Self Care Plan Template: Template, Example and Tips

A self care plan template is a one-to-two page worksheet a coaching client fills in to decide, in advance, how they will look after their body, mind, relationships, work and rest when life gets busy. The version below is free to copy. It covers five life areas, personal warning signs in three levels, daily and weekly actions, named support people, a clear line for when to bring in a licensed professional, and a review rhythm. It is written for life and wellness coaches to use with clients, not as a clinical safety plan.

We make Coachful, a coaching platform where this worksheet can be sent before a session, completed by the client in their branded app, and stored on the client record next to their goals, habits and check-ins. You do not need Coachful to use the template: a PDF or a shared document works. This guide shows where the plan sits in a coaching relationship, gives you the full text, explains every section, compares ways to deliver it and ends with a filled example for a fictional client.

Where does a self care plan sit in the coaching journey?

A self care plan usually belongs between the discovery call and the first full session, or at the start of a new phase with an existing client. Sent too early, it reads like homework from a stranger. Sent too late, the client has already slipped back into old patterns before you have agreed what "looking after myself" even means for them.

Here is the order most life and wellness coaches find workable:

1. Enquiry and booking. The client books a discovery or intake call and answers a few short intake questions. You learn why they came now.
2. Coaching agreement. Before the first paid session the client signs an agreement that states what coaching is, what it is not, and how confidentiality and referrals work. Our coaching contracts page covers this step.
3. Self care plan, part one. The client completes the five areas and warning signs on their own, ideally two to four days before session one, so they arrive having thought about it.
4. Session one. You go through the plan together, sharpen the daily and weekly actions, and agree the support people and the professional-help line.
5. Between sessions. Daily actions become tracked habits, warning signs become a short weekly check-in, and the plan becomes the reference point when the client says "I had a terrible week."
6. Review. Every four weeks, or at a program milestone, you revisit the plan and adjust it.

If you already use a broader coaching plan template, the self care plan sits underneath it. The coaching plan says where the client is going; the self care plan says how they will stay well enough to get there. For clients whose main goal is wellbeing itself, the self care plan can carry most of the program.

The self care plan template (copy and paste)

Copy everything below into your own document, form or program. Replace the [bracketed] text. The wording is written for the client to read, so you can send it as it is.

My self care plan

Name: [client name]  |  Coach: [coach name]  |  Date started: [date]  |  First review: [date, four weeks from now]

This plan is mine. It is a coaching tool for building routines that help me feel steady. It is not therapy, medical care or a crisis plan.

Section 1: Why I am making this plan now

1. What has happened recently that tells me I need to look after myself differently? [for example: two months of poor sleep, a new job, caring for a parent]
2. When I am at my best, what does an ordinary weekday look like? [describe it in three or four sentences]
3. What do I want to feel more of in the next 90 days? Pick up to three words. [for example: rested, patient, clear-headed]
4. What has stopped my past attempts at self care from lasting? [be honest: time, guilt, other people's needs, all-or-nothing thinking]

Section 2: My five areas

For each area, rate how it feels today from 1 (running on empty) to 10 (well looked after), then write what "enough" looks like for you. Enough, not perfect.

• Body (movement, food, water, medical appointments). Today: [1 to 10]. Enough looks like: [for example: a 20-minute walk five days a week and lunch away from my desk]
• Mind (stress, focus, worry, inputs such as news and social media). Today: [1 to 10]. Enough looks like: [for example: no phone for the first 30 minutes of the day; ten minutes of journaling on weeknights]
• Relationships (partner, family, friends, community). Today: [1 to 10]. Enough looks like: [for example: one unhurried call with a friend each week; dinner with my partner without screens twice a week]
• Work (hours, boundaries, meaning, money worries). Today: [1 to 10]. Enough looks like: [for example: laptop closed by 6:30 pm; one lunch break that is actually a break]
• Rest (sleep, downtime, fun, time in nature). Today: [1 to 10]. Enough looks like: [for example: in bed by 10:45 pm on weeknights; one unscheduled half-day each weekend]

Section 3: My early warning signs

These are the signals that tell me I am slipping. Write signs that someone could actually notice, not general feelings.

