Most people do not fail at change because they lack insight, motivation, or discipline.

They fail because they have been taught to work with only part of their biology.

For decades, personal development, leadership, and behavioural change have been treated as a mindset problem. Think differently. Try harder. Build better habits. Stay disciplined. Yet intelligent, capable people still find themselves repeating the same patterns, even when they know better.

This book starts from a different premise.

Human behaviour is rarely driven by the whole system.
Most people operate from one dominant brain.

Some are led primarily by the Head, analysing, planning, explaining, and trying to think their way into change.
Others are guided mainly by the Heart, driven by connection, care, loyalty, and emotional safety, often at the cost of boundaries or exhaustion.
Others again are governed by the Gut: instinctive, decisive, action-oriented, built to survive and win today, sometimes leaving relational or strategic damage in their wake.

Each of these modes can be effective. Each can also become limiting.

Problems arise not because one brain is wrong, but because one brain is running the show alone, while the others are sidelined or silenced.

In Reclaim Your Brains, Christoffel Sneijders challenges the widespread assumption that change is a mindset problem, a discipline problem, or a habit problem. Drawing on neuroscience, biology, somatic psychology, and more than thirty years of clinical, coaching, and leadership experience, he shows why people remain stuck even when they are intelligent, motivated, emotionally aware, or highly embodied.

This book explains why head-driven strategies fail for people whose decisions are actually made in the gut. Why heart-driven individuals burn out despite deep self-awareness. And why instinct-led achievers often succeed externally while struggling internally or relationally.

Rather than promoting a single “right” way of functioning, the book introduces a clear, practical framework for understanding how the Head, Heart, and Gut each influence decision-making, behaviour, and change. You will learn how early life experiences shape subconscious survival strategies, why these strategies once made sense, and why they quietly sabotage change later in life.

Central to the book is the concept of Inner Protectors: intelligent, biological responses rooted in one dominant brain. These protectors are not flaws to eliminate or wounds to fix. They are adaptive patterns that need recognition, integration, and alignment. When left unchecked, they lead to overthinking, people-pleasing, control, avoidance, burnout, or emotional disconnection. When brought into coherence, they restore clarity, resilience, and genuine choice.

This is not a purely motivational book, nor a purely somatic one. It does not argue for more thinking, more feeling, or more action. It shows why any single-brain solution eventually fails, and how sustainable change emerges only when all three brains are brought back into dialogue.

This book is written for people who have already invested in their development and still sense that something essential is missing. Leaders, coaches, therapists, and reflective individuals who recognise themselves in success without ease, insight without change, or care without boundaries will find language and structure for what they have felt but could not fully explain.

Change is not about choosing the right brain.
It is about restoring balance between them.

When the Head, Heart, and Gut are aligned, change stops being forced. It becomes biologically coherent and therefore sustainable.