Terms and conditions

Last updated: 4 September 2026 (version 6)

These terms apply when you use The Mental Gym. By creating an account you agree to them.

1. Who you are dealing with

The Mental Gym is operated by Cogninova (Chamber of Commerce / KvK 42071261, VAT ID NL005429495B17), trading as The Mental Gym - by Cogninova. You can reach us at enrico@cogninova.nl.

2. What this is — and what it is not

The Mental Gym offers mental training and coaching: e-learning, live group sessions, community, and private coaching sessions with psychologists.

It is not emergency care, crisis care, or a substitute for treatment by your GP or a mental health service. We do not diagnose, we do not prescribe, and we cannot monitor you between sessions.

If you are in immediate danger, call 112. In the Netherlands you can also call 113 Zelfmoordpreventie free on 0800-0113, day or night. Do not wait for a reply from anyone on this platform.

If something you tell us suggests you need care we cannot give, we will say so and help you find it.

[NEEDS LEGAL REVIEW] — whether this disclaimer is sufficient, and where the boundary between coaching and regulated healthcare sits for this service.

3. Your account

• An account is for one person. Do not share your login.
• The details you give us must be accurate — we use them to run your subscription and to reach you.
• You must be 18 or older to use The Mental Gym. [NEEDS LEGAL REVIEW] — this is our intended minimum age; the requirement and how it is checked need confirming.
• Tell us at enrico@cogninova.nl if you think someone else has access to your account.

4. Packages

What each package includes is listed on the pricing page, and that page is the current version. In outline:

• Free — the e-learning and webinars.
• Community — adds the monthly group call, the community feed and groups, and weekly challenges.
• The Mental Gym — adds unlimited live training, an accountability group, a personal action plan and the free extras.
• Personal Training — everything in the Mental Gym, plus nineteen private sessions booked as they are needed, monthly check-in calls, and six months of aftercare once the nineteen are used.

We may change what a package contains. If a change makes a package materially worse, we will tell you before it takes effect and you can cancel.

5. Paying

• Prices are shown on the pricing page and include VAT where it applies.
• The Mental Gym is billed monthly, or quarterly in advance. Personal Training is a single payment for the programme.
• Payment is handled by Stripe. Your card details go to Stripe and never reach us.
• If a payment fails we may pause access until it succeeds.

6. Cancelling, and getting money back

• Subscriptions — you can cancel at any time from your billing page. Cancelling stops the next payment; access continues until the end of the period you have already paid for.
• Within 14 days — a purchase cancelled within fourteen days is refunded, minus the value of any private coaching sessions already used. A session is deducted at what a session costs, not at a share of the package price. A no-show — a session you did not attend and did not cancel — counts as used, because the coach held the time. Your session list marks these "Did not attend", and those are the ones deducted here.
• Session tokens — unused tokens can be returned. Tokens already spent cannot.
• After 14 days — your subscription stops at the end of the period you have paid for.

[NEEDS LEGAL REVIEW] — the statutory right of withdrawal under Dutch and EU consumer law, and how it applies to a service you can start using the same day you buy it. This section describes what the platform currently does; it is not advice about your rights, which may be greater.

7. The money-back guarantee

For The Mental Gym and Personal Training we offer a money-back guarantee. As described on our site, it applies when you have kept to the agreements made in your personal action plan and have not reached the minimum results, and it applies only with full advance payment of the quarterly subscription. What comes back is the amount paid, excluding the value of any free extras you used.

[NEEDS LEGAL REVIEW] — this is the single most exposed promise on the site. Who judges whether the agreements were kept, what "minimum results" means, the time limit, and how the whole thing sits with Dutch consumer law all need setting out precisely by somebody qualified. Until then, treat the wording above as a description of intent.

8. Live sessions and private coaching

• Live sessions run to the schedule published on the platform. We may move or cancel a session; if we cancel, it does not count against any allowance.
• Private coaching is capped at two completed sessions per calendar month (Amsterdam time), and each session needs a session token or an included session.
• You can cancel a private session at any time and the token comes straight back. There is no notice period.
• If you do not attend and did not cancel, the session counts as used.
• We do not record private coaching sessions.

9. The community

• Be decent. No harassment, no hate, no threats, no medical advice presented as fact, and nothing that identifies another member without their agreement.
• Community posts are automatically deleted fourteen days after they are published, unless a member of staff keeps one deliberately. This is by design — it is a conversation, not an archive.
• Posts can be hidden by staff, and are hidden automatically once three different people report them.
• Reporting is confidential: the person you report is never shown who reported them.
• There are no private messages between members.

10. Free extras

Clients on qualifying packages get a quarterly budget towards extras such as gym access or books. Extras are requested on the platform, may require approval and a receipt, and are reimbursed as credit against your next invoice — or as a refund if there is no next invoice. The budget resets each quarter and does not carry over.

11. Points and ranks

Points and ranks are a way of recognising effort. They have no monetary value, cannot be exchanged for anything, and can be adjusted or removed — for example when a post is hidden. Changing what an action is worth affects future points only; changing a rank threshold takes effect immediately for everyone.

12. Content

• Ours — course material, videos, worksheets and text on the platform belong to us. You may use them for your own training. You may not copy, share, sell or publish them.
• Yours — what you write and upload stays yours. You give us permission to store it and show it to the people it is meant for: your coach, or the group you posted it in.
• We may remove content that breaks these terms.

13. Suspension

We can suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, that puts other members at risk, or that is being used fraudulently. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will tell you why first.

14. Availability

We work to keep the platform running, but we do not promise it will never be unavailable. Maintenance, updates and faults happen.

15. Liability

[NEEDS LEGAL REVIEW] — deliberately left for a lawyer. We are not willing to copy a limitation-of-liability clause out of a template, because a clause that turns out to be unenforceable is worse than knowing you do not have one.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. When we do, we publish a new version and ask you to accept it the next time you sign in. The version you accepted, and when, is recorded.

17. Law and disputes

[NEEDS LEGAL REVIEW] — governing law, jurisdiction, and the complaints route. Dutch law is intended.

18. Complaints

Write to enrico@cogninova.nl. We would much rather hear it from you than not.