Through the years, we at SeattleCoach have trained hundreds of senior leaders in technology, healthcare, faith communities, real estate, and other key sectors. Each one has become fluent in the skills, behaviors, and personal presence of coaching leadership.

Along the way, as we’ve learned from hundreds of SeattleCoaches and from the demands of this time in history, we have developed two proven SeattleCoach Training and Development tracks.

Track #1: Our Professionally Credentialed “Flagship Cohorts” (for ICF Certification)

In the spring of 2008, Patty Burgin began training small cohorts of mid-career professionals. In their own ways, each person had asked her some version of, “How do I learn to do what you do?” And each person was seeking certification in this emerging old/new profession of coaching. That same year SeattleCoach became a credentialed training provider of the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Since then, hundreds of mid-career executives have pursued the rigorous preparation required for professional certification. These small cohorts of allies have become known as SeattleCoach Flagship Cohorts.

Track #2: “Coaching for Leaders” (CFL)

Then in 2015, leaders and their organizations began to ask us for executive coaching education for their veteran leaders. This track could be briefer and more customized, but very effective in helping leaders to become better bosses. We listened and began to understand that this second wave would require three things:

1. Sponsoring executives who understood the value of coaching—and who wanted to build a coaching culture;
2. Leaders and people-managers who were raising their hands; and
3. External coaches (that’s us!) who knew how to facilitate and model the learning.

In response, we co-created rich cohort experiences for organizational leaders and their teams. Rather than focusing on professional credentialing, these veteran leaders and their sponsors are aiming to increase their leadership effectiveness. They too are SeattleCoaches. And they are building world-class coaching cultures. We called this second wave Coaching for Leaders (CFL).

SeattleCoach is the "craft brewery of leadership coaching." In everything we do, our goal is to start with world-class ingredients: our content, our process, and cohorts of people like you. Along the way we stay accessible and responsive, and we leave a coaching community of “Connection, Curiosity, and Challenge” in our wake. We charge for our work, but the affection is free.

Training with SeattleCoach takes place in stages. Each is highly interactive, building on individual strengths and team learning. As mentioned, we focus on bedrock coaching skills, the realities of human change management, and on each coach’s personal presence.

We ask that applicants to our programs bring a minimum of ten years of professional, academic or executive experience. Why ten years? Through the course of those years, most people experience significant change and challenge. There are big wins and maybe a few heartbreaks. Maybe in your relationships you’ve learned about your strengths and values, when you’re brilliant, and maybe even about what can make you annoying. In our programs, we build on all of that accumulated wisdom as each of our members develops as a coach.

We start with an informational interview during which we welcome your questions, find out about your background and goals. If green lights ensue for both of us, we’ll invite you to an orientation meeting and to collaborate on the meeting schedule for an upcoming Cohort.

At SeattleCoach we place a high value on face-to-face coach development. Whether virtual or at our offices on Lake Union in Seattle, our priority is on creating the most effective environment for coaches to grow within an alliance of great peers. We choose some terrific people as members of each Cohort. Your availability to your peer coaches and to coming to our times together well-prepared are keys to our success. In light of that, we ask that all coaches agree to a few things.

1. First is the highly personalized nature of our face-to-face training. Each Cohort meets for 30 two-hour meetings. Some of our Cohorts are “blended” with some meetings in-person at our offices on Lake Union along with some virtual meetings. Some of our Cohorts are completely virtual. Our goal is always to keep the face-to-face magic that has been our hallmark since 2008. Your weekly presence in our sessions is a big deal. 

2. In addition to our regular Cohort sessions, we’ll ask you to schedule an hour in break-outs for peer-coaching and practice between each session. You will coach, be coached, and observe along the way. And when we’ve concluded, the members of your Cohort will probably continue to grow with you as allies. This too is a big deal. 

3. The third factor is the full hour between each session of independent study and reflection. We call this “RPRP”—Review and Practice / Read and Prepare Your time in independent study is also required.

At the beginning of Module II you and the members of your Cohort will be listed with the larger SeattleCoach Network where you can add a link to your website, email address, or LinkedIn profile.

From the beginning of training, we practice The ICF Code of Ethics, beginning with the group's process and with their peer coaching. In our months together, you will be equipped, and you will also be coached by your faculty coaches and by other members of your Cohort. Expect to become a good coach and a better person. As a member of this training and development Cohort, and in the partner coaching that is part of it, we ask that you join us in agreeing to maintain the confidentiality of all information that is communicated to you by other group members. Progress is enhanced when group members discuss their work with trusted colleagues and friends outside of the Cohort. Even in these discussions, we’ll expect you to be very careful not to share any specific information belonging to others in your Cohort. 

And along the way, your faculty members will be accessible and responsive. You can count on our office hours—15 minutes before each session begins. This is your time to ask us questions, tell us stories, ask for review or more clarity, stuff like that.

