Coaching Disclaimer

What this is, and what it is not.

The Leadership Doctor® provides leadership coaching, consulting, and professional development. The medical language used throughout this site — examination, diagnosis, prescription, treatment — describes a method of working. It does not describe the practice of medicine.

Not therapy or medical care

Coaching is not psychotherapy, counseling, psychiatric or psychological treatment, medical care, or the diagnosis or treatment of any mental or physical health condition. Dr. Franklin is not acting as your physician, therapist, counselor, attorney, or financial advisor, and nothing in an engagement should be taken as medical, legal, or financial advice.

Referral

If what you need falls outside the scope of coaching, I will tell you so, and I will help you find the right professional. Coaching may continue alongside care from a licensed provider where that is appropriate, but it does not replace it.

In an emergency

Coaching is not a crisis service. If you are in crisis or in immediate danger, contact your local emergency number, or in the United States call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Your part in the work

Coaching is a collaboration. You remain responsible for the decisions you make and the actions you take, during the engagement and afterward. No specific outcome, result, or level of performance is promised or guaranteed.

Confidentiality

What you share in coaching is treated as confidential and is not disclosed without your permission, except where disclosure is required by law or where there is a risk of serious harm. Coaching does not carry legal privilege in the way that communication with an attorney or a licensed clinician may.

Assessments

Any instrument or assessment used in an engagement is used to support reflection and planning. It is not a clinical or diagnostic instrument, and its results are not a clinical finding.

A good doctor does not prescribe what she has not examined.

Questions about scope?

Ask them in the consultation. It is the right place to find out whether this is the right kind of help.

The Leadership Doctor® · Encouraging and Empowering Excellence
franklin@leadershipdoctor.org · St. Louis, Missouri
THE LEADERSHIP DOCTOR is a registered trademark of Sharilyn D. Franklin, Ph.D., U.S. Reg. No. 5,324,707. © 2026 Sharilyn D. Franklin, Ph.D. All rights reserved.