LEADING LADY

The work that reaches
where insight cannot.

For high-performing women who understand their patterns — and are ready to change them at the level where they were formed.

"You're supposed to be the Leading Lady of your own life, for Christ's sake."

KATE WINSLET — THE HOLIDAY


She knows exactly what to do.
And still doesn't do it.

You are competent. Capable. Respected. You've done the work — therapy, books, journaling, the courses. You over-analyze your every move, steadily striving to be somebody else - who? You're not quite sure. The best version of yourself, regulated, healed. That person that is worthy, who belongs, who has arrived.

Yet your body still flinches and braces the same way. You are handling your patterns - but are you changing them?

This is not a failure of insight. This is insight working at the wrong level. The pattern doesn't live in your thinking. It lives in the place that formed before you had words for it.

YOU FEEL THIS

Externally capable.

Internally exhausted from carrying too much.

YOU KNOW THIS

You are the one people can lean on

You have learned not to lean back.

YOU'VE TRIED THIS

Understanding it. Reframing it. Willpowering past it.

And it comes back.

YOU WANT THIS

Not just to understand the pattern.

To outgrow it — permanently.

THE WORK

Not the mind.

The place below where insight reaches.

Most approaches work at the level of understanding — and understanding is real, but it isn't enough on its own. The patterns that keep you stuck were not formed through thinking. They were formed through experience, through the body, through a younger version of you who learned something as fact before she had the language to question it.

Leading Lady works at the level where the pattern actually lives.

01

THE BODY FIRST

The body is always the entry point. Sensation is information. Before we reach for understanding, we slow down enough to receive what the body is already saying.

02

CHILDHOOD HEROES

The parts of you that hold you back are not saboteurs. They are childhood heroes — loyal, exhausted, still doing a job from thirty years ago because nobody told them the war was over. We meet them, thank them, and give them a new story to live in.

03

GOING BACK TO WHERE IT STARTED

Every adult pattern has a younger origin. We go back to find the version of you who first learned this as fact — and we change what happened to her. Not through insight. Through the body. Through the place where the memory actually lives.

04

REWRITING THE OLDER STORY

When the younger part of you has been found and helped, the older story underneath can finally be released and replaced — not because you decided to think differently, but because the foundation it was built on has changed.

So that you don't have to second-guess every decision you make or outsource them to somebody else. So that you don't feel like you have to prove your worth constantly. SO that you know what you want and are not afraid to ask for it. That belonging, that acceptance, that love that you are seeking out there in other people who keep disappointing you - you can find it in yourself!

Maike Bäcklin, trauma-informed coach and founder of Leading Lady, Althea Anima

You shift from understanding your patterns to outgrowing them permanently.

Trauma-informed coach · Sustainability engineer · Equestrian · Mother

MEET MAIKE

I have walked
this exact path.

I spent years building systems for public institutions — reliable, capable, respected. Long before that, a pony taught me what it feels like when a nervous system is actually safe. I didn't have that language then. I just knew that beside him, something in me could rest.

I survived a difficult childhood through intelligence and achievement. I became a civil engineer, built a career, married well, saved carefully. From the outside, everything worked. On the inside, I was still performing for my life.

Becoming a mother brought everything unresolved to the surface. Titles and capability do not override the nervous system. So I did the work — not to become more impressive, but to give my children the chance of something else. I trained in trauma-informed subconscious methods. I invested deeply in my own healing. I stopped optimising survival strategies and began releasing them.

Today I live by a river in Sweden with my palomino dressage horse and the life I once thought I had to earn. I coach a small number of women whom I believe would benefit deeply from what I have learned. Most come through referrals. If you found your way here, that may be enough.

You do not need to wander for a decade. I did that for you.

What shifts when the pattern no longer runs you.

You shift from understanding your patterns to outgrowing them permanently.

You set boundaries that are firm, calm, and do not require an explanation.

You know what is yours to carry — and what is not — and you act accordingly.

You stop hiding parts of yourself in order to stay acceptable.

You trust yourself without searching for external confirmation.

You feel more love in your relationships without abandoning yourself to get it.

You let go of memories that have quietly haunted you.

You begin to live as the Leading Lady of your own life.

FROM THE WORK

What women say after.

JANA

“For the first time in my life, I stopped twisting myself to be loved and began to feel whole in my own skin.”

I had practiced yoga, mindfulness, and self-healing for years. I knew on some level that I was enough. But I couldn't hold it when life tested me. Working with Maike, we uncovered the deeper story from childhood that had been running my life. And together, we were able to release it. The anxiety lifted. The relationships changed. Even when a recent ending happened, I could feel the sadness without collapsing into it.

MONIKA INNES

“Maike’s calm presence made it safe to look at the places in me I had avoided for years.”

What stood out most was her intuition — she had a remarkable ability to sense what I needed, even when I struggled to express it myself. She helped me gain more understanding of my feelings towards my parents and finally move forward with peace. Her professional yet warm approach allowed me to explore difficult emotions without feeling overwhelmed.

ANNETTE HOERMAN

“With Maike I could finally meet my deepest emotions without running away — and discover the strong, tender woman underneath.”

The sessions made me understand how valuable it is to let myself have those experiences. She makes me feel this pain instead of escaping into my mind and abandoning myself. She helps me uncover my true, vulnerable and strong self — the one that had been forgotten. These moments are magical, and they resonate long after the session.

SARA TAUBERMAN

"Session by session, the heavy truths I'd carried for years began to loosen. I found my inner safe place again."

Maike helped me face the mental barriers that have held me back for years. She guided me through past experiences that had become fixed truths with a very gentle hand. She supports when it is hard, listens, and clearly explains what is happening. Thanks to Maike I have found my inner safe place and been able to let go of old things that haunted me for a long time.

THE HESITATION

The part of you
that isn't sure.

That hesitation is not a problem to overcome. It is one of your childhood heroes doing her job — protecting you from another disappointment, another thing that promised change and didn't deliver it.

Give her a voice. Let her speak. And then, underneath the hesitation, notice whether there is a quieter knowing.

"In the movies, we have the Leading Ladies, and we have the best friends. You, I can tell, are a Leading Lady. But for some reason, you're acting like the best friend."

ARTHUR ABBOTT — THE HOLIDAY

You do not need certainty. You need willingness.

If something in you recognises this work — that recognition is enough to begin.

the container

Six months.

Deep, permanent change.

LEADING LADY PROGRAM DETAILS

  • 10 private sessions — 90 minutes each, booked at your convenience over 6 month

  • Ongoing voice message support between sessions

  • Clear Your Beliefs audio journey by Lion Goodman included

  • Work that reaches the level where the pattern was formed — not just the mind

  • All sessions held with the highest integrity and confidentiality

$3,700 USD

Payable in full or in three instalments

This is coaching, not psychotherapy. If you are currently in acute crisis or require clinical trauma treatment, please seek licensed therapeutic support.

Ready to lead

your own life?

Apply below and Maike will reach out. If you feel this is something you want for your life — that feeling is enough to begin.

Not quite ready yet?

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