Group Coaching Skills for Health and Care Professionals

The Group Coaching Skills for Health and Care Professionals programme will run on Wednesday, 15th July 2026.  Timings for the day will be 09:15 meet/registration for a 9:30 start, with a 16:00 finish.

Across health and care services, more practitioners are being asked to deliver group consultations, group interventions and group education sessions.

In many cases, this is being driven by the need to increase capacity, improve efficiency and reduce costs, while still offering meaningful support to patients, carers and communities.

There is real potential in this approach. When group-based work is designed and facilitated well, it can strengthen peer support, increase shared learning, support self-management and make better use of limited resources. But this only works when it is done properly.

Working with a group is not simply an extension of one-to-one coaching. It is a different discipline. It requires additional skills, different forms of preparation and the ability to work actively with group dynamics, participation, challenge and flow. In practice, many professionals find that group work can be more complex than individual work, even when they already feel confident in one-to-one coaching conversations.

This one-day programme is designed to support practitioners who already have coaching skills and now need to use those skills effectively in group settings.

It is particularly relevant for professionals working in primary care, secondary care, community health services and the voluntary and community sector, especially where they are supporting patients, carers and community-focused groups through:

• group consultations
• self-management programmes
• treatment groups
• behaviour change interventions
• group education sessions
• community wellbeing groups
• other team or group-based health and wellbeing interventions

Who should attend

This programme is for health and care professionals who already use coaching skills in one-to-one practice and want to strengthen their ability to lead group-based interventions well. It will be particularly useful for people who are:

• being asked to facilitate group consultations as part of service redesign
• delivering or developing patient-facing or community-facing group interventions
• supporting self-management, recovery, prevention or behaviour change in groups
• looking for more confidence and structure in group facilitation

Because the day builds on core coaching capability, it is open to those who have already completed some form of coaching skills training. The workshop assumes prior knowledge of coaching and focuses on the additional skills and thinking needed for effective group work.

Why this programme matters

Many practitioners discover that group work asks more of them than one-to-one coaching. In a group, you are not only listening and responding to one individual. You are holding the needs of the whole group, noticing interaction, managing time and energy, encouraging participation, working with difference and responding skilfully when things become difficult.

To deliver a group or team intervention well, practitioners need more than good intentions. They need practical ways to structure the session, create safety, support contribution, manage challenge and maintain purpose.

There are many things a coach can learn to improve their effectiveness in this domain. This workshop offers a practical space to develop that understanding and capability.

What you will learn

During the day, participants will explore:

• Why group coaching is growing in health and care
  You will consider why services are increasingly using group consultations and group interventions, and what needs to be in place for these approaches to be effective rather than simply efficient.
• How group work differs from one-to-one coaching
  You will explore the distinct demands of group work and why coaching in a group setting requires more than transferring one-to-one techniques into a room with several people.
• How to structure and organise a group intervention
  You will look at how to plan and shape different kinds of interventions, including self-management groups, treatment groups, group consultations and group education sessions. This includes clarifying purpose, flow, boundaries, participation and outcomes.
• Facilitation skills for effective group work
  You will strengthen your ability to facilitate interaction, reflection and peer learning in a way that keeps the group purposeful, inclusive and engaging.
• Understanding group dynamics and group roles
  You will consider how roles emerge in groups, how dynamics affect participation and what facilitators can do to work skilfully with the group as a whole.
• Managing difficult people and challenging situations
  You will think through practical approaches to managing dominant participants, quieter voices, resistance, tension, emotional moments and other common challenges in group settings.
• Goal setting in a group context
  You will explore how to approach individual and group goal setting in ways that are meaningful, realistic and appropriate to the purpose of the intervention.
• Delivering confidently online or face to face
  You will reflect on how format affects engagement and facilitation, and what helps practitioners lead groups well in different environments.
• Evaluating impact
  You will explore how to assess the value and impact of your group coaching or group intervention for participants, services and wider outcomes.

What the day includes

This is a practical and applied workshop. Participants will have opportunities to:

• discuss the real challenges they are facing in group work
• bring questions from their own practice
• think through how to set up and structure effective group interventions
• develop greater confidence in facilitation and delivery
• learn approaches that can improve effectiveness in both virtual and face-to-face settings

Discounted fee: £179 + VAT per person for those who have previously completed training or supervision with us