About SeattleCoach: Patty’s POV
In the late 1990s, when I began to pay attention to the emergence of the new profession of Executive Coaching, I was still practicing as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Pastoral Counselor. I began to notice that many of my favorite therapy clients were saying things like, 'Patty, I'm just fine. I'm not anxious or depressed. I know myself pretty well and my relationship is great.' Then, just as I thought their next words would be, 'So, thanks. I think I'm done.' They would say, 'But I don't want to stop coming here.'
Listening to these great teachers, many of whom were accomplished leaders of organizations, I remember tipping my head a little and asking, 'What would we talk about?'
They helped me to refine my direction as as professional coach, facilitator, speaker, and author. In the years that have followed, I've learned the craft and presence of coaching, established SeattleCoach and was awarded the designation of Master Certified Coach by the International Coach Federation. Along the way I launched the SeattleCoach Professional Training and Development Company (2008). And since then, we've trained over 500 professional coaches and coaching leaders.
My goal is for SeattleCoach to keep an energizing blend of the conventional and the innovative. We are positive, optimistic, competitive, and hard-working. Plus, we are a very connected and fun tribe of ambitious people.
I think of us as the small craft brewery of coaching programs. This means that we start with fantastic ingredients (people like you), add some world-class content and process, and then blend in grace, truth, time, and connection. It's true, our goal is to get coaches through our training and development--but our goal is also to patiently make sure that our training and development gets very sustainably through you.
About Patricia Burgin
Patricia Burgin has helped to develop a generation of coaches and coaching leaders.
As a leader, facilitator, speaker, supervisor, and coach of leaders, Patricia ("Patty") Burgin has advised and mentored thousands of individuals and teams toward better performance, communication and meaning. She is the author of the new and best-selling overview of leadership coaching, The Essential Coaching Leader, and of The Coaching for Leader's Playbook.Following stints in the international leadership of a Christian non-profit, as a campus chaplain, conference speaker, as a tour leader in the former Soviet Union, and as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Patty founded SeattleCoach in 2002 and began to coach and facilitate exclusively in 2005. She holds two master's degrees, one in Theology and a second in Applied Behavioral Science. In addition, she has joined the top three percent of credentialed coaches worldwide to have been awarded the title of "Master Certified Coach" by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
In 2008 she launched The SeattleCoach Professional Coach Training and Development Program for executives who see coaching as an extra--and increasingly essential--gear in their leadership engine. The program is accredited by the ICF, and over 600 "SeattleCoaches" who have completed the training, or soon will, are having an impact on the West Coast and beyond as both external coaches and as better leaders on the inside of great companies and organizations, including the customized Coaching for Leaders programs at Microsoft and Vulcan and at UW Medicine/Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Whether it’s a class or a keynote, Patty values insight-creation as the crucial component of content delivery. “I love it when my brain lights up,” she says, “And it’s even better when everyone else's brains light up.” She works with an approach that is warm, practical, innovative, direct, playful, and generous.Patty embraces a life-long enthusiasm about American history, and gratitude for our founding documents and stories as we journey toward a "more perfect Union." As a native of the Pacific Northwest, she loves just about everything about it: the water, the coast, the mountains, the great IPAs and “not having to squint as much as Californians do.” During her freshman year at Oregon State University, she was named "Smart Ass of the Year" by members of her sorority. She lives near the Seattle Zoo with her partner, Dr. Kari, a veterinarian, and with The Lamb, Winston, Clementine, and Beeper.
With Patty's background as a competitive rower, and as past president of Interlochen Rowing Club in Seattle, she sometimes takes executive teams out on the water with her. When a team sits together to find balance in a racing shell (60' x 18"), the experience quickly produces both soggy metaphors, and spectacular team learning.
Her faith still informs her life and work, helping her to explore how human brains and bonds flourish, how we make sense of the tough stuff, and how we live out the big "what's-it-all-about" questions that we share through the arcs of our lives. She thinks excellent coaching is like grace: rarely intrusive, usually disruptive, more nuanced than announced, and just as much about "how" as "what."
The Big Idea Behind “Coachable!” The Substack
Through the years I’ve written and recorded a lot of coachy stuff. And lately I've noticed that my poor website has reached a tipping point. It needs to go on a diet.
Plus, I wanted to make things more searchable!
So, after a lot of looking around, I've decided to start posting my interviews and resources on Substack.
And later this year or in early 2025, I will introduce a paid subscriber option that will give you access to an even larger conversation:
Every new article, story, essay, update, tool, and interview will go directly to your inbox,
You’ll hear from guest SeattleCoach thought leaders, and
You’ll be invited to live, thirty-minute topical Zoom sessions where I’ll demo advanced techniques, and
We’ll talk about the necessary growth of coaching in this weird moment in history.
And, of course, as a subscriber, you’ll be an active part of a remarkable tribe that’s changing the world a little.
