Free Coaching Contract Template, Fill & Sign Online
A coaching agreement sets out sessions, fees and cancellation terms, and carries one clause that protects the coach more than any other: a clear statement that coaching is not therapy, medical advice, legal advice or financial advice.
Coaching is largely unregulated, which means the line is drawn by your contract rather than by a licensing body. A client who treated your sessions as therapy, and says so afterwards, is a problem the scope clause is there to prevent.
Self-signing is free, local & private, never uploaded. Sending for signature needs a free account (just your email).
What a coaching agreement must state
- Scope disclaimer: coaching is not therapy, counselling, medical, legal or financial advice, and you will refer out where appropriate.
- Package and expiry: how many sessions over what period. Unused sessions with no end date remain your liability indefinitely.
- Cancellation window: usually 24 or 48 hours, with late cancellations charged. Say it plainly or you absorb every one.
- Confidentiality: mutual, with the limits stated: where you would have to disclose because of risk of harm.
- Client responsibility: the client decides their own actions and outcomes. Coaching cannot promise a result and should not appear to.
- Recording: whether sessions are recorded, who holds them and for how long.
- Refunds: the circumstances in which unused sessions are refundable, remembering that consumer law may require a route regardless.
Mistakes that expose a coach
- No scope disclaimer. Without it, work that strayed towards therapy is judged as though you had held yourself out as a therapist.
- Guaranteeing outcomes in marketing and then contradicting it in the contract. The promise a client relied on is the one that counts.
- Session packages with no expiry, redeemed years later at today's cost to you.
- No written cancellation policy. Verbal ones are not enforced, and no-shows become unpaid.
Common questions
Do coaches need a written contract?
Coaching is unregulated in most places, so the contract is the only thing defining what you offer and what you do not. It is also the first document anyone asks for if a client complains.
Can I guarantee results?
You should not, and the contract should say outcomes depend on the client's own actions. Guaranteed-results marketing is a common basis for consumer-protection complaints in coaching.
How long should sessions stay valid?
Three to six months for a typical package is common. Whatever you choose, write it down — an open-ended package is a liability you already spent and cannot price.
This page is general information for small businesses, not legal advice. For your specific situation, talk to a licensed attorney in your state.