Coaching Framework Field Guide

How to use this guide: Match the framework to your client's situation and current edge of growth. Use the signature questions as starting points — adapt the language to fit your client's vocabulary and the energy of the session. Remember: the framework serves the client, not the other way around.

Co-Active Coaching

Kimsey-House, Sandahl & Whitworth

Best for

Clients who feel stuck between who they are and who they want to become. Ideal for values clarification, identity work, and building self-trust.

Signature Questions

What would the fullest version of you do right now?
If you set aside what others expect, what do you actually want?
What value are you honoring — or violating — in this situation?

The Coaching Habit

Michael Bungay Stanier

Best for

Leaders and managers who over-advise. Brilliant for building coaching as a daily habit and getting to the real issue fast.

Signature Questions

What's on your mind?
And what else?
What's the real challenge here for you?

Laser-Focused Coaching

Marion Franklin

Best for

Clients who over-explain or stay in the story. Perfect for cutting through to the core issue with precision and brevity.

Signature Questions

What's most important to you about this?
Say more about that — what do you mean by [key word]?
If you already knew the answer, what would it be?

Reflective Inquiry

Marcia Reynolds

Best for

Clients whose thinking is keeping them stuck. Excellent for disrupting assumptions, surfacing blind spots, and shifting perspective.

Signature Questions

What are you assuming that may not be true?
What is this situation bringing up for you emotionally?
How would someone who admired you see this situation?

GROW Model

Sir John Whitmore

Best for

Goal-focused sessions where the client has a specific outcome in mind. Excellent structure for new coaches and action-oriented clients.

Signature Questions

What do you want to achieve, and by when? (Goal)
What's actually happening right now? (Reality)
What will you do, and when will you do it? (Will)

Emotionally Focused Coaching

Sue Johnson / EFT

Best for

Clients working through relational patterns, conflict, or disconnection. Powerful for life and relationship coaching where emotion drives behavior.

Signature Questions

What emotion is underneath that reaction?
What do you most need from that person that you're not getting?
What does this situation say about what matters most to you in relationships?

Immunity to Change

Kegan & Lahey

Best for

Clients who know what they want to change but keep not doing it. Uncovers the hidden competing commitments and big assumptions blocking growth.

Signature Questions

What would you be giving up if you actually made this change?
What are you afraid might happen if you fully committed?
What belief would have to be false for you to move forward?

Positive Psychology / PERMA

Martin Seligman

Best for

Clients who want to build flourishing rather than just fix problems. Ideal for strengths-based, life satisfaction, and resilience work.

Signature Questions

When do you feel most fully alive and engaged?
What strengths are you underusing right now?
What would a flourishing version of your life look like in 12 months?

Parts Work / IFS

Richard Schwartz

Best for

Clients experiencing inner conflict — "part of me wants X, but another part won't let me." Excellent for self-compassion, self-sabotage, and integration work.

Signature Questions

What part of you is driving this behavior, and what is it trying to protect?
If you could speak directly to that part of you, what would you say?
What does your wisest, most grounded self know about this situation?

Best Fit Framework

CoachToolkit.ai

Best for

When you are not sure which framework fits. Our AI analyzes the client situation and selects the best-matched approach from all 10 frameworks.

How to Use

Describe the client situation in the tool and let the AI recommend the best framework.
Review the generated questions and adapt them to your client's language and energy.
Trust your instincts — you know your client. The AI gives you a starting point.