How to Work With Vulnerable Clients: Extra Safeguards for Therapists, Coaches, and Wellbeing Practitioners

Working with vulnerable clients requires heightened awareness and specific protective measures beyond standard professional practice. Whether you're a therapist, life coach, or wellbeing practitioner, understanding how to identify vulnerability and implement appropriate safeguards protects both your clients and your practice from potential harm.

Client Vulnerability in Professional Practice

Vulnerability in professional practice goes beyond obvious categories like age or disability. A vulnerable client is anyone whose circumstances may impair their ability to make fully informed decisions, express concerns, or protect their own interests during your professional relationship.

Common indicators of vulnerability include recent bereavement, acute mental health episodes, cognitive impairments, substance dependencies, domestic abuse situations, or significant life crises such as divorce or redundancy. Financial hardship, language barriers, and social isolation also create vulnerability. Practitioners working with these populations need robust systems in place, and insurers like Westminster Insurance recognise this reality by offering professional indemnity coverage that accounts for these elevated risks.

Physical disabilities, learning difficulties, and age-related factors (both very young and elderly clients) require adjusted communication methods and consent procedures. Vulnerability isn't static – a previously capable client may become vulnerable due to changing circumstances.

Documentation and Informed Consent

Rigorous documentation forms your first line of defence when working with vulnerable populations. Standard consent forms often fall short for clients who may struggle to understand complex information or feel pressured into agreement.

Your consent process should include these adapted elements:

• Break information into smaller, manageable sections rather than present everything at once.
• Use plain language without professional jargon, and provide written materials in appropriate formats (large print, translated versions, or easy-read formats).
• Allow extended time for questions and verification of understanding through teach-back methods, where clients explain the information in their own words.
• Record who was present during consent discussions, particularly if family members or advocates attended.
• Document any capacity assessments you've conducted or concerns you've identified.

These practices create a clear record that demonstrates your duty of care and ethical decision-making if questions later arise about the client's ability to consent.

Capacity Assessment and Third-Party Involvement

Assessing a client's capacity to consent requires careful judgment. Capacity is decision-specific — someone may have capacity for straightforward decisions but struggle with more complex choices about treatment plans or financial commitments.

When to Involve Others

Consider involving family members, carers, or advocates when clients show difficulty retaining information between sessions, cannot weigh the benefits and risks of different options, or struggle to communicate their decisions consistently. However, always respect client confidentiality and autonomy. Involvement should support the client's decision-making rather than replace it.

Document your reasoning when deciding whether third-party involvement is appropriate. Note what steps you took to maximise the client's direct participation and how you balanced their autonomy with their need for support.

Boundaries and Power Dynamics

Vulnerable clients may develop dependencies that go beyond healthy therapeutic relationships. They might contact you excessively, expect availability outside agreed hours, or struggle to maintain appropriate personal boundaries.

Establish clear boundaries from your first session — define your availability, emergency procedures, session frequency, and the expected duration of your working relationship. Put these in writing and review them regularly. When boundaries blur, vulnerability increases and professional relationships risk becoming problematic.

Be particularly alert to transference and counter-transference dynamics. Vulnerable clients may idealise you or become overly dependent, while you might feel compelled to go beyond your professional role to "rescue" them. Supervision becomes essential for processing these dynamics safely.

Safeguard Responsibilities

All practitioners working with vulnerable adults or children must understand their safeguarding obligations. This extends beyond therapists to coaches, wellness practitioners, and anyone in a position of trust.

Key safeguarding practices include:

• Know your local safeguarding board's reporting procedures and keep contact details readily accessible.
• Understand the distinction between confidentiality and situations requiring disclosure (risk of harm to self or others, abuse, criminal activity).
• Keep detailed, objective records of any concerns, including dates, times, and specific observations rather than interpretations.

Never investigate concerns yourself — your role is to report, not to determine whether abuse has occurred. Trying to gather evidence can compromise formal investigations and put clients at greater risk.

Practical Risk Management

Beyond ethical obligations, practical risk management protects your business from liability claims. Ensure your professional indemnity insurance specifically covers work with vulnerable populations, as some policies contain exclusions for high-risk client groups.

Create a vulnerable client protocol for your practice that includes initial risk assessment, adapted consent procedures, enhanced documentation requirements, and clear escalation pathways when concerns arise. Review and update this protocol annually or when regulations change.

Consider whether you have adequate training and clinical supervision for the complexity of cases you're accepting. Working beyond your competence level puts both clients and your professional registration at risk. Being honest about your limitations and referring appropriately demonstrates professional integrity rather than weakness.

Working with vulnerable clients demands more time, more documentation, and more careful attention to ethical boundaries. Still, robust safeguards protect both your clients and your professional practice.