Ugis Strauss
Founder of The Off-Switch Method
I came to this method because I kept seeing the same gap: people could understand their reactions very well, and still be carried by the same reaction in the moment.
Knowing what you ought to do and being able to do it under pressure are different things. I had seen that in management simulations, in teams, and in private work with people who knew themselves well — but still found themselves back in the same reaction.
The Off-Switch Method grew out of that problem: how to change the reaction, not just become better at explaining it.
Ugis Strauss
Founder of The Off-Switch Method
Why the method is structured as it is
Sequence
We reduce emotional load before approaching deeper material. Being willing to work on something is not the same as being ready for it.
Measurement
We look at what happens when you meet the memory, trigger or situation again. Feeling better in the meeting is not the only test.
Endpoint
The aim is for the original reaction to stop driving you in the same way, without needing ongoing help to keep it that way. The private programme includes 12 sessions. If more work is needed afterwards, you continue independently or under a separate arrangement.
How training, coaching and work under pressure led to the Off-Switch Method
Before The Off-Switch Method, a substantial part of my professional life was built around corporate training, business games, and simulations.
I put leaders and teams into situations where they had to decide, negotiate and act with incomplete information. There were competing interests, responsibility, and a clock that did not stop while they worked out the ideal answer.
In a well-designed business game, you can see what a person actually does under pressure: takes responsibility, avoids a decision, rescues someone else, enters a conflict, or retreats from one.
That experience still informs my work. An explanation can sound convincing in a quiet room. What matters is whether something changes when the person meets the situation again.
My private work began in coaching more than 15 years ago. Alongside it, I built training organizations, developed simulations and trained other trainers. The Method brought those strands together: a process someone can learn, use, and eventually continue without me.
I wanted a way to work on the moment when the reaction takes over — not another explanation to remember after it has happened. Insight is real and useful; on its own, it does not always change the pattern that fires under pressure.
The method became a structured process with defined phases and clear completion criteria: reduce accumulated emotional load first, then address deeper material without destabilizing the person. We track what changes and work towards an endpoint, rather than ongoing support.
It is not an open-ended support model. Not a substitute for medical, psychiatric, emergency, or crisis care.
Experience in brief
Nearly three decades of work with people, teams and organizations under pressure, with training and simulation programs delivered across 15+ countries.
28+ years
Working with behavior under pressure
15+ years
Private 1:1 work
Hundreds
Private 1:1 clients
120+
Trainers certified
20+
Proprietary simulations built
That sustained practice across individual and group settings shaped what became the Off-Switch Method.
Management training
For more than 20 years, I have built and led simulation-based management programs, training organizations, trainer networks and repeatable delivery systems across 15+ countries. My active portfolio includes more than 20 proprietary simulations that make decisions, conflict, avoidance and responsibility visible through what people do.
I designed a one-year internal trainer certification program, from curriculum to delivery. More than 120 management trainers have been certified for institutional and corporate clients, so a structured method can be taught and delivered by more than one person.
Programs have covered leadership under pressure, negotiation, governance, transformation, delegation, crisis decisions, trust and cross-cultural collaboration.
Teaching entrepreneurship
I have lectured and designed programs at BA School of Business and Finance since 2008, including entrepreneurship and business simulations for EU students through Riga Business Week / Erasmus.
Private 1:1 work
From coaching, my work developed into structured private 1:1 work with hundreds of clients dealing with anxiety, pressure, emotional triggers, burnout and recurring reaction patterns.
Earlier simulation, training, and organizational design work — not Off-Switch Method delivery — across corporate, institutional, and educational contexts.
Earlier training and simulation work: organisations and institutions
Consumer & retail
IKEA, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Rimi, Stockmann, JYSK
Pharmaceutical & life sciences
Abbott Laboratories, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Ingelheim
Banking & finance
SEB Bank, Swedbank, Nordea Bank, Home Credit Bank
Technology, telecom, industry
Hewlett Packard, Siemens, Tele2, TeliaSonera, ABB, Harsco
Institutional & public sector
British Council, EU PHARE, Latvian Ministry of Education
Education & academic
Stockholm School of Economics, BA School of Business and Finance, Bizness24h, Riga Business Week / Erasmus entrepreneurship simulations
These references describe my earlier simulation, training, and organizational design work. They do not represent Off-Switch Method clients, endorsements, evaluations, or outcomes.
Ukraine 2022
The Ukraine application did not create the method. It stress-tested it at scale.
In 2022, following Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine, the method was applied as a free online program for Ukrainians experiencing active war trauma. It ran for six months, across six cohort groups, with approximately 7,000 participants — around 80% of them inside Ukraine during active hostilities.
Twenty Ukrainian therapists, psychologists, and medical doctors participated in the program, requested training in the method, and joined the delivery team.
Measured completed cohorts showed substantial symptom reduction, with the full evidence and limitations documented separately.
Read the documented Ukraine field application →Where this work now applies
Today, the method is applied in focused private 1:1 work, institutional contexts, and professional referral or collaboration settings.
Private 1:1 work
For individuals dealing with recurring anxiety, trauma-driven reactions, panic, emotional triggers, burnout, overload, and persistent reaction patterns.
Institutional application
For organizations supporting teams under pressure, crisis exposure, burnout risk, or accumulated emotional load.
Professional referral and collaboration
For practitioners, clinicians, and institutional partners with a serious interest in referral, training, or structured application.
Start with a conversation
Private 1:1 work begins with a 45-minute conversation: a clear look at your situation, what has already been tried, whether the method fits, and what the next step would involve.