I am James Hazlett-Beard, a certified neurocoach. Long before I certified I walked this myself, and it is what I guide changemakers through now. expansion works® is not a mission written in a meeting: it is my life, built on my own breakthroughs and fifteen years alongside changemakers. Let me show you what it looks like in practice, and where it sits alongside therapy and coaching.
Let me elaborate on that a little.
You are on this page looking for an answer. You have probably tried a lot already and none of it has moved. You are wondering what I could offer that somebody else cannot.
So let us drop the word coach for a minute. I was once where you are. I believed I was not enough, and no amount of achieving ever moved it. Eventually I burnt out. What I found after years of looking is what set me free.
What you think is permanent, or just how you are, is not. Emotions, and the way you see the world, were formed over many years, and they can change. What was once “I am not good enough” transforms into “I am good enough”, and it is much more simple than you think.
And these transformations land in our sessions together. I am not talking about affirmations, or about coping better with it. I am talking about a real shift. What once held you back transforms in front of your very eyes. Not months later. There and then. And what shifts, stays.
That spark for change you can feel is what makes you a changemaker, and it is what makes you different.
All you need to bring is curiosity. Nobody can hear you and nobody can see you in a recorded session, and you do not have to share anything for this to work. One to one is where people speak and are seen. I came across this by accident. Let me show you how.
No endless storytelling. Just one focus.
- “I am not good enough.”“I am good enough.”
- “It is not safe to be seen.”“It is safe to be seen.”
- “I am too much.”“I am not too much.”
We clear that belief there and then. It works the same way on a pattern, an event, or whatever else pulls you back. Nothing is removed or suggested. We help your mind find and show those parts of you that held it, gently set it down, and give it a self-empowering belief in its place. No more fighting yourself. Just the ability to finally move forward.
Not hypnotherapy. Nothing is suggested to you and you are not put under: you stay awake and aware throughout. How many sessions people need, and what they experience, varies. Recorded sessions run online, in your own time. One to one is face to face, online.
Three jobs. This is the one we do.
Plenty of people do more than one of them. Here is the honest version, with nothing said against anybody.
Therapy
Helps you understand what happened, process it, and look after your mental health. For many people it is exactly the right place to start, and for a serious condition it is who you want.
Coaching
Works with goals, direction and accountability, in the thinking layer. Genuinely useful there. The limit is that you can understand a pattern completely and still walk straight into it.
Neurocoaching
What we do is different. We help you identify where you hold resistance in your life, and the belief or pattern keeping it there. Rather than pushing you through it, we help you clear it, so the direction you set actually sticks. Most people feel the shift in the room.
Three things, in every session.
It is the same in a recorded session and one to one. You bring the focus, and your mind does the finding.
Identify
We help you identify what is holding you back, even if you do not have the words for it. You do not need to know why it is there. It could be a belief, a trigger, the imposter feeling. We notice, and I guide you every step.
Clear
You close your eyes and we bring focus. Your mind goes to everything connected to it, and clears what is holding you back, at the source. You never have to say it out loud, and you go only as far as you want to go.
Move forward
What was heavy stops being heavy, and the way ahead gets easier to see. We set the goal or the next step from there, and you move on it lighter, and by choice.
“I've always been open to trying new types of personal development, but never anything like this. The biggest difference was how easy the session felt. I didn't leave with tons of homework to do and think about, which is a perk if you're a busy person.”
Mickey Jones · Award-winning creative Read her interview
I did this work on myself first.
I am James, and I am a certified neurocoach. There are a lot of approaches out there, and a lot of people telling you they have the answer. What is different here is that I did it. I spent a lifetime trying to set down what I was carrying, and I found the work that finally reached it. That is why expansion works exists. It is also why this is not about following a path that somebody else set out for you: it is built around your own experience, and what you want from your life. The door you are standing at, I have walked through myself.
Who this is for, and who it is not.
This is the space where we find what is holding you back, so you can take inspired action and plan forward from there. That makes it right for some people, and not the right room for others.
This is for you if
- You are ready to move forward.
- You are ready to let it go.
- You come with an open mind and some curiosity.
- You are ready to do the work.
- You want to take action and start creating the change, not just understand it.
This is probably not the space if
- You are looking to be fixed.Nothing here needs fixing. We work with what is already yours.
- You are looking to be saved.You hold the power. My part is guiding you to it.
- You want to talk it through in detail.Here we find what is holding you and clear it, rather than retell it.
If the second list is closer to where you are right now, that is worth knowing, and there is no rush.
What actually qualifies me.
A fair question, and one you should ask anybody you let near this. Three answers, and the first one matters most.
I was the client first
A mentor introduced me to this and showed me what I had missed: to change my outer world, I had to change my inner one. I had tried therapy, coaching, NLP, hypnosis, IFS and breathwork. This moved the most.
The training
Certified neurocoach. In a session I draw on eye movements, breath, visualisation and energy. The training matters. Having done the work myself matters more.
