Coaching Intake Form

Key takeaways

A coaching intake form collects a client’s goals, background, obstacles, and expectations before session one, so the session itself is spent coaching.

This free template runs to three pages and seven sections, with 12 numbered questions, four personal information fields, and a signature line.

The wording is written for life and personal development coaching, so health and executive coaches need to add their own questions.

The agreement page is an acknowledgment only, so pair the form with a signed coaching contract that sets out fees and cancellation terms.

Digital intake forms in practice management software like Pabau send themselves at booking and file every answer on the client record.

A coaching intake form is the first thing a new client fills in for you, and it shapes how your first session goes. Many independent coaches skip it and rely on the opening conversation instead.

That approach spends paid coaching time on background gathering. It also leaves you guessing at goals the client has never had to put in writing.

The template below is free, three pages long, and takes most clients 15 to 20 minutes. This page explains what each section is for, how to adapt the form for your practice, and where intake ends and the coaching agreement begins.

What is a coaching intake form?

A coaching intake form is a structured questionnaire a new client completes before the first session. It captures their background, current situation, goals, obstacles, and what they expect from coaching.

Unlike an opening conversation, the form asks every client the same questions in the same order. They answer in their own time, with room to think. You read the answers before you meet.

The form also does administrative work. It records the client’s understanding of what coaching covers, sets expectations on scheduling and commitment, and captures a signature.

What is inside this template?

The download is three pages long and deliberately short. Here is what you get, section by section.

That is 12 numbered questions in total, plus the four personal information fields and the signature block. It is one generic form, not a set of specialty versions.

The wording assumes life and personal development coaching. Section 2 asks what motivated the client to seek out a life coach. Health and executive coaches should reword that line before sending it.

Why every coach needs an intake form

Coaches who send one consistently get four things back.

• Session time. Your first hour goes to coaching rather than data collection. The client has already written down their goals and obstacles, so you spend the session exploring them.
• Clear boundaries. The form states that coaching is a partnership focused on goals, and that it is not therapy or consulting. That heads off scope creep later.
• Written answers go further. Writing forces clarity. Clients often name an obstacle, or admit a motivation, that they would not have raised out loud in session one.
• Room to personalize. You arrive knowing the client’s context, coaching history, and preferred support style. Your opening question can already be specific to them.

How to adapt this template for your practice

Treat the file as a starting point rather than a finished form. Five edits make it yours.

1. Add your own details. Put your name, business name, and contact information at the top, with your logo if you have one.
2. Fix the date format. The form uses dd/mm/yyyy. Change it to mm/dd/yyyy if your clients are in the US.
3. Reword the life coaching references. Section 2 asks what motivated the client to seek out a life coach. Swap in the kind of coaching you actually sell.
4. Add the questions your niche needs. The two lists below cover health coaching and executive coaching.
5. Point the agreement section at your contract. It refers to terms set out elsewhere, so pair it with a coaching agreement that spells those terms out.

Questions to add for health coaching

Health coaches and wellness practitioners need lifestyle context that this form doesn’t ask for. Three questions cover most of it.

• Describe a typical week, including work hours, sleep, movement, and how you eat.
• Which parts of your health are you prioritizing over the next three months?
• Are there medical conditions or medications we should account for when we set goals?

Keep the boundary visible when you add them. Wellness coaching is not medical care, and anything clinical belongs with the client’s physician. A structured plan such as a healthy meal plan is a fine coaching output. Diagnosing or treating a condition is not.

Questions to add for executive coaching

Executive coaching happens inside an organization, so the form needs that context. Add three questions.

• How large is your team, and who do you report to?
• What are your top two or three leadership priorities this year?
• Which organizational changes or pressures are affecting your role right now?

Ask who is paying, too. When an employer sponsors the coaching, agree upfront what you will and will not report back to them.

How to use your intake form effectively

The answers only pay off if you work with them. Five habits turn a returned form into a better first session.

1. Send it as soon as they book. Attach it to the booking confirmation or share it through your client portal, with a deadline 48 hours before the session.
2. Read it before the call. Block 15 minutes to go through the answers. Note the patterns, the contradictions, and the questions you want to open with.
3. Open with something they wrote. Quoting a goal back in the client’s own words shows the form was not busywork, and it starts the session inside their agenda.
4. Store it where you will find it again. Digital intake forms file responses on the client record, so the answers sit next to your session notes.
5. Revisit the self-assessment. Re-run the two 1 to 10 scales at month three or six. Movement on those numbers is the simplest progress evidence you will get.

Where the intake form ends and the coaching agreement begins

The agreement section on page three is an acknowledgment, not a contract. It confirms that the client accepts terms set out elsewhere and commits to the work between sessions. It also states that coaching does not treat any mental or medical condition.

Those terms still need a document of their own. Fees, cancellation windows, confidentiality, and the length of the engagement belong in a coaching contract that you both sign.

Send the two together. The intake form tells you where the client is starting from, and the agreement tells them how you work.

How Pabau turns the intake form into a workflow

Emailing a PDF works until you have a dozen clients. Then you’re chasing attachments, retyping answers into your notes, and hunting for the one form you’re sure came back.

Practice management software like Pabau replaces that with a step you never have to remember. Rebuild the seven sections as a digital form once, and it goes out automatically when a client books.

Answers land on the client record, next to session notes and appointment history. Automated workflows chase anyone who hasn’t finished the form 24 hours before the session.

You can also keep more than one version in your library. A health coaching form and an executive coaching form can both sit there, and each client gets the one that matches what they booked.

After the session, Pabau Scribe, our AI scribe, can structure your notes against the goals the client set at intake.

Send coaching intake forms without the chasing

Digital forms go out when a client books, answers file straight onto the client record, and automated reminders follow up on anything unfinished. Your first session starts prepared.

Book a demo

Conclusion

An intake form only earns its pages if you read it before the session, and again a few months in. This one is short enough that both actually happen.

Be clear about what it does not do. It carries no fees, no cancellation policy, and no confidentiality clause, so it never replaces a signed coaching agreement.

Download the template, reword the life coaching lines for the clients you actually serve, and decide who sends it. If the answer is you, by hand, every time, book a demo to see how Pabau sends and files intake forms for you.

Continue your research

Need the contract that sits behind the acknowledgment? The coaching contract template covers fees, cancellation, and confidentiality in full.

Turning intake goals into a plan? The coaching plan template breaks each goal into session-by-session steps.

Writing up the sessions themselves? The coaching notes template keeps a consistent record from session one onward.

Want structured feedback at the end? The coaching evaluation form collects ratings and comments after a session.

Want a deeper self-reflection exercise? The identity worksheet gives clients 20 prompts on values, strengths, and goals.

Frequently asked questions