Simona Nicolaescu is a psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, coach and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in training, wellbeing and team building programs for companies, author of the book “Secrets and Sincerity” and creator of Flow Balance — an app with audio training for the mind, body and emotions, built on a belief tested both in the therapy room and in the mountains: real change does not come from revelations, but from small reflexes, repeated daily.

C&B: How would you describe yourself in one sentence?

Simona: I am the person who works for those who have a lot on their plate, little time for themselves and a mind that does not really know where the pause button is — and who does not give them yet another piece of advice, but trains them to reconnect with themselves in a few minutes.

C&B: What is the “red thread” of your journey?

Simona: The red thread is that I have never separated the mind from the body, nor life from business. Three moments cemented this. The first: more than 20 years ago, I had a serious car accident and realized how quickly you can disappear from this world. That was when I decided to do only what I love and built my own business. The second: the journey to Everest Base Camp, in 2016, where at 4,600 meters I became so ill that I could no longer stand — and I came out of that moment not with medication, but with the techniques I was teaching my trainees. I experienced firsthand that the mind and body work in tandem. The third: the moment when I understood that everything I give people in my practice — assignments, visualizations, exercises between sessions — could become a tool they could have in their pocket. That is how Flow Balance was born. The constant throughout all my choices: I transform what I experience and practice myself into tools for others.

C&B: A difficult moment or failure that changed you?

Simona: On Kilimanjaro, on the second night, at 3,800 meters, I had a panic attack. Me, the person who works with people precisely on this. My pulse had risen to 150 at rest, compared to my usual 72, I could not eat, I could not sleep, and it took me hours to recognize what was happening to me — it is much harder to see in yourself what you can easily diagnose in others. The uncomfortable part is what I discovered behind it: one month before leaving, I had given up my daily practice. I was no longer spending those 30 minutes with myself, every day, and I had turned a long-awaited trip into a source of stress, with a thousand worst-case scenarios. What I changed: I stopped treating daily practice as something optional, for days off. It is like brushing your teeth — you do not do it when you feel inspired, you do it because it is a reflex. And since then, I have told my clients exactly that, with my own example, not from a textbook.

C&B: A courageous or counter-intuitive decision?

Simona: The decision to build Flow Balance. Counter-intuitive, because a psychotherapist is trained to believe that transformation happens only in the direct, one-on-one relationship in the therapy room. And economically, the practice and the training company were the safe zone: loyal clients, a model that had worked for two decades. An app means continuous investment, a team, technology, a territory I did not master. The risk I assessed: that I would dilute the depth of therapy into a digital product. What convinced me to move forward was the reality in my practice — people do not get stuck because they do not understand, but because between sessions they do not have a tool at hand when their mind starts running. The alternative I rejected: remaining comfortable in the “my time versus money” model, which can never help more people than can fit into a calendar. The result: a system of audio training organized into programs of at least 14 days, for adults and children, designed from the beginning to grow internationally.

C&B: How have you changed as a leader / professional?

Simona: The biggest change: my relationship with my own body and my own pace. For years, I had so much work that I would forget to even go to the bathroom — literally. I was involved in so many projects that I no longer enjoyed either my role as a mother or my passions. Today, relaxation is a business objective, just as serious as the numbers: I exercise five times a week, have a minimum of 30 minutes every day just for myself, and start my mornings with a clear intention. In terms of decision-making, I have changed just as concretely: before, I said yes to almost everything; now I choose my clients carefully — if the stress comes predominantly from them and we cannot establish boundaries, we part ways. And under pressure, the first thing I do is no longer force things, but ask myself: what is my intention in this conversation? That simple question has defused more conflicts than anything I learned in the dozens of training programs I have.

C&B: What do the people who work directly with you say?

Simona: I think they would say two things, and both are true. That I can be both warm and distant, direct at the same time — I do not wrap things in cotton wool, but I do not talk down to people either. One client told me at the first session that he “does not believe in gurus”; we worked until he understood that I was not asking him to do that either — the only master he needs to listen to is the one inside himself. The difficult part: I have an intense pace and high standards, and for the people around me this can be tiring, while I also work with people who are determined to solve their problems and achieve their dreams. The universe does not help you if you do not know what you want and do not take small steps every day. I have received feedback that I want too much at once — and it is fair feedback, it is exactly my old struggle with too many projects in parallel. What I have learned to do is apply my own rule: carry in your backpack only as much as you can carry with pleasure. I do not always manage it. But the difference compared to ten years ago is that now I can see when the backpack is overflowing.

C&B: What truly differentiates you in the way you build?

Simona: Two concrete things. First: I do not teach anything I do not use. The visualization exercises you find in Flow Balance are the ones I used to manage my nausea and dizziness at 4,600 meters on the way to Everest Base Camp. The breathing in the training sessions is what I used to come out of the panic attack on Kilimanjaro. I did not create the app because I live in a perfect state of calm, but because I know how much it matters to have a simple tool at hand when the mind starts running away. Second: I build on repetition, not revelation. The entire industry sells “aha” moments. I have seen hundreds of people in my practice who understand perfectly why they feel the way they do — and remain stuck. That is why the programs in Flow Balance are a minimum of 14 days: not because it is a magic number, but because a new reflex needs repetition, just like at the gym. You do not expect a body to become strong after one workout; why would we expect the mind to change after a single revelation?