• Green (I am OK): [for example: I sleep through most nights, I reply to friends within a day, I still enjoy my Saturday walk]
• Amber (I am starting to slip): [for example: I skip lunch three days in a row, I cancel plans, I scroll in bed past midnight, I snap at my kids over small things]
• Red (I need more than this plan): [for example: I cannot get through a normal day for two weeks or more, I stop eating or sleeping properly, I am drinking to cope, I have thoughts of hurting myself]

When I notice amber signs, the first thing I will do is: [one specific action, such as "text my coach the word amber and go back to my minimum daily actions"].

When I notice red signs, I will contact: [GP or doctor, therapist, or a crisis line such as 988 in the US] and tell my coach that I have done so.

Section 4: My daily actions

Choose no more than three. Give each a minimum version for bad days.

1. [Action 1, for example: a 20-minute walk before work]. Minimum version: [for example: five minutes outside]
2. [Action 2, for example: write three lines in my journal before bed]. Minimum version: [one line]
3. [Action 3, for example: drink a glass of water before coffee]. Minimum version: [same; it takes 30 seconds]

The time and place I will do these: [for example: walk at 7:15 am from my front door; journal on the bedside table].

Section 5: My weekly actions

1. One thing that refills me: [for example: a swim on Saturday morning, a pottery class, an hour in the garden]
2. One connection I will make on purpose: [for example: call my sister on Sundays]
3. One thing I will stop or say no to: [for example: answering work email on weekends]
4. One admin task that lowers stress: [for example: plan the week's dinners on Sunday; book overdue dentist appointment]

Section 6: My support people

• Someone I can be honest with when I am struggling: [name and how to reach them]
• Someone who can take a practical task off me (childcare, a meal, a lift): [name]
• Someone who makes me laugh or helps me switch off: [name]
• My coach, and how I will reach them between sessions: [for example: message in the coaching app; replies within one working day]
• Professional support I already have or want to have: [GP, therapist, counsellor, dietitian, physiotherapist, or "none yet"]

Section 7: When I will bring in a professional

My coach is not a doctor, therapist or crisis service. I agree that I will contact a licensed professional, and let my coach know, if: [keep or edit this list]

• my red warning signs last for more than a few days;
• I have new physical symptoms, pain, or changes in eating, weight or sleep that worry me;
• I am using alcohol, drugs or other behaviours to get through the day;
• I have thoughts of self-harm or suicide (in that case I will contact emergency services or a crisis line straight away).

Section 8: Obstacles and if-then plans

1. If [obstacle, for example: I work late], then I will [response, for example: do the minimum version of my walk at lunchtime].
2. If [obstacle, for example: my partner is away and I am doing bedtime alone], then I will [response, for example: swap journaling for a voice note].
3. If I miss two days in a row, then I will [response, for example: restart with just one action, without catching up].

Section 9: How we will review this plan

• Weekly: I will answer a short check-in on my five areas and my warning-sign colour every [day of week].
• Every four weeks: my coach and I will spend part of a session reviewing what is working, what to drop and what to add.
• Next full review date: [date].

Section 10: Agreement

I wrote this plan with my coach's support. I understand coaching does not replace medical or mental health care. Signed: [client name]  |  Date: [date]

What does each section do, and what should you watch for?

Each section answers a different coaching question, and each has a typical way of going wrong. Use this table when you review a client's first draft.

If a client finds Section 1 hard to answer, a few prompts from our list of client self reflection journal prompts can help them get started before the session.

What must life and wellness coaches add before using it?

Four things: a scope-of-practice line, a safety and referral route, a decision about sensitive data, and a check of local rules. The template includes starting wording for the first two; the last two depend on how and where you work.

