The First 6 Sessions You Need in Your Coaching Program for Clients

Do you want your clients to get the best results from your coaching? Then make sure you include the following sessions in your program.

“How can I create an effective coaching program for my clients?”

This is one of the most important questions you need to tackle as a life coach.

Now, it’s true that it can be challenging to put together sessions that will greatly impact your clients.

…But it’s not impossible.

Keep reading to discover the six sessions that you must absolutely include in your program. What’s great about it is that you can plug these sessions into your existing coaching package if you already have one.

The 6 Sessions 

To be clear, the number of sessions in your coaching package will still depend on you, as well as a lot of factors. These can include your pricing strategy, target clients, and area of focus.

But the following six sessions are a sure way to begin any effective coaching program:

Session #1 – Introductory Session

This first session happens when you’re at the start of a coaching agreement with a client.

The goal of the introductory session is to give them a taste of coaching. Show them what coaching is and clarify how the two of you will be working together. Also, this is where you both set your expectations.

Think of this session as a “try before you buy session” for your client.

If you’ve already signed a contract with that client, this session can also act as an introduction to find out where they are in their life. You can also use it to clarify how life coaching will help them get through their challenges.

The introductory session is basically your way to guide them through the foundations of the coaching process.

Some coaches may also refer to this as the pre-coaching session or intake session. After all, it essentially prepares your client for what’s to come in your programme.

Session #2 – Wheel of Life Session

After the introductory session, you’ll have a session that’s called ‘The Wheel of Life’. This is one of the most common sessions in the field of life coaching.

But what is it exactly?

To understand the idea, imagine the spokes in a wheel. Each spoke represents a different area in your client’s life. For instance, their relationships, health and fitness, finances, career, etc.

So, the Wheel of Life session is meant to give you a big macro view of your client’s life. It’s a great opportunity to look closer into where your client is currently and see where they’re going.

Here’s how you can conduct this session:

Have your clients give you an idea about where they sit in each area of their life. They can then rank each of these areas out of 10. This gives you a great chance to go through each of those areas in your coaching agreement.

Ideally, you start with one area and then go forward from there.

Session #3 – GROW Session

The third session you’ll conduct, here’s what this session is all about:

G stands for Goals.

Help your client identify what it is that they want to change in their life or about themselves. Then, reframe these changes into goals that they want to achieve.

R stands for Current Reality.

Ask your client how their situation is currently. This is an important step that lets you examine their starting point for reaching their goals.

O stands for Options.

When your client has explored what their current reality is, they then need to identify what’s possible. The goal is for them to determine all the options that they can take to reach their goal.

W stands for Will.

Ask your client which of those options you’ve laid out will they take to move forward. They need to commit to specific actions.

As their life coach, your role then is to increase their motivation so they can push themselves toward their goal.

Session #4 – Values and Rules Session

There are actually two parts to this session that follow your GROW session. 

First, you have your values session. 

This is a session that helps you identify what values your client has in their life. And a good way to run this session is for your clients to list their top 3 or top values.

Once that’s done, you can move on to the next part – your rules session. 

Ask your client what rules they have created on a conscious or unconscious level so they can meet those values.

Then, you can ask if they’re meeting those rules daily, weekly, or monthly. Are they living in alignment with their values? Or, have they created rules that don’t allow them to meet their values?

Make sure to reassure them that some of their rules may be unnecessary. Especially with regards to what needs to happen so they’ll be in alignment with a particular value.

Session #5 – Defining Moments Session

When you reach the fifth session, this is when things get a little bit deeper. 

The Defining Moments session is when you have your client look at the key things that have happened in their life. What are the moments that really left an impact and transformed them into who they are right now?

The two of you will go back and unpack some of those moments.

Did those defining moments send your client through a door that nurtured them? Perhaps those moments bring them forward to where they are and where you want to be?

Or did it send them down a slippery slope? Did they lead your client to suddenly not get the outcomes they want?

These are some of the questions that you need to ask and help your client resolve during the session.

Session #6 – Self-Talk Session

In this sixth session, you guide your client to the fact that they have 60,000 thoughts a day. And it’s time for you both to analyse what those thoughts are.

So, are they helping or hindering your client? Are the thoughts mostly positive or negative? And does your client even know that they’re actually having those thoughts?

One of the main goals of this session is to help your client feel more empowered. Your key role here is to support them so they can feel more in control of their thoughts.

Start Creating the Best Life Coaching Program Today

A lot of coaches, especially those who are just starting out, find it difficult to structure their own coaching programs. As a result, they fail to fully utilise their skills to help their clients get the best results from their life coaching.

But you can avoid being like them.

You can start creating or improving your coaching program by incorporating the six sessions detailed in this article. That way, your clients can have a life-changing coaching experience. While you save time figuring out how to organise each session for each client.