CRC Client Assessment & Goal Setting 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A client wants to 'fix' their partner as their primary coaching goal. The appropriate coach response is to:
- Agree and strategize ways to change the partner's behavior
- Help the client reframe the goal toward their own actions and responses within the relationship (Correct answer)
- Bring the partner in for assessment without consent
- End the session as the goal is unethical
Correct answer: Help the client reframe the goal toward their own actions and responses within the relationship
Coaching focuses on the client's own growth and actions, not changing another person, so reframing is the ethical and effective approach.
Question 2: During intake, a coach notices a client minimizing serious relationship conflicts when answering assessment questions. The best response is to:
- Accept the minimized version and set goals based on the client's narrative
- Gently probe deeper with open-ended questions to get a fuller picture (Correct answer)
- Confront the client directly about their denial
- Skip the assessment and move straight to action planning
Correct answer: Gently probe deeper with open-ended questions to get a fuller picture
Open-ended probing questions create a safe space for clients to reveal more accurate information without feeling judged.
Question 3: What is the primary purpose of a 'wheel of life' or 'wheel of relationship' assessment in coaching?
- To measure a client's personality type
- To provide a visual snapshot of satisfaction levels across multiple relationship dimensions (Correct answer)
- To predict relationship longevity using statistical models
- To diagnose attachment style disorders
Correct answer: To provide a visual snapshot of satisfaction levels across multiple relationship dimensions
The wheel assessment visually maps satisfaction across relationship areas, helping clients and coaches prioritize where to focus goal-setting efforts.
Question 4: When is it appropriate to revisit and adjust established coaching goals mid-engagement?
- Never — changing goals signals client instability
- Only during the final session review
- When new information or circumstances emerge that make original goals no longer relevant or achievable (Correct answer)
- Only if the coach disagrees with the original goals
Correct answer: When new information or circumstances emerge that make original goals no longer relevant or achievable
Goal flexibility is a hallmark of responsive coaching — goals should evolve when client circumstances or priorities meaningfully change.
Question 5: A client's stated goal is to improve intimacy, but their behavior consistently avoids vulnerability. This gap between goal and behavior is best addressed by:
- Ignoring the behavior and focusing only on the stated goal
- Exploring the underlying beliefs or fears that create the gap as part of the coaching process (Correct answer)
- Diagnosing the client with an intimacy disorder
- Closing the case as the client is not ready for coaching
Correct answer: Exploring the underlying beliefs or fears that create the gap as part of the coaching process
Exploring the beliefs underlying behavior-goal gaps is a core coaching competency that moves clients from intention to action.
Question 6: In relationship coaching, 'ecological checking' of a goal means:
- Ensuring goals are environmentally sustainable
- Examining whether a goal, if achieved, would positively affect all areas of the client's life and relationships (Correct answer)
- Checking whether the goal meets legal and ethical standards
- Verifying the goal aligns with the coach's own values
Correct answer: Examining whether a goal, if achieved, would positively affect all areas of the client's life and relationships
Ecological checking assesses whether a goal's achievement will have positive ripple effects — or unintended negative consequences — across the client's life.
Question 7: Which attachment style, when identified during assessment, most often presents with goals centered on reducing jealousy and increasing trust?
- Secure attachment
- Anxious-preoccupied attachment (Correct answer)
- Dismissive-avoidant attachment
- Disorganized attachment
Correct answer: Anxious-preoccupied attachment
Anxious-preoccupied attachment is characterized by hypervigilance to relationship threats, making jealousy reduction and trust-building common goal themes.
CRC Client Assessment & Goal Setting 3
A client wants to 'fix' their partner as their primary coaching goal.
The appropriate coach response is to: