Coaching terms.

What these terms cover

These terms cover the free introductory call that can be booked from this site, and they set out the basis on which other work is discussed.

They are not a complete contract for paid work. Coaching paid for by an employer, advisory work, and talks and workshops are each set up under their own written agreement covering scope, fees, dates and cancellation. Where such an agreement says something different from this page, that agreement governs.

What is offered

• A free introductory call. Fifteen minutes, booked through this site. You describe what is going on, and the aim is to leave with one clear next step.
• Career and leadership coaching. A short series of sessions, described on the site as arranged and paid for by an employer.
• Advisory work. Ongoing advice for career services, education and career technology teams.
• Talks and workshops. Keynotes and working sessions.

Only the introductory call can be booked directly from this site. The rest begins with a conversation. Coaching is currently arranged with employers rather than sold directly through this site. If that changes, prices, taxes and a cancellation and refund policy will be published here before anything is sold.

Booking a call

Calls are booked through Calendly, a scheduling service. You pick a time, answer a few short questions, and Calendly sends you a confirmation with the appointment details and a link to change or cancel it.

By booking you confirm that you have read these terms, the privacy policy and the disclaimer, and that the information you give is accurate.

A booking is confirmed when Calendly sends the confirmation. A time can be declined or moved if it turns out not to be workable, and you will be told if that happens.

What the introductory call is, and is not

Fifteen minutes is enough to understand one question and find one next step. It is not enough for a full assessment of your career, a review of your documents, or a coaching programme. It is a first conversation, and it is offered as one.

If more would help, what that could look like is discussed on the call. There is no obligation on either side to go further.

As the site says, students currently enrolled at a college or university already have a career centre that is free and built for them, and that is the better place to start.

What is expected of you

• Arrive at the agreed time, ready to talk.
• Describe your situation honestly. Advice can only be as good as what it is based on.
• Cancel or move a booking you cannot keep, so the slot can go to someone else.
• Treat the conversation as a conversation between adults, in good faith.
• Make your own decisions, and take your own professional advice where a decision needs it.

Fees

The introductory call is free. No payment is taken on this website, and the site holds no payment details and no card information.

Paid work is quoted in advance in writing. A quote states the fee, what it covers, any applicable taxes, how and when to pay, and what happens if the work changes. Nothing is payable until that is agreed in writing.

No fee is published on this site, because the introductory call is free and paid work is quoted case by case. Any tax that applies will be shown on the quote and on the invoice.

Moving, cancelling and missed appointments

Your confirmation email from Calendly carries a link to reschedule or cancel. That is the quickest way to change a booking, and it frees the time for someone else.

Please give as much notice as you can. A call can also be moved from this side if something unavoidable comes up, and the earliest alternative will be offered.

If you do not arrive, the slot is treated as used. Nothing is charged for a missed introductory call, because the call is free.

No fixed notice period applies to the free introductory call. For paid work, the notice period, cancellation, rescheduling and refunds are governed by the written agreement for that work.

If paid services are sold through this site

This section is here because it will matter later rather than now. Nothing is sold through this site today.

Selling a service online to a consumer in Canada engages provincial consumer protection law. In British Columbia, for example, the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act treats such a sale as a distance sales contract, and it requires that the supplier give the consumer specified information before the contract is made, give them a chance to review the contract, and send a copy afterwards. It also gives the consumer rights to cancel in defined circumstances, and requires a refund within a set period after a valid cancellation. Equivalent rules exist in other provinces.

Nothing is sold through this site today, so none of that applies yet. If paid services are ever offered here, the required information, including a cancellation and refund policy, will be published and shown before payment rather than after it.

Confidentiality

What you say in a call, and what you write in the booking questions, is treated as confidential. It is not shared, and it is not used as an example in writing or in a talk, unless you agree to that.

Honest limits on that:

• Scheduling details sit with Calendly, as the privacy policy explains.
• Information may be disclosed where the law requires it, or where there is a serious risk of harm to you or to someone else.
• General patterns, with nothing that identifies anyone, may inform what is written or taught. Your situation, your employer and your details are not.
• Where an employer pays for coaching, what is reported back to that employer is agreed in writing before the work starts, and you will be told what it covers.

Coaching is not a regulated profession in Canada, so what you say in a call does not carry the legal privilege that attaches to a conversation with a lawyer, nor the statutory confidentiality of a regulated health record.

Coaching is not a regulated profession

Career and leadership coaching is not a regulated profession in Canada. There is no licence to hold and no professional college overseeing it. What stands behind this practice is experience and the training described on the about page, which notes MBTI certification and a master's in organisational leadership in progress.

This is not counselling, psychotherapy or psychological assessment. It is not legal advice, financial or investment advice, tax advice, immigration advice, or medical advice. If your question turns out to be one of those, you will be told so and pointed towards someone qualified to answer it. The disclaimer covers this in full.

No guarantee of outcomes

No particular result is promised. Nobody can promise you a job, an interview, an offer, a promotion, a salary, an admission or a visa, and nothing said on a call should be read as such a promise.

What is offered is attention, experience, and an honest view of your situation. What happens next depends on what you do, on who is hiring, and on a good deal of circumstance that neither of us controls.

Materials

Any framework, worksheet, template or written material shared with you stays the property of Dinuka Gunaratne. You get a licence to use it for yourself, for as long as you like.

Please do not redistribute it, use it with your own clients, put it into a programme at your organisation, or publish it, without asking. Where work is produced specifically for an organisation under an agreement, that agreement says who owns it, and ownership should be settled there rather than assumed.

Notes you make are yours. Notes made on this side are kept as described under retention in the privacy policy.

An independent practice

Dinukafication is Dinuka Gunaratne's own practice. It is separate from his employment, from the university where he works, and from the boards and associations he serves on. He does not act for any of them here, and nothing on this site or said on a call is given on their behalf or represents their views.

Engagements are not accepted where they would conflict with those duties. If a conflict appears, it will be raised, and the work will be declined or handed on.

Limits on liability

Decisions about your career, your job search and your working life are yours. To the extent the law allows, no liability is accepted for a decision you make after a call, or for any loss of opportunity, earnings or profit that follows from it.

As with the terms of use, this limit goes as far as the law allows and no further. Canadian consumer protection law makes some warranties impossible to exclude, exclusion clauses are read narrowly against the party relying on them, and nothing here limits liability for fraud, for fraudulent misrepresentation, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

Nothing here takes away a right you have as a consumer under the law of your own province.

Disputes

If something goes wrong, raise it at dinukagunaratne@gmail.com first. Most problems are a misunderstanding and can be sorted out in a conversation.

If that does not resolve it, both sides will attempt to settle the matter in good faith before starting proceedings. These terms are governed by the laws of British Columbia, and proceedings are to be brought in the courts of British Columbia. Nothing here prevents either side from using a small claims procedure, or removes a consumer's right to rely on the law and the courts of their own home jurisdiction where that right exists.

Changes to these terms

These terms may change. The version that applies to a booking is the version on this page at the time of the booking, with its date at the top. A paid engagement is governed by the terms in its own written agreement.