Scope of practice

Coaching is not treatment. A self care plan is about routines, priorities and support, and it should never diagnose a condition, recommend medication changes or promise to treat anxiety, depression, burnout or an eating disorder. The ICF Code of Ethics asks coaches to be clear about the nature and limits of coaching and to refer clients to other professionals when appropriate (see the ICF Code of Ethics). Keep Section 7 in every version you send, and say the scope line out loud in session one.

Safety and referral

Decide before you send the plan what you will do if a client writes something in the red column that worries you. At minimum, know the crisis number for the countries your clients live in. In the United States, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by call or text at 988. For general guidance on when to look for professional help, the US National Institute of Mental Health keeps a plain-language page on caring for your mental health that you can link for clients. Our guide to an online coaching emergency plan walks through the full set-up, and the client relapse prevention plan template covers the "what if I slip back" conversation in more depth.

Red flags that mean you pause the coaching plan and encourage the client to see a doctor or licensed mental health professional include: thoughts of self-harm or suicide; being unable to manage normal daily tasks for two weeks or more; significant changes in eating, weight or sleep; new or unexplained physical symptoms; and relying on alcohol or drugs to cope. You do not need to be certain; you only need to make the referral.

Sensitive data

A completed self care plan can hold health details, family situations and mental health history. Collect only what you need for coaching, tell the client where it is stored and who can see it, and do not ask for diagnoses or medication lists. If you work alongside a clinical team, clinical notes belong in a clinical system. Coachful, for example, is not HIPAA-certified and is not meant for clinical record-keeping, so keep the self care plan coaching-focused.

Local law

Privacy and consumer law differ by country and state. In the EU and UK, health information is special-category data under data protection law, which affects how you collect and store it. If you are unsure, ask a local lawyer or data protection adviser to look at your intake forms and privacy notice once; you can then reuse the wording.

How do you run a self care plan in Coachful?

In Coachful, the self care plan becomes part of the client journey rather than a file in someone's inbox: intake questions at booking, an agreement signed before the first call, the worksheet as a resource, daily actions as habits and warning signs as check-ins. Here is the sequence, with the screens a coach and a client see. Screens show demo data.

Step 1: Ask two intake questions when the client books

Add intake questions to the booking page for your discovery or first session. Two short ones are enough at this stage: "What made you look for support now?" and "Is there anything you would like me to know before we talk?" The answers land on the client record, and the Intakes page shows upcoming and converted intake calls.

Step 2: Send the coaching agreement before the first call

Coachful sends coaching agreements with e-signature before the first call and stores them on the client record. Put your scope-of-practice and referral wording in the agreement as well as in the plan, so the client sees it twice. You can also drop in a PDF the client has signed elsewhere.

Step 3: Add the worksheet as a resource

Forms & Worksheets is one of Coachful's resource types, alongside courses, downloads, videos and AI tools. Paste the template sections in as questions, or upload it as a PDF if you prefer the client to print it. Responses are stored with the client and included in the full client data export.

On the client side, the worksheet appears in their branded coaching hub, next to their next session and anything marked as required before it.

Step 4: Turn daily actions into habits

Each daily action from Section 4 becomes a habit with a streak. Clients tick them off in the app, and the minimum version can go in the habit description so they see it on a bad day.

If the plan sits under a bigger goal, such as "feel rested enough to go back to full-time work", link the habits and tasks to that goal. The goal view brings them together with daily and weekly reflection tabs.

Step 5: Use check-ins for warning signs and the review rhythm

Morning and evening check-ins come as ready-made coaching flows. A weekly check-in that asks for the five area ratings and the client's warning-sign colour (green, amber or red) is the simplest way to put Section 9 into practice. This short walkthrough shows how check-ins are set up.

Step 6: Watch the client list, not just the calendar

Every client record carries a status of thriving, active, quiet or at risk, alongside goals, check-ins, habits, notes and intake answers. A client who goes quiet after filling in amber twice is someone to message before the next session, not after it. Michelle, Coachful's built-in AI assistant, can also brief you on a client before a session using their live data.

