• Structured: 
  The intervention enables the coach to move flexibly forwards and backwards through a defined step order, meeting the patient where they are at any time, and remaining focused on one ‘thread’ at a time. It is effectively a two-stage model. The first stage is Agenda-setting, Eliciting the Story and Establishing Importance and the second stage is Goal-setting and Goal follow-up. It is the middle step, ‘Establishing Importance’ that divides the two stages and it is around this ‘Importance line’ that the tension in the model sits i.e. where ownership is established.

• Agenda-free:
  The intervention is not focused on a predefined outcome, or at least not one defined by anyone other than the patient. It acknowledges the biopsychosocial aspects of health and takes the patient through a process that enables them to take ownership, recognise and make choices and achieve goals in line with what matters to them, problem-solve where necessary, and to build on their successes.

• Coaching: 
  The model uses a range of coaching skills, including listening skills, exploring ambivalence, goal-setting, problem-solving, importance and confidence scaling, along with coaching principles including building trust and rapport, remaining non-judgmental, maintaining boundaries, and returning responsibility.

The Conversation is how the coaching is presented by the coach and experienced by the patient.