Why high-achieving women doubt themselves — and how I help you get into the driver's seat
I chose this path deliberately — built on years of working with professional women, and on my own experience.
I grew up in a family shaped by psychological distress. Anxiety, depression, trauma — these were part of the backdrop of my childhood.
Like many high-achievers, I learned early that doing more was how you stayed afloat. Achievements became the way I felt seen.
It took me a long time to understand what feeling genuinely confident actually feels like — from the inside, not just on paper.
I started my career in Finance, studied International Business, and spent a decade building what looked like a solid professional life.
But underneath it, I was constantly on alert, always pushing, and quietly running on empty.
Eventually I hit the wall completely. I remember sitting there, crying, realising that something had to change — not just my job, but the way I was operating inside it.
After six months of deep reflection and retraining, I discovered what actually energised me — working with people, ideas, and transformation.
I went back to university, shifted into consulting, and spent the next nine years leading large-scale change and transformation projects across five countries. It was complex, exciting, and meaningful.
But everywhere I went, I kept seeing the same thing.
Brilliant, capable people — experienced, respected, delivering results — quietly falling apart inside. Doubting themselves in meetings. Second-guessing decisions they were more than qualified to make.
Running on adrenaline and self-criticism rather than clarity and confidence.
That pattern became impossible to ignore. And it became the seed for Turnaround Practice.
How I work — and why
My approach combines coaching with hypnotherapy because I've seen — both in my own recovery and in years of client work — that talking alone only goes so far.
When the doubt runs deep, it lives below the level of conscious thought. You can intellectually know you're capable and still not feel it.
That gap is where my work sits.
Through hypnotherapy, we work at the level where subconscious drivers are stored — the beliefs and autopilots that shape how you show up, often without you even realising it.
Once that noise clears, coaching becomes far more effective. We rebuild confidence and direction, then move into strategy, action and implementation — the practical steps that translate insight into real change.
This rhythm runs through everything I do:
First, surface and reset what's running in the background.
Second, rebuild confidence and a clear sense of direction.
Third, translate that into concrete action that moves your career and life forward.
The programs
For women who want to go deep and create lasting change, The Confidence Intensive is a six-session program designed for leaders at a crossroads.
Women who are performing and delivering — but held back by self-doubt, second-guessing, and the quiet sense that they're not quite measuring up.
We work through the full arc: from what's driving the doubt, to building genuine confidence, to making the career moves they've been holding themselves back from.
For those who need a more focused starting point, The Circuit Breaker offers two sessions to interrupt the pattern — cut through the overwhelm, stop the spiral, and get back into clear and confident action.
On staying curious
Ongoing learning isn't optional in this work — it keeps me sharp and keeps my clients getting the best of what's available.
Neuroscience, psychology, and leadership research move fast. Every new training in hypnotherapy makes me a better coach. Every coaching client deepens how I apply what I know. The two constantly feed each other.
I've trained across Austria, Germany, the US, and Australia — different schools of thought, different frameworks, all adding layers to how I work.
In many ways, continuous learning is my own version of what I ask of my clients: keep developing, stay curious, use what you learn to keep moving forward.
What I want to leave you with
Change doesn't start with fixing yourself. It starts with understanding yourself.
When you stop running on autopilot and start seeing what's really driving your reactions, everything shifts.
You lead differently, make decisions more clearly, and situations that once felt overwhelming become manageable — not because the pressure disappears, but because you're no longer ruled by it.
You're back in the driver's seat, making the decisions. Not your situation making them for you.
So much of my work is about helping women get back to that place of clarity where they can see themselves — not through pressure, fear, or other people's expectations, but with focus and self-trust.
That's where confidence emerges. That's where the next step becomes visible.
And that next step looks different for everyone.
Stepping up into a new role.
Going for the promotion.
Leading a team for the first time.
Taking on a project that feels just out of reach.
Moving cities or countries for an opportunity.
Starting your own business alongside a corporate career — and building it into something that stands on its own.
Daring to go for something you've been talking yourself out of because you weren't sure you could do it.
Transformation doesn't happen overnight. It begins by meeting yourself where you are and allowing yourself to move forward, one step at a time.
That's how you turn things around.
If you recognised yourself in any of this — the second-guessing, the quiet voice that says it's not quite enough — here's where to start.
The free 26-minute audio is designed to take the brakes off — to calm the noise, disrupt the patterns of self-doubt that have been running quietly in the background, and open up new ways of thinking and acting from a place of confidence rather than fear.
Clients say they feel lighter and happier after listening. Less stuck. More able to trust themselves and move forward.
About the author
Sabine Lehner is an executive coach and clinical hypnotherapist who works with female leaders and professionals ready to step into confidence and stop managing self-doubt, by changing what's actually driving it.
With a background of more than a decade leading large-scale organisational transformations across Australia, Europe, Asia and the US, and executive coaching since 2014, she brings corporate context from lived experience.
Through Turnaround Practice in Sydney, she combines strategic coaching with deep mindset work that enables the most effective solutions, because you can't think your way out of a subconscious pattern, and mindset work alone won't build your strategy.
