If you're thinking about creating your first group coaching program, you've probably wondered how long it should run. Four weeks? Six? Eight? Or perhaps several months?
Personally, I like six-week programs. I find that six weeks gives you enough time to work meaningfully on a particular topic without asking participants to make a huge commitment. Of course, it depends on what you're planning to do and the kind of experience you want to offer.
Key Takeaways
- Six weeks is usually my preferred length for a personal development group coaching program.
- Four weeks can work well for one specific challenge, while more complex topics may need eight weeks or longer.
- For experiential group coaching, I recommend six to eight participants and sessions lasting 90–120 minutes.
- Leave enough room for conversation, individual coaching, and exercises rather than filling every session with content.
- Weekly meetings give participants time to apply what they've explored and bring their experiences back to the group.
How Much Time Do You Actually Need?
Let's say you're planning a group coaching program on setting personal boundaries. Over four weeks, you could help participants recognize situations where they struggle to say no, explore what's holding them back, and begin responding differently. But if you also want to spend time working with guilt, fear of other people's reactions, and the habit of putting everyone else's needs first, you might prefer six or eight weeks. It's the same topic, but you're approaching it in greater depth.
Public speaking is another good example. If your goal is to help people become more comfortable with the discomfort they experience when speaking in front of others, four two-hour sessions may be enough. But if you also want to help them prepare business presentations, handle questions, and practice speaking in different situations, you'll need more time. Before deciding how many weeks your program should last, I'd first ask what you actually want to help participants accomplish.
Don't Underestimate How Much Time Goes Into Group Discussions
This is something that's easy to overlook, especially when you're designing your first group coaching program. Imagine you have eight participants and a two-hour session. At the beginning, you invite everyone to briefly share what they've experienced since the previous meeting. If each person speaks for just five minutes, you've already used forty minutes. And you haven't even started working on the main topic.
That's one reason I prefer smaller groups, usually six to eight participants. I like having enough time to give each person some attention and explore whatever comes up naturally during a session. You can certainly run group coaching programs with fifteen or twenty people, but you'll need to organize the sessions differently.
For experiential group coaching, I'd generally recommend sessions lasting 90 to 120 minutes. That gives you room for discussion, exercises, and some individual coaching within the group. And one more thing: don't feel you have to fill every minute with planned content. Sometimes a participant brings up something that turns out to be relevant to everyone, and it's worth spending more time on that conversation instead of rushing into the next exercise.
Why I Prefer Weekly Sessions
A lot can happen between two coaching sessions. For example, someone might recognize during a workshop how difficult it is for them to set boundaries. A few days later, they find themselves in a situation where they would normally agree to something they don't want to do. This time, perhaps they respond differently. Or perhaps they say yes again. Either way, they now have a real experience to bring back to the next session. And that gives us something useful to work with.
That's why I like meeting once a week. Participants have time to try things out in everyday life, but the gap isn't so long that they lose their connection with the group or the work we're doing. For some programs, meeting every two weeks makes sense, especially when participants need more time to take practical steps between sessions. But for shorter personal development programs, I'd usually choose a weekly schedule.
What I'd Recommend for Your First Program
If you're just getting started with group coaching, I'd suggest choosing one specific topic and building a six-week program around it. Plan one two-hour session per week and keep the group to six to eight participants. That's twelve hours of coaching, which can be plenty if you're clear about what you want to focus on.
And please don't try to squeeze everything you know into those twelve hours. It's an easy trap to fall into, especially when you have plenty of experience and lots of techniques you'd love to share. I'd rather see you choose a few things and give participants enough time to really experience them.
After your first group, you'll have a much better idea of what worked, where you needed more time, and what you could have left out. You can use that experience to adjust your next program. Perhaps you'll discover that four weeks would have been enough, or that eight would have worked better. You don't have to figure all of that out before you begin. We're learning through experience, too.
This article is adapted from the TT Coaching - Become a Certified Holistic Life Coach training program, where we also explore how to design and facilitate group coaching programs.
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