About
About Journals by Simone
Guided journals and evidence based supplements for people carrying something they cannot talk about openly.
Founded in Vienna in 2025 by Simone Pleifer, MSc
- ViennaCompany seat, founded 2025
- MScNutritional sciences, University of Vienna
- 14+ yearsin clinical research
- Digital firstno print run, no shipping
How this came about
Hi, I'm Simone. I had separated from my husband and started dating again, and it went nothing like I had pictured. Then I met someone and, as we say in German, lightning struck. Within a few weeks I no longer knew what I actually wanted. He was not free. I had never wanted to be the second woman in anybody's life, and knowing that changed nothing.
Telling my friends did not make it simpler. Some of them were fine with it. With others I saw it in their face before they said a word, and after that I was deciding every single time how much of the truth to tell.
All of it, or the part that would not cost me the conversation.
That is a strange place to stand, because the feeling was the largest thing in my life and there was nowhere I could set it down honestly. So I started writing. Then I sat in front of an empty page, and that turned out to be the hardest part of all. Where do you even begin.
I lost more time to that blank page than to anything else, so I started reading up on it, and that is how I found guided writing. Prompts that ask you something specific, and enough structure that you begin to recognise your own patterns instead of watching the same thoughts go around again. Journals by Simone came out of that search.
What qualifies me to build this
I am a nutrition scientist with a Master of Science from the University of Vienna, and I have spent more than fourteen years in clinical research, where I develop and oversee studies on improving quality of life with evidence based therapies. That is still my day job, and it is also why this brand looks the way it does, because I build in structures and I design towards an outcome rather than towards a good feeling.
The same habit sets one rule for everything published here. Every figure carries a primary source with the date I looked it up, and anything I cannot verify gets cut instead of softened. I would rather publish less.
Journals by Simone grew next to that job, on evenings and weekends, which is also why it grows slowly. I have used every product here myself, for weeks, before anybody else saw it.
A young company from Vienna
We work in a corner of the health and wellness market that most brands walk straight past. Wellness usually talks to people whose lives are already in order, the ones still refining their morning routine. We are here for the situations nobody puts on a mood board, like an affair, a situationship, or limerence, where the larger part of the relationship happens inside your own head.
What makes us different
A journal and a capsule do very different work, and I would not want them to do the same.
The journals
This is where the thinking happens, with structured prompts and a fixed rhythm, on a page that asks something of you and then lets you set the thought down for the night.
The supplements
I choose the raw materials myself, I read what the research actually says about them, and then I write a label that names every amount in the capsule. A product that promises you more than it can show has not earned your trust.
Keeping both under one brand is unusual. I do it because these situations do not stay in one part of your life. A tool that only covers one part of it stops too early.
The Emotional Clarity Journey
These four steps are the framework behind everything Journals by Simone offers. You can stay on the first one as long as you need.
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01
Notice
what is happening beneath the surface
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02
Name
emotions with honesty and without judgment
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03
Regulate
through reflection, structure and steady daily practice
-
04
Decide
from a place that is grounded in who you actually are
Why digital first
Every journal here is digital, and I chose that deliberately. A ninety day journal runs past a hundred and fifty pages. Printing thousands of those, moving them across Europe and taking a share of them back as returns is a lot of paper for a book that most people want to read on one device anyway, without anybody else in the room.
Your journal sits on your phone or tablet, behind your own lock if you want it there. You can write in GoodNotes or Notability, print the whole thing at home, or print only the pages you want in your hand.
- No print runOnly the pages you choose to print ever exist on paper
- No transportNothing at your door and no freight across Europe
- No returnsNothing sent back and written off
Supplements, starting in Austria
The first formula is made and bottled in Austria and comes in a limited edition: rhodiola, magnesium, L-theanine and activated vitamin B6. Magnesium and vitamin B6 contribute to normal psychological function. For now it ships within Austria only, with shipping to Germany planned for later.
Join the waitlist and you will be the first to know when Stress Balance is available to buy. As a thank you for confirming, you get the Holistic Balance Guide.
Frequently asked questions
Who writes the journals and the articles?
Simone Pleifer, MSc, nutrition scientist with fourteen years in pharmaceutical clinical research and founder of Journals by Simone. She writes everything published here herself, without agencies and without templates. The company is based in Vienna, Austria.
Is this therapy, or a substitute for it?
Neither. These are self-guided reflection tools. They can sit alongside therapeutic work and many people use them that way, but they replace nothing. If your sleep, concentration or relationships are affected over a longer period, that belongs with a qualified professional.
Why journaling and not advice?
Because advice assumes someone else knows your situation, and in a secret love nobody does. Structured writing works differently: it gives the feeling a place outside your head, where you can look at it. The effect is modest and measured, not a promise of resolution.
Why are the journals digital?
For privacy and for paper. A digital journal does not arrive at your door and does not sit on a shelf, and a book of more than a hundred and fifty pages never has to be printed in bulk, freighted across Europe or taken back as a return. You can write on a tablet, print the full journal at home, or print only the pages you want to hold.
Do you ship the supplements outside Austria?
Not for now. The first formula is a limited pilot within Austria, sent from Vienna. The journals, the calendar and the eBook are digital and available worldwide.
Where do I start?
If you have never journaled, begin with the first 7 days of the Emotional Clarity Calendar, which are free. If you want a daily rhythm, take the full 30-Day Emotional Clarity Calendar. If you have carried the feeling for a long time and want to go all the way through it, take a 90-day Love in Secrecy edition.
Where to begin
If this story feels familiar, you do not need to decide anything today. Seven free days from the Emotional Clarity Calendar are waiting for you, privately, so you can hear yourself again before anything else.
Begin with the first 7 days of the Calendar, free