Booking Coaching Sessions
The best coaching work is tailored and finite, and my aim is to make myself redundant as quickly as possible. For this reason I have resisted the practice of selling non-refundable packages of fixed numbers of sessions, or of asking clients to commit in advance to pre-designed coaching programmes. I want to support each client's freedom to shape their own coaching journey, to book the sessions they want when they want them and to stop whenever they choose.
All my session booking is ad-hoc through Calendly, where you can see my availability some way in advance, book whatever sessions you want and reschedule or cancel as you need for a full refund (I ask only for 48 hours notice of any changes, so that I can offer the freed slot to someone on the waiting list). My hourly rate is published openly on my fees page, and it changes at most once a year. This is the arrangement I find most ethical, because it supports my clients' autonomy.
Practical Limitations
Over the years a practical difficulty has grown in this way of working. When my practice was quieter a client could book an ad-hoc session, and at the end of the session decide to book another for the following week, as there was almost always some space. As my practice has become busier over the years this has become progressively more difficult because my diary is now fully booked four to six weeks ahead. Some people are happy with the free flow of booking ad-hoc session by session despite the wait, but there have been clients who value a more sustained way of working, that allows momentum to build towards positive change. This tends to matter most at the beginning of a piece of work, hence the rough suggestion below for clients who are about to embark on their coaching journey.
Suggested Booking Pattern
To keep the freedom of the ad-hoc arrangement from becoming an obstacle to the very people it is meant to serve, I looked back over the last five years of my work to see whether a useful pattern emerged, and on the whole one did. Most of the work tends to take place within three to six months, across an average of six to twelve sessions, beginning closer together and then gradually spreading out.
In response to requests from a number of new clients for a suggested pattern to begin with, a good starting point might be to pre-book six sessions across roughly twelve weeks, as set out below:
All my session booking is ad-hoc through Calendly, where you can see my availability some way in advance, book whatever sessions you want and reschedule or cancel as you need for a full refund (I ask only for 48 hours notice of any changes, so that I can offer the freed slot to someone on the waiting list). My hourly rate is published openly on my fees page, and it changes at most once a year. This is the arrangement I find most ethical, because it supports my clients' autonomy.
Practical Limitations
Over the years a practical difficulty has grown in this way of working. When my practice was quieter a client could book an ad-hoc session, and at the end of the session decide to book another for the following week, as there was almost always some space. As my practice has become busier over the years this has become progressively more difficult because my diary is now fully booked four to six weeks ahead. Some people are happy with the free flow of booking ad-hoc session by session despite the wait, but there have been clients who value a more sustained way of working, that allows momentum to build towards positive change. This tends to matter most at the beginning of a piece of work, hence the rough suggestion below for clients who are about to embark on their coaching journey.
Suggested Booking Pattern
To keep the freedom of the ad-hoc arrangement from becoming an obstacle to the very people it is meant to serve, I looked back over the last five years of my work to see whether a useful pattern emerged, and on the whole one did. Most of the work tends to take place within three to six months, across an average of six to twelve sessions, beginning closer together and then gradually spreading out.
In response to requests from a number of new clients for a suggested pattern to begin with, a good starting point might be to pre-book six sessions across roughly twelve weeks, as set out below:
+1 week
+1 week
+2 weeks
+3 weeks
+4 weeks
S1
S2
S3
S4
S5
S6
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 8
Week 12
- Week 1
- Week 2 +1 week
- Week 3 +1 week
- Week 5 +2 weeks
- Week 8 +3 weeks
- Week 12 +4 weeks
| Session | When | Gap since the last session |
|---|---|---|
| Session 1 | Week 1 | – |
| Session 2 | Week 2 | 1 week |
| Session 3 | Week 3 | 1 week |
| Session 4 | Week 5 | 2 weeks |
| Session 5 | Week 8 | 3 weeks |
| Session 6 | Week 12 | 4 weeks |
The gaps widen deliberately: we work more closely at the start, and the sessions then spread out as we go on, because each session builds on the one before. Some people need fewer than six sessions, and some choose to carry on afterwards at a monthly rhythm if there are still issues they want to tackle and they value the regular thinking space.
Booking in this pattern changes nothing about the freedom you have: it simply holds the slots in the diary, which guarantees the time is there if you come to need it, while leaving you free to reschedule or cancel any session (with 48 hours notice). There is no one-size-fits-all approach after all, and so nothing about the pattern is fixed. It is only a rough suggested starting point that tends to work well. If you would rather play it by ear and you do not mind waiting for a slot when you want one, please feel free to ignore it completely and book session by session as you go.
Booking is through the Calendly link you are given after our exploratory session, where you can see my availability and book whatever you need, whether that is a single session or the suggested pattern. If you have any questions please drop me a message.
