions from your cognitive availability rather than from your resistance to change. In practice: you stay grounded under pressure, you see situations clearly, and you act without being driven by anxiety, fear, or perfectionism. It's the opposite of compulsive performance — the kind that wears you down.

You're probably experiencing imposter syndrome if: (1) you credit your successes to luck rather than your skills, (2) you're constantly afraid of being "found out," (3) you work twice as hard to make up for an imaginary shortfall, (4) compliments make you uncomfortable. It's a resistance to change, not a reality. And it can be defused.

Burnout is a state of professional exhaustion that must be assessed by a health professional. In coaching, we work upstream — where prolonged pressure begins to create internal signals of imbalance.

Fatigue that no longer fully clears, declining effectiveness despite effort, unusual irritability, a new cynicism toward your work environment, disrupted sleep, a sense of emptiness even after a success: these signs are not a diagnosis, but they indicate that your system is operating beyond its optimal zone.

If these signs concern you, it's important to discuss them with a health professional.

And if you want to strengthen your stress-response mechanisms, regain mental clarity, and stabilize your inner performance — that's precisely what we develop together in coaching.

Mental load is the invisible work of thinking of everything: remembering the kids' appointments, anticipating the team's needs, planning meals, handling the unexpected. It adds to your visible professional workload and explains why women leaders burn out even when they're "not doing anything objectively exhausting." As it accumulates, it's what reduces your cognitive availability — your ability to stay present, clear, and alert under pressure.

Emotional intelligence trains like a muscle, literally. The PQ® Program works three specific muscles: intercepting the Saboteurs before they take control of your emotions, strengthening Self-Mastery to take back control deliberately, and activating the Sage to respond with clarity rather than reactivity. Fifteen minutes of training a day, through the Positive Intelligence® app, is enough to build these three reflexes.

Performance stress is a signal first — not an enemy. When it becomes chronic, it's often an automatic voice taking over the controls, the one we call the Saboteur. To regain the upper hand: (1) identify it when it speaks, (2) thank it (it wants to protect you), (3) take back the controls by training the wise part of your brain. That's exactly what we work on in the program.

Therapy works on the past to understand how you got here. My approach works on the present and the future to take you where you want to go — the same logic as an athlete training their reflexes, or a musician practicing their scales: you don't need to understand why a reflex exists to build a better one. This isn't therapy; it's results-oriented mental training, structured over 3 months, with tools you keep for life.

Your conversations with Lucie remain confidential, except in situations provided for by law (notably an imminent risk to your safety or that of others, or a court order). Even if your company funds the program, no content from your sessions is shared with it.

In 1:1 coaching, this confidentiality applies fully, subject to the same legal exceptions.

In the group program, each participant commits from the outset to respecting the confidentiality of what is shared within the group. This commitment is a condition of participation. Sessions are recorded so that absent participants can access the content and the answers to their questions — these recordings are deleted at the end of the program. However, Lucie Montpetit cannot be held responsible for breaches of this commitment by other group members, which are their personal responsibility; full details are in our privacy policy.

In all cases, your personal information is handled in accordance with Quebec's Law 25 on the protection of personal information.

The discovery session (40 minutes by videoconference) serves three purposes: (1) clarify your current situation and what's holding you back, (2) determine whether my approach is the right fit for you, (3) identify the coaching and tools best suited to your needs. No commitment and no sales pressure.

For the PQ® Program, most clients report a first noticeable change by week 4 — usually in sleep quality, stress levels, and the ability to say no. Deeper shifts (in your relationship to work, to performance, to yourself) settle in between week 8 and week 12.

Looking for help with anxiety? Chronic performance stress can sometimes be mistaken for anxiety. If you're experiencing persistent symptoms, we encourage you to consult a healthcare professional. This program is for healthy professionals who want to optimize their performance under pressure.