How long is an ideal coaching session?

A large part of coaches prefer sessions within this time range. There are a number of reasons why these sessions are popular.

How long is an ideal coaching session?

A large part of coaches prefer sessions within this time range. There are a number of reasons why these sessions are popular. First of all, most people's attention spans cannot be maintained beyond this period of time, so the session makes the most of this period before the client is exhausted and their attention begins to lose their attention. Secondly, the length of this session allows you and your client to explore the topics in quite depth and, at the same time, adapt to anything that comes up during the discussion.

Therefore, your conversation can take place normally without any need for either of you to feel rushed. Instead, I like to think of coaches as “sultan coaches”, where the goal is to obtain real and tangible results for their clients. As you may already know, a large proportion of potential clients may not have an unlimited budget, so the amount they can afford to spend on coaching will affect the structure of the training process. In Executive Coaching it is more common to have ninety minute sessions spaced monthly and in Life Coaching this may vary.

For example, one of my coaching clients on energy cleansing realized that she could solve it by doing one energy clarification session per month and develop her training around that. Question-centered coaching is based on the coach asking questions and the coach giving the answers. Many executive coaching and life coaching programs may have been initially set up for a certain duration, e.g., extended training sessions may not be necessary if you interact with your coaching client on a weekly basis. These ad hoc additions to a training session program could be included in some type of training retention agreement.

These sessions may be suitable for counseling relationships in which behavioral issues need to be addressed in order to unlock the potential of the coaching client. After all, coaching is a skill that you can learn EVEN if you don't have training experience or certification. And then there's the coaching you do between the coaching calls, such as answering questions and checking how your clients are doing. That's why coaching can be an incredibly satisfying business (and yes, a coaching business can make it possible for you to quit your job for 9 to 5 years and make a lot of money).

There is something you must implement before having your first training sessions: a training contract. Every coaching situation is different, so try to adjust the length of your coaching sessions to suit your client's needs.

Désirée Lejeune
Désirée Lejeune

Certified zombie lover. General internet maven. Hipster-friendly beer maven. Evil zombie ninja. Amateur internet junkie. Freelance travel evangelist.

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