Coaching Engagement Agreement

Assessment Results

Any assessment administered by SPARC during the engagement — including CliftonStrengths, Leadership Circle Profile, and others — or shared by the client with SPARC is treated as confidential coaching material. Assessment results, interpretations, and related documents are not shared with sponsors, employers, or any third party without the client's specific written permission.

Organizationally Sponsored Engagements

If an employer or institution is funding this engagement, they will receive only two pieces of information: confirmation that sessions are taking place and a count of sessions completed. No coaching content, themes, or disclosures will be shared with the sponsor under any circumstances. If the client chooses to share coaching insights with their sponsor or manager, that is entirely their decision.

Ethical Obligations

If something surfaces in a coaching session that raises a genuine ethical concern — for example, disclosure of conduct that is unethical or professionally harmful — the coach will address it directly and respectfully. The coach's consistent practice is to give the client the opportunity to address the matter themselves, preserving the client's agency and integrity.

In sponsored engagements, ethical concerns may intersect with known policies of the sponsoring organization. If the situation requires disclosure to the sponsor and the client is unwilling to self-report, the coach may have an obligation to disclose — but only after the client has been given the opportunity to act first.

In individual engagements, there is no sponsor and no third-party reporting channel. If a client discloses unethical professional conduct and declines to address it after direct conversation, the coach may determine that continuing the engagement is no longer consistent with their own ethical obligations as a practitioner, and may end the coaching relationship.

Any agreed exception to confidentiality — such as a structured three-way conversation with a sponsor — must be documented in a signed addendum before it occurs.

5a. Recording

With the client's permission, SPARC may record sessions via Zoom or similar platforms. Recordings are used for two purposes only:

1. Coaching supervision and professional development. Recordings may be reviewed by the coach and, with identifying information removed where possible, used in formal supervision contexts.
2. Session documentation. Recordings help the coach accurately capture themes, insights, and commitments to reflect back to the client.

Recordings are not shared with sponsors, employers, or any third party. They are not used to evaluate the client. They are stored securely and deleted within SPARC's regular review cycle. SPARC is committed to regular review and deletion of all client records — confidential documents, recordings, data files, and similar materials — that are no longer being held in service to the client. Typically this is done on a 30-day rolling basis. Any records kept beyond this regular cycle for supervision and practice improvement are de-identified.

The client may decline recording at any time — including at the start of any individual session — without affecting the coaching relationship. A verbal request is sufficient.

5b. AI-Assisted Summarization

SPARC may use AI tools to generate session summaries and capture key themes or commitments. These tools are used only to improve the accuracy of session documentation shared with the client.

All AI-generated output is reviewed by the coach before being shared. Client content is not submitted to AI platforms in a way that ties it to the client's identity.

The client will be notified if these practices change materially during the engagement.

5c. AI-Assisted Task Processing

How these tools work. Files are processed locally on the coach's computer, but their content passes through the AI provider's servers during processing. Files are not stored by the provider, and SPARC disables model training on client content where that setting is available.

Scope. These tools are used only for SPARC coaching work. Client content is not shared with sponsors or third parties. All outputs are reviewed by the coach before being shared with the client.

Limitations. These tools do not currently support workflows requiring a formal compliance audit trail. SPARC will not use them to process content subject to HIPAA, FERPA, or equivalent regulatory requirements without a separate written agreement.

Opt-out. The client may ask SPARC not to use AI task processing tools for their engagement materials. That request will be honored. Written notice to the coach is sufficient.