ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Catherine McCarthy
“The existing system was built to help people feel less stressed. What about the other side of that equation? What does it look like when people feel great?”
Catherine trained as a Certified Breathwork and Trauma-Informed Facilitator and took these tools directly to the people who needed them most: CEOs and 6- to 9-figure founders operating at the highest level. She has spent hundreds of hours inside those conversations and the 3am thoughts that keep leaders awake at night.
“I don’t have time to slow down.”
Back-to-back meetings. Decisions that can’t wait. A team watching every signal you send.
The reality is that on a normal business day, slowing down isn't an option. What high performers need is a fast reset. Something that cuts through in minutes and returns them to the state they do their best work from. Motivated. Clear. Excited to be here.
For eight years, Catherine worked with C-suite and senior leaders in some of the world’s most high-pressure industries running a multi million dollar training portfoilio that kept these organisations legally sound and culturally intact.
Then she hit her own wall. Panic attacks. What got her through wasn’t the corporate EAP or medication. It was a methodical investigation into the intelligence of the body itself. Breathwork. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Internal Family Systems. She tested many natural tools, not simply as a patient, but as a researcher of her own brain and nervous system.
BY THE NUMBERS
8+years
with senior to C-suite executives
6-9figure
Founders across industries and continents
<5% EAP
EAP uptake (Australia, US, UK)
THE BUSINESS CASE AND THE BIGGER QUESTION
The defensive argument alone is staggering.
But let’s go one step further.
Instead of focusing on the losses, what if we focused on what’s possible?
What does a company achieve when its leaders aren’t just coping but genuinely lit up by the work?
When decisions come from clarity instead of cortisol?
When the person at the top walks into the room not wired but in their best state?
Burnout costs the U.S. economy $500 billion annually.
EAPs still sit at under 5% uptake not because people don’t need support, but because many of the existing tools focus on feeling less stressed rather than feeling motivated and great.
High performers don’t want to be managed back to baseline. They want to feel electric.
2nd Intelligence was built from that gap with the rigour of somatic science, the depth of lived experience, and thousands of hours listening to the people it was designed for.