My coaching client is taking medication and I don’t think they should be. Can I tell them?

28 September 2016 Anthony Eldridge-Rogers

Well this depends on several things. First what have you contracted with the client for?  Are you health coaching or recovery coaching with them and is this related to the medication.

If you are not and this is a ‘regular’ coaching assignment then you will need to think about reframing the the coaching relationship.

The fact that you don’t think they should, sets off an alarm bell from a coaching supervision point of view. How are you positioned to know if they should not or should be on any medication? The best approach is to suspend your judgement and get curious with your client and ask them if they can share with you what is going on with the medication issue. It is not your role to pass a judgement on it but to gather information and get and stay on the same page as your client. If you feel there s a risk to your clients health and wellbeing then this falls under ethical practice and you ought to talk to a coach supervisor about what the next steps could be around this kind of ethical issue.

Please keep us posted on this topic as it is one that challenges many coaches.