Step 7: Put it inside a program if you run one

If you run a multi-week wellbeing program, the plan can be week one's main task, with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits and check-ins following from it. Clients who enrol in a group program are added to a cohort group automatically. Our 12 week coaching program template shows one way to lay that out, and invoices for the program are generated per transaction through your own Stripe or Razorpay account.

How else can you send and store a self care plan?

You can run this template with a PDF, a Google Doc, an e-signature tool or a practice management tool. The right choice depends on whether you want the plan to stay a document or turn into daily habits and check-ins the client actually sees. Prices are as listed by each vendor in October 2026.

A PDF is fine for a one-off workshop. Google Forms works if you are comfortable copying answers into your notes by hand. The practice tools in the table each document a client portal; Practice Better is aimed at wellness and nutrition practitioners and includes charting, while CoachAccountable, Satori, Simply.Coach, Paperbell and CoachVantage are aimed at coaches and differ mainly in how they count clients and what they include. Coachful is built for coaches who want the self care plan to become something the client does each day, with booking, agreements, habits, check-ins and payments under one login.

What does a filled-in self care plan look like?

Below is an example for a fictional client. Maya is 41, a secondary school teacher with two children, who came to a life coach in October after a term of broken sleep and skipped meals. Every detail is invented to show the level of specificity that works.

Example: Maya's self care plan (fictional client)

Why now. "Half-term arrived and I spent three days of it in bed feeling flat. When I'm at my best I walk the kids to school, eat lunch in the staff room and read before bed. I want to feel rested, patient and like myself again. My past attempts failed because I tried to change everything on the first Monday of January."

Warning signs. Green: "I wake up before my alarm and I'm reading again." Amber: "I mark in bed, skip lunch twice in a week, and cancel on Jo." Red: "I can't face going into school for several days, or I stop eating properly." Amber action: "Message my coach 'amber' and go back to minimum versions only." Red action: "Book a GP appointment and tell my coach I have."

Daily actions. (1) Walk to school with the kids; minimum: walk to the end of the road. (2) Lunch away from the desk; minimum: ten minutes. (3) Phone on the kitchen charger at 10 pm; minimum: same, no exceptions.

Weekly actions. Saturday swim; call Jo every other Sunday; stop answering parent emails at weekends; plan the week's dinners on Sunday afternoon.

Support people. Her sister Leah (honest conversations), her neighbour Sam (school pick-up on Thursdays), Jo (laughter), her coach (app message, replies within a working day), and her GP, whom she has not seen for a year and has agreed to book.

If-then plans. "If parents' evening runs late, then I skip journaling and just put the phone on the charger." "If I miss two days, I restart with the walk only."

Review. Weekly check-in on Sunday evenings; full review at session five, four weeks after the start.

Notice what the example does not include: no diagnosis, no medication, no promise that coaching will fix the low mood. The GP visit is there because Maya has not seen a doctor in a year and her rest score is 2, which is exactly when a coach encourages a check-up.

What mistakes make a self care plan fail?

Most self care plans fail because they are too big, too vague or never looked at again. These are the patterns to catch early:

• Too many daily actions. Five new habits on day one rarely survive week two. Three is the ceiling; one is fine.
• No minimum version. Without a bad-day option, a missed day feels like failure and the client stops.
• Feelings as warning signs. "Stressed" is not something a client can spot early. "Eating lunch at my desk three days running" is.
• Self care as only bubble baths. Saying no, sorting money admin and booking overdue appointments are self care too, and often the more useful parts.
• The coach as the only support person. It puts too much on one relationship and leaves gaps between sessions.
• Removing the professional-help section because it feels awkward. Keep it; the awkwardness is the point.
• No review date. A plan with no review becomes a document the client filled in once.
• Copying the coach's own routine. The 5 am run that works for you may not suit a parent of a newborn.

