Health coaching intake form: a coach's questions, not a clinician's, and where the answers go

A health coaching intake form should ask four things: the client’s goals, the one or two habits they want to work on, what support helps when they stall, and one referral line for anything medical. The templates that rank for the phrase add a fifth, a health and readiness screen.

The NC HeAL program at UNC School of Medicine says on its scope-of-work page that its board-certified coaches do not advise, treat, diagnose, interpret medical data or order labs. They work to the scope NBHWC publishes, which covers behaviour change on goals the client picks.

So before a question goes on the form, ask what you would do with the answer. If only a clinician could act on it, it is not yours to collect. Call that the act-on test.

What should a health coaching intake form include?

Four sections, plain enough to paste under your contact fields.

• Goals. What should be different in twelve weeks, and how will you know?
• Habits. Which one or two habits do you want to work on first?
• Support. When you stall, what helps most: a question, a plan, or a deadline?
• The referral line. Who else looks after your health, and what has your doctor already asked you to do?

The first three are my wording for what Precision Nutrition and the other examples ask, and they suit a wellness or nutrition intake as much as a life coaching one.

The referral line is the part no published example I read lists as a section. It passes the act-on test because the NC HeAL page says a coach may help a client understand a physician’s recommendation and plan how to follow it.

What questions are asked in a health coaching intake?

Seven parts, in the fullest published example. Coachway’s field list, read 7 October, runs contact details, goals and the why, a health and readiness screen, training and nutrition preferences, availability, measurements and photos, then consent.

Coachway tells its reader to “keep the health and consent blocks intact”, which is sound for a trainer writing a programme and wrong for a coach who is not allowed to read the result.

The Primal Health Coach Institute names the difference by job: an intake form gathers information, while an assessment scores it and reaches a conclusion. Your form does the gathering, and none of this is medical or legal advice, so check your jurisdiction.

Where does a health coach’s intake form live?

In a form builder, a practice platform, or a notes product.

Where it lives	What its page says (pulled 7 October)	What happens to the answers
Google Forms		you read them
Practice Better	$35 a month billed monthly on Launch, 10 clients, forms and note templates	you read them
SOAP Notes	free Starter up to 5 active clients, Standard $36 a month billed annually	they go into a SOAP-format note
Ember, closed beta	the session report, in your letterhead template, from the recording	nothing stated about intake answers

No Google Forms page was pulled here, so its cell stays blank, though one r/lifecoaching coach says they keep coming back to it. SOAP Notes titles its pricing page for coaches and therapists and says every plan includes “a secure client portal”, which is its claim and not a finding of mine. I build Ember, so read its row as a disclosure and not a recommendation.

Write the four sections, send them before the first call, and leave the screen to the clinic. A form that asks for more than you can use is not a thorough intake. It is a record you are holding for someone else.

Questions people ask next?

Is there a free health coach intake form template?

Several. esign.com publishes one as PDF and Word, and gliihc.net a fillable PDF. Both open with health questions, so run the act-on test first.

Can a health coach ask about medications or diagnoses?

Nothing here is legal advice. The NC HeAL scope page says its coaches do not interpret medical data or order labs, and may help a client follow a doctor’s recommendation. So ask who else is involved and what was recommended.