C&B: How has the current context (technology, AI, the economy) changed you?

Simona: Radically and practically. The most visible change is Flow Balance itself: I moved part of my practice and training work into technology, because one hour of therapy helps one person, while an audio training session can help thousands, at the same time, at an accessible cost. The second change: I work with AI as a strategy and content partner — from calibrating the brand voice to structuring campaigns around areas of need (sleep, anxiety, focus, exams for children). What I have not delegated and will not delegate: the therapeutic substance. AI helps me take what I know further, not invent what I do not know. And economically, I think about growth differently than I did ten years ago: not through paid advertising, but through communities built around concrete problems, tested as hypotheses — we launch, measure, adjust.

C&B: A habit or routine that has influenced your performance?

Simona: A minimum of 30 minutes a day just with myself — meditation, breathing, visualization or simply silence, every day, for years. I know exactly what happens when I give it up, because I have the experiment from my own experience: the month when I skipped my practice, before Kilimanjaro, ended with a panic attack at 3,800 meters. When the practice is in place, the difference is measurable in the way I work: I sleep well, make decisions without dwelling on them for days, and no longer react immediately to what annoys me. In addition to that, exercise five times a week and the mountains whenever I can — because I discovered that this is where I have my best energy; this passion gets me out of bed at any hour and gives me inspiration for the rest of my working days. Routine is not glamorous. That is exactly why it works.

C&B: What principles guide the decisions you make?

Simona: Three principles. One: everything I do, I do with intention — before any difficult conversation I ask myself what the purpose is, and that question changes the course of the conversation. Two: the body does not negotiate — if a decision keeps my body on alert for days, it is a signal, not a detail. Three: carry in your backpack only as much as you can carry with pleasure — I turn down good projects so that I can handle the essential projects well. The real test of these principles was on the way to Everest Base Camp, on the day when we were supposed to reach Lobuche: at 4,600 meters I became ill, the group lost a day because of me, and the next morning I woke up with a total lack of confidence that I could continue. The right decision was neither “grit your teeth” nor “give up.” It was to respect my own pace: small steps, at the rhythm of my own breathing, mind and body in tandem. I reached Base Camp. I apply the same logic in business: you do not climb a mountain by forcing yourself once; you climb it by taking one more step, at a pace that the body can handle.

C&B: How do you see the evolution of the field in 3–5 years?

Simona: Mental health is moving from intervention toward daily training — just as fitness moved out of the medical office and into everyday life. I see growth in three areas: short and guided digital tools, for people who do not have an hour free but do have seven minutes; emotional regulation for children and adolescents, where the need is huge and the serious offer is thin — from exam anxiety to therapeutic stories; and real organizational wellbeing, because companies are beginning to understand that burnout is a business problem, not an HR problem. The risks: AI will flood the market with generic wellness content, technically correct and empty of substance, while miracle promises — “get rid of anxiety permanently” — will erode trust in the entire field. I see a decline precisely there: in products that sell calm as a permanent state. Balance is not a state, it is a practice — and whoever builds on this truth, not on promises, will remain standing.

C&B: What role do you envision for yourself in this evolution?

Simona: I am building Flow Balance with a committed objective: one million users. Concretely, this means audio training for the mind, body and emotions — sleep, anxiety, focus, confidence, performance, mental preparation for childbirth, exams, therapeutic stories for children — organized into programs of at least 14 days, built modularly so they can be expanded into English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. The impact I am pursuing is simple to formulate and difficult to achieve: for the daily practice of regulation to become as natural as brushing your teeth, for adults and children alike. And my personal role in this is to remain the living source of the content — every new training starts from the practice, from the real needs of the people I work with, not from a brainstorming session about “what would sell.”

C&B: What advice would you give someone who wants to build something relevant today?

Simona: Three recommendations, all paid for with my own mistakes. One: build from what you practice yourself, not from what the market demands — people immediately feel the difference between someone who teaches a tool and someone who lives with it; authenticity sells more slowly, but it does not expire. Two: choose one very clear problem and stay with it much longer than is comfortable for you. I lost years by being involved in too many projects at once — I no longer enjoyed anything and was not really growing anything. One vertical taken all the way beats ten beginnings. Three: put your relaxation into your business plan, not into your vacation. It sounds soft, it is my toughest lesson: you cannot apply any good practice from an EMBA from an exhausted nervous system, and the most expensive bad decisions I made were precisely during periods when I “did not have time” for myself.

C&B: An uncomfortable truth about your field?

Simona: Two, actually. The first: insight does not change anyone. The personal development industry lives from selling revelations — books, conferences, “aha” moments — but in my practice I constantly see people who understand perfectly why they suffer and remain exactly where they are. Personal development books and programs are good only if you apply something from them; otherwise they are wasted time and an additional source of frustration that others can do it and you cannot. Real change is boring: daily repetition, small reflexes, without gimmicks. Nobody wants to hear that because it does not package well. The second uncomfortable truth: we, those in the field, also become dysregulated. I had a panic attack on Kilimanjaro after 20 years of working with people. A therapist who always seems serene either has a serious daily practice or is playing a role. I did not create Flow Balance from a state of permanent calm — I created it because I know, from the inside, how quickly balance is lost when you give up your tools.

Discover Simona Nicolaescu’s perspective on change, balance and the power of daily practices, and learn how Flow Balance aims to make emotional regulation a natural habit for both adults and children.

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