Organizations face growing pressure to balance employee well-being and performance in today's fast-paced business environment. Disengagement, stress, and burnout quietly reduce productivity, while conventional wellness initiatives often only address the surface, offering short-term relief instead of lasting change. More leaders now realize that lasting change requires addressing the underlying mental and emotional factors that shape behavior, not just relying on inspirational speeches and token projects.

This is where Spark brings a new perspective. Founded by business psychologist psychotherapist and Rapid Transformational Hypnotherapist Claudia Schwinghammer, the company blends psychology, neuroscience, and transformational coaching into methods that deliver rapid and lasting change. With services from lively workshops and keynotes to Premium 1:1 Coaching, Spark helps teams and leaders become their best selves. Originating from Austria now expanding to the DACH region and planned to go global, Spark shows that real change starts from the bottom.

In an Exclusive Interview with Business Fortune, Claudia Schwinghammer, Founder, shared how the company was founded during the COVID-19 pandemic to address mental health and performance challenges. By combining psychology, neuroscience, and transformational coaching, Spark delivers rapid, lasting results. Below is an excerpt from the interview.

Interview Highlights

Claudia, Spark started out as your personal idea before becoming the globally operating company it is now. Could you go all the way back to the beginning and tell us what inspired you to start Spark and the point at which you realized you had to make it a reality?

The seed for Spark was planted during the turbulent years of the COVID-19 pandemic. I had been working closely with leaders and teams for many years and saw firsthand how mental health challenges, stress, and disengagement were silently eroding performance and innovation in organizations worldwide. At the same time, I experienced how traditional approaches to corporate wellbeing often remained superficial — offering fixes on the surface without addressing the deeper mental and emotional patterns that truly drive behaviour.

As a psychotherapist and certified Rapid Transformational Hypnotherapist, I knew that lasting change happens when we work directly with the unconscious mind — the 95% of our mental processes that determine how we think, feel, and act. The pandemic made it crystal clear: organizations needed a new way to approach performance, health, and transformation.

Spark was born from this conviction — to combine cutting-edge psychology, neuroscience, and transformational coaching into powerful, evidence-based methods that deliver rapid and lasting results. The turning point came when early clients in the DACH region and across Europe began reporting breakthrough changes in weeks, not months or years. That was when I knew Spark was no longer just my personal vision — it was becoming an international force. While our current focus remains on the DACH and European markets, plans are already in motion to expand into the Middle East and the US in the coming years.

What were some of the most significant obstacles you encountered in the early stages of bringing that vision to life, and how did those encounters influence the company's principles and methodology?

In Spark's early days, the main challenge was overcoming organizations' reluctance to change. Many companies relied on familiar approaches—standard wellbeing programs and one-off workshops—even when these failed to deliver lasting results. Leadership often chose comfort in the familiar over embracing more profound and unconventional solutions.

Real transformation requires going deeper than surface-level solutions by addressing the mental and emotional patterns behind behavior. I had to both educate decision-makers on our science-based approach and demonstrate clear, rapid results that conventional programs couldn’t achieve.

Personally, some of the strongest resistance came from loved ones advising me to return to the corporate world for stability. Their protective instincts made it harder to stay true to my belief that Spark could create real change, making perseverance in my vision the toughest challenge.

Another key hurdle was ensuring that our deeply personalized, high-impact methods could be delivered at scale without losing their effectiveness. That meant building a network of highly trained coaches and trainers, all certified to the same rigorous standards, so that every Spark engagement — from an intimate 1:1 session to a multinational leadership program — could produce the same depth of transformation.

These early experiences shaped our guiding principles: question the status quo, insist on methods that create measurable change, and never settle for solutions that merely “tick the box” without impacting the heart of the problem. This is the foundation on which Spark’s methodology — a fusion of psychology, neuroscience, and transformational coaching — continues to deliver both rapid and sustainable results.

Spark offers 1:1 Premium Coaching, team workshops, and keynotes focusing on performance, health, and “Best Version” transformation. How do you decide which service is the best fit for a client’s needs?

The choice of format depends very much on the target group, the intensity required, and, frankly, the bravery of the client to go deeper. We always begin with a conversation to understand the organizations or individual’s goals, current challenges, and desired outcomes — but we also pay attention to how ready they are for more profound work.

