When to Refer a Client Out (and How to Say It)
Scope, dignity, and one sentence. Point to licensed care. Do not diagnose.
When the work leaves the coaching room, staying is a boundary failure. This is not a clinical checklist. If you need one, you are already past your ethics line.
The Sentence
“What you’re describing is outside what coaching can hold. The next right step is licensed care. I can pause our work and help you find that door. I will not keep coaching this as if a goal score will fix it.”
No labels. No “is this X.” Point, pause, don’t rescue.
How to Hand Off
Pause in writing. Give one door. One follow-up: “Did you get connected?” Not another coaching hour.
Where Coaches Break
- Staying because they’re a “great client.” That’s your invoice talking.
- Diagnosing so the referral sounds smarter. You just practiced without a license.
- Softening back into a discovery close or more session prep. The move is the door, not another hypothesis.
The 3-Minute Action
Write the sentence in your own words. Save two licensed names or directories you trust. If a current client is sitting on the line, send the sentence this week — not after one more “see how it goes.”