For clients who struggle to follow through, pairing the plan with a short goal commitment contract or the step-by-step layout in our coaching action plan template can help. You can also draft the steps in the free action plan tool and paste them into Section 4.

What is Coachful, and who is it for?

Coachful is a coaching platform that puts booking, payments, contracts, programs with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant under one subscription, with one login for the coach and one branded app for the client. It suits life and wellness coaches who deliver programs rather than only sessions, solo coaches growing into a small team, and coaches replacing four to six separate tools. See the life coaches and health coaches pages for niche detail, and the coaching forms and questionnaires page for more worksheets.

What it does not do: Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing, it does not accept PayPal, it has no permanent free plan, and it does not sync with Garmin, Fitbit, Whoop or Oura. Payments go through your own Stripe or Razorpay account with a 0% Coachful platform fee. Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. From Create, you can ask the Coachful team to build something for you, including a form or worksheet like this self care plan, a program, a journey or coaching flow, a website or a funnel. You describe what you want, attach reference links or files, and the team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. Nothing is invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. More detail is in our post on the free white-glove service.

To start, open a free trial, then request the white-glove build with this template attached, or paste the sections into a worksheet yourself.

Is this template legal, medical or financial advice?

No. This self care plan template is a coaching worksheet, not legal, medical, mental health or financial advice. It does not assess risk and it is not a clinical safety plan.

Ask a licensed clinician to review your version if you work with clients who are in treatment, recovering from an eating disorder, managing a chronic illness, or who have a history of self-harm, or if you want to add any question about symptoms or medication. Ask a lawyer or data protection adviser to review your agreement and privacy notice if you collect health details, coach clients across borders, or are unsure what your local consumer and privacy rules require. Rules vary by state and country.

Frequently asked questions

What should a self care plan include?

A useful plan covers five areas (body, mind, relationships, work and rest), early warning signs, two or three daily actions with minimum versions, a few weekly actions, named support people, a line for when to see a professional, and a review date. The template above includes all of these.

Is a self care plan the same as a safety plan?

No. A safety plan is a clinical tool for someone at risk of suicide or self-harm, usually built with a mental health professional. A coaching self care plan is about everyday routines and support, and it should point the client to professional help if red warning signs appear.

How long should a self care plan be?

One to two pages is enough. If the client cannot read their plan in two minutes, it is too long to use on a hard day. Cut sections the client leaves blank rather than pushing them to fill everything.

When should I send the self care plan to a new client?

After the coaching agreement is signed and two to four days before the first session works well. The client has time to think, and you can refine the answers together in session one.

How often should a client review their plan?

A short weekly check-in on the five areas and their warning-sign colour, plus a fuller review every four weeks or at a program milestone. Change the plan whenever life changes significantly, such as a new job, a move or a new baby.

Can I use this template with groups?

Yes. In a group program, ask everyone to complete Sections 1 to 5 on their own, then use the group call for sharing daily actions and if-then plans. Keep warning signs and support people private between you and each client.

What if a client writes something worrying in the red column?

Respond promptly, acknowledge what they wrote, and encourage them to contact their doctor, a licensed mental health professional or a crisis line. If you believe they are in immediate danger, follow your emergency protocol and contact emergency services. Record what you did.

Can I store a completed self care plan in Coachful?

Yes. Worksheet responses, intake answers, agreements, habits and check-ins are stored on the client record, and you can export the full client data as a ZIP. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified, so keep clinical notes in a clinical system.

What is Coachful's free white-glove service?

It is a build service included on every plan. You describe what you need, such as a self care worksheet, a wellbeing program or a booking funnel, attach references, and the Coachful team builds it in your account, usually within about 24 hours. It does not include recording videos, logo design or ongoing marketing.

Is this self care plan template free to use?

Yes. Copy it, edit it and use it with your clients. Adapt the wording to your niche, keep the scope and professional-help sections, and have it reviewed if you work with clinical populations.