A proven guide
Fifteen years developing world-leading talent, and my own business built with Prada, Google and Maison Margiela. The mission never changed: to empower. It is how expansion works® was born, and now I am here to do this with you.
We meet you wherever you are.
Maybe it was the therapy, the coaching, the books, the courses, the journalling. Maybe it was none of those, and it was simply life: the years of holding it together, the starting again, the trying that nobody saw, the failures that taught you more than the wins. All of it counts. None of it was wasted.
And if you have tried things before, you already know: understanding a pattern, or carrying it well, is not the same as being free of it. You can see it coming, know exactly where it started, and still walk straight into it. Some days the managing feels heavier than the thing itself.
That is not a failure of effort. It is simply a deeper layer, and that is where we go. This hour together builds on everything you have already done, whatever age or stage you arrive at, and it helps you leave lighter.
You are further along than you think.
“Helped me see it clearly. His humour and uncanny intuition made easy work of unravelling a complex family pattern.”
Rehana S · Psychotherapist
Experiences shared here are individual. Results vary from person to person.
The questions people ask.
What is a neurocoach?
A neurocoach is a coach trained to work with the brain's natural ability to change, so that old patterns can be released rather than just managed. The word is the plainest description of the work: coaching, and the brain's own ability to change, together. Put plainly, in James’s own words: “I help people identify areas in their life that hold tension. I help them gently clear that, and guide them so they can move forward.” Neurocoaching sits between coaching and the brain sciences: coaching gives you direction, and neuroscience-informed methods help clear what has been blocking it. It is not therapy, and it is not mindset talk. The work is done with your mind, gently, and the change is felt rather than figured out.
Is a neurocoach a therapist?
No. Therapy helps you understand a pattern, process what happened, and support your mental health, and for many people it is exactly the right place to start. Neurocoaching picks up a different job: helping your mind release a pattern you may already understand perfectly well. Plenty of people do both. Neurocoaching is not therapy, crisis support, or mental health treatment, and if you are in crisis or managing a serious condition, your GP or a qualified mental health professional comes first.
What happens in a neurocoaching session?
You bring one thing: a belief, a trigger, the imposter feeling, a tension you can point to in your body. You do not need to know why it is there. You close your eyes, I bring focus, and your own mind goes to where the pattern is held. It knows what to do because it was there. You never have to say it out loud, nothing is forced, and only what you are ready for moves. Most people leave feeling lighter.
What is neurocoaching based on?
Two well-studied properties of the brain. Neuroplasticity: your brain reshapes itself with experience across your whole life (Draganski et al., Nature, 2004). And memory reconsolidation: when a memory is brought to mind, it briefly becomes changeable again, and the feeling attached to it can settle without the story being told out loud (Nader, Schafe and LeDoux, Nature, 2000). A neurocoach guides your attention so that this natural machinery works on the pattern you chose.
How is neurocoaching different from life coaching?
Life coaching works with goals, accountability and the thinking layer, and it is genuinely useful there. The limit is that you can understand a pattern completely and still walk straight into it, because the block is not held in the thinking layer. Neurocoaching works a layer deeper: instead of pushing you through the resistance, it helps the resistance let go, so the direction you set actually sticks.
What is James certified in?
I trained and certified as a neurocoach, and that training is underneath every session. Neurocoaching is the plainest word for what that work is: coaching, and the brain's own ability to change, together. The rest of what I bring is lived: the patterns I cleared myself, and the businesses and careers I built along the way.
If you have read this far, this next part is for you.
If you feel resistance reading this, I had it too when I first came across this work. It is the same feeling that has stopped you before, here and elsewhere, and it is exactly what we clear.
Then comes the one underneath it. What if I do this and I still fail. What will I even be without it. Almost everybody has that one, and almost nobody says it out loud. It is not a verdict on the work. It is the next piece, and it clears the same way.
There is more to this, if you want it
You are doing it right now, in fact. Reading this and deciding what it is, using reference points you gathered long before you arrived. That is not a flaw. It is how we survive, and how we move quickly. But reference points can be updated. Not argued with. Updated.
I am not going to tell you that a lifetime clears in one session. It does not, because there is a lifetime’s worth there. What people report is leaving lighter than they arrived, and what they came in carrying feeling softer. Sometimes, after the session, it is not there at all.
What people say they were really looking for has a name. Self-trust. Being able to decide, and then act, without a committee in your head.
James
Magic money is not real.
Scarcity. Unworthiness. Fear of success. Those are real, and every one of them can be cleared, should you want to. What clearing them does not do is drop anything in your lap.
When you are looking through scarcity, you do not see the opportunities. When you have self-worth and trust, you see them, and you take them. And if anybody tells you they can make money appear in your life, run.
Here is what I can promise. Together we will find what holds the resistance in your life, whether that is a belief, a pattern, an event, or something you cannot name yet. And we will set it down, so you can take inspired action and finally move forward.