When a Client Asks Questions Outside of Your Scope of Practice

What do you do when a client asks questions outside of your scope of practice?

As a coach, how would you navigate that? This is critical to understand — what are the next best steps to take?

Hi, I’m Coach Lilly. I am the director of training and coach development here at Body Brain Alliance, and if you’ve had that moment before, then this blog is for you.

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Scope of practice is extremely important — not only for protecting yourself legally as a coach in whatever field you are in, but to also serve our clients in an ethical manner.

When we are helping clients reach their goals and create actions and behaviors towards the life they want to live, we want to be able to do that in an ethical, moral, and safe manner.

If we step out of scope, that is where things can get very tricky. They can get unsafe, unethical, and of course, it can result in a lot of harm.

As coaches, we may be experts in our fields, but we are not experts in all fields. That’s important to embrace.

When we are approaching these conversations, it’s also important to assume that clients don’t know what is within your scope and what is not. It is our responsibility to hold these healthy boundaries and teach our clients, where necessary, what falls within our wheelhouse and what doesn’t.

3 Steps to Respond When a Client Is Outside Your Scope

When we face a situation where a client is asking us for something that falls outside of our scope of practice, we can follow these 3 steps to appropriately communicate with them.

1. Tell Them It Falls Outside Your Scope

You can say something like: “Unfortunately, that falls outside my scope of practice, or outside of my wheelhouse.”

2. Provide a Resource That Can Better Assist Them

For example: “Unfortunately, that falls outside my scope of practice, but something like therapy, a dietician, or your primary care provider would be a great resource for helping you navigate that.”

Sometimes as coaches we have more knowledge about what scope of practice other professionals have, and clients don’t. So we can provide that insight so they can take the steps necessary to obtain that support.

3. Provide Something That Does Fall Within Your Scope

This may look like: “Unfortunately, that falls outside my scope and the best resource to navigate that would be a dietician — that is what I recommend. However, you did mention X, and that is something I can help with.”

What this does is prevent you from leaving them hanging without steps on what to do next. You are meeting them where they are, providing a resource for what they can do instead, and then offering something within your scope so the conversation still feels impactful and helpful.

By following this approach, you can hold a boundary, protect yourself and the client, and still provide them with direction on what you can assist them with.

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Thank you for reading, see you in the next one!