Terms
Terms and conditions
Written to be read, not to be impenetrable. If anything here is unclear, ask me and I will explain it in plainer words still.
Last updated 29 August 2026. These terms apply to coaching bought from Steven Pocula Coaching Limited, and to your use of this website.
The coaching agreement · Cancellation and refunds · Website terms
The coaching agreement
Who you are contracting with
Coaching is provided by Steven Pocula Coaching Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 17339169, registered office Unit 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Lytchett Matravers, Poole BH16 6FA. Referred to below as “I” or “me”.
A contract comes into existence when you pay for a session or block of sessions, or when you accept a written proposal for group coaching or team training. Buying online means accepting these terms.
What I provide
One-to-one coaching sessions of 60 to 90 minutes, or group sessions and training days as agreed, delivered online or in person. Programmes are designed after an assessment, and the scope, number of sessions and cost are confirmed with you in writing before the work begins.
I am a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council and work to the EMCC Global Code of Ethics. If you ever think I have fallen short of it, say so — see complaints below.
What you agree to
Coaching only works if you turn up and do the work. So: attend the sessions you have booked, arrive ready to think, be honest about what is actually going on, and make a reasonable attempt at anything we agree between sessions. None of that is a legal trap — it is simply what makes the money worth spending.
You remain responsible for your own decisions and actions. Coaching helps you think more clearly; it does not take the decisions for you.
Confidentiality
What you say in a session stays between us. I will not disclose anything you tell me, or the fact that you are working with me, without your consent.
Three exceptions, and they are the standard ones. I may disclose where the law requires it; where there is a serious risk of harm to you or to someone else; and, in anonymised form, when discussing my practice with a professional coaching supervisor, who is bound by the same confidentiality.
Where an employer is paying, we agree at the outset exactly what does and does not get reported back — normally themes and progress, never the content of what you said.
I keep brief session notes so that sessions build on each other. How long they are kept and what happens to them is set out on the privacy page.
Coaching is not therapy or medical treatment
Coaching is forward-looking work on performance, decisions and leadership. It is not counselling, psychotherapy, or medical or psychiatric treatment, and it is not a substitute for any of them.
If something surfaces that would be better addressed by a different kind of professional, I will tell you plainly and, where I can, point you towards the right sort of help. If you are already receiving treatment, coaching can usually sit alongside it — but that is a conversation to have with the professional treating you.
What is and is not guaranteed
I guarantee that the coaching is delivered with reasonable care and skill, by a qualified and insured coach, and that it is what I described when you bought it. If it is not, tell me: you are entitled by law to have it put right, and if it cannot be put right, to an appropriate reduction in what you paid.
I do not guarantee a particular outcome — a promotion, a pay rise, a specific business result. No honest coach can, any more than a trainer can guarantee a marathon time. The outcome depends on both of us.
Liability
Nothing in these terms limits my liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited — and nothing here affects your statutory rights as a consumer.
Subject to that, and because you remain responsible for your own decisions, I am not liable for business losses, lost profits, lost opportunities or losses that were not reasonably foreseeable. Where I am liable, my liability is limited to the amount you paid for the coaching concerned.
I hold professional indemnity and public liability insurance. Details on request.
Complaints
Tell me first, by email to info@stevenpocula.com or by phone. I will acknowledge within three working days and give you a considered response within fourteen. Most things are fixable in one conversation.
If you are not satisfied with my response, you may raise the matter with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council under its complaints procedure, since I am bound by its code of ethics.
Changes to these terms
I may update these terms from time to time. The version that applies to your coaching is the version published when you bought it, and I will tell you in writing if anything material changes during a programme already underway.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.
Cancellation and refunds
Individual coaching
This covers Personal Performance and Living Leadership — anything you buy for yourself.
Moving a session
Life happens, and I would always rather move a session than have you sit through one you cannot concentrate in. Give me 48 hours’ notice and we will find another time at no cost.
Inside 48 hours I will move a session once as a matter of goodwill. Beyond that, a late-cancelled session counts as used — the time was held for you and cannot be filled at short notice.
If you do not attend and I have not heard from you, the session counts as used.
Your 14-day right to change your mind
Because you buy online without meeting me first, you have 14 days from the moment of purchase to cancel and receive a full refund. Any reason, or none. You do not have to have spoken to me.
One exception. If you ask me to begin within those 14 days and I do, and you then cancel, I refund what you paid less the value of any sessions already delivered. By booking a session inside that window you are asking me to start early and agreeing to that deduction.
How long your sessions last
Blocks of sessions stay valid for 12 months from purchase. If something significant happens — illness, bereavement, a family crisis — talk to me. I would far rather extend it than have you lose what you paid for.
If I have to cancel
You choose: another time, or a full refund of that session. If I cannot continue a programme at all, I refund every session not yet delivered.
Group coaching and team training
These are agreed with an organisation rather than an individual, so the 14-day consumer right above does not apply. Dates are held once confirmed in writing.
More than 30 days’ notice
Full refund, or reschedule free of charge
15 to 30 days’ notice
Half the agreed fee
14 days or fewer
The full agreed fee
These are not penalties. A training day in the diary is a day I have turned other work away for, and at short notice it cannot be filled.
Where travel or accommodation has already been booked and cannot be refunded, those costs are payable in addition — at cost, and evidenced.
If I have to cancel, you choose new dates or a full refund, and I will cover any non-refundable costs you have incurred as a direct result.
Refunds
Within 14 days. Individual coaching bought online can be cancelled for a full refund, less the value of any sessions already delivered at your request. Email me and I will process it.
After 14 days. Once a programme is underway I do not refund sessions still to come, other than in the circumstances below. Coaching depends on both of us turning up and doing the work, and I cannot guarantee an outcome any more than a trainer can guarantee a marathon time.
What I do guarantee is that the coaching is delivered with reasonable care and skill, and that it is what I described when you bought it. If it is not, tell me. You are entitled by law to have it put right, and if it cannot be put right, to an appropriate reduction in what you paid. I would much rather hear it from you directly than have you sit on it.
If your circumstances change substantially — serious illness, bereavement, redundancy — talk to me. I will look at it properly rather than pointing at a policy.
How refunds are made. Always to the original payment method, usually within five working days and never more than fourteen. Card refunds can take a few days more to appear, depending on your bank. Invoiced work is refunded by bank transfer to the originating account.
Payment
Individual and leadership coaching is paid by card at the point of purchase, through Stripe. I never see or hold your card details. Group coaching and team training are invoiced against a purchase order, payable within 30 days of the invoice date unless we agree otherwise in writing.
I am not VAT registered, so no VAT is added to any price.
Nothing here removes your legal rights
You have rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Nothing on this page reduces them, and if anything here conflicts with them, the law wins.
Website terms
Using this site
You are welcome to read, print and share anything here for your own use. Please do not republish it as your own, sell it, or use it to train a commercial model. The text, images and programme materials on this site belong to Steven Pocula Coaching Limited.
You are welcome to link to any page on this site without asking.
The free assessments
The self-assessments are provided free for personal use. They are prompts for reflection, not diagnostic instruments, and nothing in them is a professional assessment of any kind.
Accuracy
I keep the site accurate and current, but I do not warrant that everything on it is complete or error-free, or that the site will always be available. Prices are those shown at the moment of purchase.
Other people's sites
Where this site links elsewhere, or embeds a booking calendar or payment page, those services are run by other companies under their own terms. I am not responsible for their content.
Questions about any of this: info@stevenpocula.com or +44 7896 168024.