Coaching session template: an outline from opening to commitments, and who fills it in after the call

A coaching session template is a running order for one session: a question under each heading, a blank under that. Mine has six: check-in, focus for today, exploring, options, commitments, close. Two of the three I checked agree on where a session starts, and none says who fills the page in afterwards.

The International Coach Academy publishes six steps and Evercoach’s one-on-one PDF five, and both begin by establishing the coaching agreement and setting the goal or outcome for the session. Evercoach’s fourth step is to identify and commit to an action, and Luisa Zhou’s guide ends on the client’s next steps.

How do you structure a coaching session?

Use six headings in the order below, and change the wording until it sounds like you.

Section	The question you ask	Their answer
Check-in	What has gone well since we last spoke?	________
Focus for today	What do you want out of this hour?	________
Exploring	Where do things stand against that?	________
Options	What could you do about it?	________
Commitments	What will you do, and by when?	________
Close	What are you taking out of this?	________

The check-in comes from a six-part structure one r/Coaching commenter posted, which opens on what is going well and asks whether last week’s actions happened. The other five are my wording for the published steps.

What changes when the coaching style changes?

Exploring and Options are where the model goes, and they are the two headings that change. Develop The Edge’s template asks in its preparation line which model the coach plans to use, and lists GROW, SMART and GURUS.

A first session spends its opening on the agreement instead, and a practice that teaches gains a heading for it, as the r/Coaching structure does with a new-information step. The International Coach Academy calls a session structure a “coat hanger” for the coaching work, and tells coaches to tailor it to their context.

Where does a coaching session template live, and who fills it in?

In one of five places, and the place decides who writes after the call.

Where it lives	Who fills it in (my read)	What the page says (3 Oct)
A Canva printable	the coach, by hand	flyers, logos, a 1:1 coaching doc
Notion’s Coaching Planner	whoever owns the page	Coaching Planner Template, by Bella Rose
Simply.Coach or Paperbell	the coach, after the call	Session Notes and Reflection, from US$9 a month; a free notes template
A general assistant, given the transcript	the assistant, then you	not stated
Ember	the AI you already use	your headings as boxes, each with a test

The International Coaching Federation publishes two templates of its own, and neither is an outline for the hour: a transcript sample required when you apply for an ICF credential, and a client log separating paid hours from pro-bono ones.

I build Ember, the last row, so read it as an interested party’s claim. Your headings become boxes, each with a prompt and a test it has to pass, filled in by the assistant you already use. It is in closed beta.

Print the six questions before your next call. Then decide, before you hang up, which of you is writing the six answers down.

Questions people ask next?

What is the 70/30 rule in coaching?

No page I pulled on 3 October 2026 states it, so I am not putting a number on who talks. The structures I pulled fix the order of the headings and assign no share of the hour.

Is there a free coaching session template?

Several, and they are not the same document. Canva’s coaching page runs to flyers and logos with a 1:1 coaching doc among them, Carepatron publishes a session-template PDF, and Notion hosts Bella Rose’s Coaching Planner. Pick by who fills it in.

Should the coach or the client write the session notes?

Both happen. One r/lifecoaching poster uses their own templates plus a whiteboard like Conceptboard or Miro, and a separate thread asks what other coaches use. Two accounts, not a rate, so settle it in the agreement.