You could probably get away with "consulting" if the consultant is working on the site with you. Direct coaching isn't something people take kindly to.
You can learn whitehat yourself. Just look up guides for "on-page seo" and make sure your site is up to par.
The only "whitehat" link building I can think of are press releases, organic social media, business reviews (if your site is about a brick and mortar business). That encompasses most of what Google defines as playing by the rules... Although I'm not sure how far it'll get you.