Many companies start with a workshop or keynote. These formats are accessible entry points: they introduce Spark’s philosophy, give teams a first taste of our methods, and allow them to experience tangible shifts without committing to a high-intensity program right away. When clients see the impact, they often become “brave enough” to explore our deeper interventions.

Premium Coaching is our most intensive offering — a fully personalized 1:1 approach designed for leaders and professionals who want rapid, lasting transformation. Due to its tailored and resource-intensive nature, budget considerations are especially important for larger organizations evaluating the scope of implementation.

Over time, many clients move from an initial keynote or workshop into targeted coaching programs. This progression ensures they build trust in the process, understand its value, and are ready to commit to the depth of work required to create their “Best Version” — individually and collectively.

Can you give an example of a situation where Spark’s method produced exceptionally rapid or long‑lasting transformation, despite a deeply ingrained personal or professional limitation?

One striking example involves a senior executive who had struggled with severe public speaking anxiety for over two decades. This fear had limited their career opportunities and caused them to avoid high-stakes presentations entirely. Using Spark’s method, we worked on both the conscious fears and the deep-rooted subconscious triggers behind them. Within just three sessions, the client delivered a keynote to 500 people with confidence. More than a year later, the anxiety has not returned, and they have since spoken at several international conferences—something they once believed to be impossible. 94% of our clients award us a 5-star rating. We maintain high-quality standards and are constantly striving to grow and improve. Through the Spark Portal, we ensure consistent quality and full transparency at every stage.

You provide seminars on neurodiversity, positive psychology, sales training, mindfulness, and psychological safety. How can they be adapted to other industries or organizational cultures?

Our seminars are built on a modular framework, which allows us to adapt both the content and delivery to the specific needs of different industries and organizational cultures. We start by conducting a thorough needs analysis with key stakeholders to understand their challenges, goals, and cultural context. From there, we customize case studies, language, and interactive exercises to make the material directly relevant. For example, neurodiversity training in the tech sector might focus on inclusive hiring and workflow design, while in education, it could emphasize classroom strategies. Sales training for retail can center on customer interaction, whereas in B2B it highlights relationship-building and negotiation skills. This flexibility ensures that participants not only understand the concepts but can apply them immediately in their own environment.

Spark is said to be rapidly growing and internationally active. Which global markets or sectors will you focus on next, and why?

Our current focus is on sustainable growth in the DACH region and Scandinavia, where demand for psychological safety, neurodiversity, and positive psychology programs is steadily increasing. We also see strong potential in expanding within the tech and healthcare sectors, as these industries face high levels of change, innovation pressure, and burnout—making our solutions particularly relevant and impactful.

Are there any new services or offerings in the pipeline, such as digital coaching platforms, tech-based mental health tools, or tailored programs for specific industries?

Yes, we recently relaunched our Spark Portal together with our trusted European IT partner. This platform helps us keep our quality standards high, stay transparent, and give clients easy access to resources, progress updates, and communication tools. While AI offers many possibilities, our 1:1 Premium Coaching is very personal, so we want to make sure we keep that human connection. We are looking for ways to use technology where it truly benefits our clients. We are also creating programs tailored to specific industries like healthcare, finance, and education, so we can address their unique challenges while still delivering strong results.

Our 1:1 Premium Coaching program is built on an internationally recognized, award-winning methodology designed to create deep, lasting, and meaningful change in a short period of time. From breaking free of limiting beliefs and self-doubt to addressing sleeplessness, stress, fear of flying, public speaking anxiety, or smoking habits, we focus on the root cause to inspire true transformation. The program helps individuals enhance their confidence, performance, well-being, and personal growth in a sustainable way.

To learn more about us and our Premium Coaching, visit spark.co.at

Claudia Schwinghammer, Founder | In Her Own Words

For over 25 years, I have worked successfully in business, including 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Today, I support business professionals in both corporate and private settings with targeted mental health services. I am an international business coach, psychotherapist, systemic behavioral trainer, and Rapid Transformational Certified Hypnotherapist. Additionally, I founded Spark, an online platform dedicated to integrating mental health into the corporate environment. Spark is recognized as one of the Top 10 Psychological Services in Europe.

“While AI brings great opportunities in general, our 1:1 Premium Coaching is a highly individual approach, which makes it challenging to fully embrace AI without compromising the personal connection.”