Our goal with each SeattleCoach Cohort is to complete both foundational Modules within eight to nine months. Since we meet exclusively in face-to-face Cohorts, we know what a big collaborative commitment this requires. Here’s how we do it:

1. Once you’ve been accepted into the program, we ask you start reserving your Cohort’s specific meeting times for the full eight to nine months. Then we’ll send you the tentative schedule (skipping major holidays). You may miss up to 5 meetings total in Module I and Module II and receive full credit. 
2. If you have to be away for too many dates, we’ll ask you to consider a future Cohort. (We tend to launch two in the Fall and two in the Spring.)
3. Each Module includes a total of fifteen two-hour meetings, with an hour of required peer coaching between each, along with an hour or two of individual reading and study each week. Please plan to reserve Mondays through June.  
4. We ask that you pay special attention to our mentor coaching schedule in Module ll (classes 10-12). It is important that you do your best to attend these sessions as they account for 7 hours of required group mentor coaching.
5. Rarely, a participant finds out during Module I that their schedule has changed significantly and that they are unable to continue with their Cohort into Module II. When this happens, we’ll help the participant to join another Cohort as they enter Module II providing they can do that within twelve months.

Attendance is a big deal, not only for credentialing purposes, but because the Cohort needs you. If, after we’ve collaborated on scheduling, you miss a meeting of your Cohort, we’ll do our best to catch you up and will ask you to check in with your peer coaches to see what you missed. We will also request that you come for office hours with Faculty the next time your cohort meets. Faculty coaches are always available during “office hours” fifteen minutes prior to each of our meetings. If you miss more than four hours of training (i.e., two of our sessions), we will not be able to give you a completion certificate for your ICF credentialing purposes. In this rare occurrence, we’ll ask that you schedule a supplementary paid session with one of the faculty coaches at an additional expense to you. The session will count as a make-up for the time missed and you will get your completion certificate.

SeattleCoach is one of a very few internationally credentialed programs to be taught exclusively face-to-face. We think it makes for the most effective environment for developing coaches. 

Through the end of 2025, the combined tuition for Module I and II is $9,750 (or $10,095 if you pay with a credit card.). This includes:

1. Thirty weeks of intensive, face-to-face coach development within a Cohort of carefully selected mid-career professionals.
   
   • Sixty hours in sessions with your Cohort
   • Frequent written feedback from SeattleCoach faculty members
   • Seven hours of group mentor coaching (a professional credentialing requirement)
   • Thirty hours of directed independent study
   • Weekly real-time practice with peer coaches (in partial fulfillment of another professional credentialing requirement)
2. Hard + digital copies of The SeattleCoach Playbook: Module I and Module II.

Some coaches are not aiming at Certification with the ICF (at least initially). For those who are, these are the additional costs of the remaining requirements:

1. Once you are enrolled with SeattleCoach, you are invited to join the International Coaching Federation. The members fee (paid directly to the ICF): $245 annually.
2. And once you’ve completed Module II, you’ll pay SeattleCoach $1500 with covers three hours of required individual mentor coaching along your final performance review.
3. And then, as an ICF member, the ICF has a final charge of $175 when you’re ready to submit your application to take the credentialing exam.

That’s it! As the “small craft brewery” of ICF coach training programs, we pride ourselves in being accessible and responsive. Be in touch any time with further questions.

If, within twenty-four hours of the first meeting of Module I, a participant decides to withdraw, SeattleCoach LLC will make a full refund, minus your deposit. After that, we consider each coach a committed participant and tuition is non-refundable and can't be transferred for use in individual sessions.

SeattleCoach commits to acting with integrity and transparency. As a leader in providing quality coaching education, we hold ourselves and our participants to the highest level of integrityTo date we have trained over 600 coaches, many of whom are now internationally credentialed. These coaches are the key to our word-of-mouth expansion.

How we see ethical marketing:

• SeattleCoach supports each of our coachable participants with integrity and transparency. Through their grit, hard work, courage, and attention to the niche they want to serve, our coaches-in-training determine—and own—their outcomes. 
• Among the 600+ coaches we’ve graduated, we have welcomed participants from 5 continents, multiple races, ages, sexual orientations, faith backgrounds/traditions, veteran status, and people with disabilities. 
• As we move forward with the wise leadership of our faculty, we are unwavering in our organization's commitment to high standards, and to equality of support, challenge, belonging and opportunity for our participants.
• In addition, as members of the ICF community, we ascribe to the core values of integrity, excellence, collaboration and respect, and the ICF Code of Ethics.
• At SeattleCoach we talk about how human brains and human systems metabolize and move through change. Sustainable change is never through commands for compliance. Instead, sustainable change comes in stages that are undergirded by connection, good faith, and what we see now as good coaching behavior. Great coaches are open to what they don't know.
• We give visibility to the "SeattleCoach Rules" that continue to guide us in our conduct. We know they align well to the ICF ethical standards and core competencies.
• All prospective and active participants are invited to bring their concerns and requests to a faculty member. We will address any concern to the best of our ability to make accommodations whenever possible. 

Click here to review our convictions about "belonging, equality, and opportunity."

SeattleCoach seeks to ensure fair treatment of each of our participants and to attempt to solve any concerns in a timely manner. Concerns about our content, faculty, and virtual and brick-and-mortar classrooms will be addressed to the best of our ability. Here’s our process: 

1. A participant should first take their concerns directly to their teaching team. If they prefer, they are also welcome to...
2. Contact our Director of Training within five working days. The Director of Training will review the issue and then contact the participant within 48 hours to begin to explore the most generative ways of resolving the issue. It is our practice to keep confidential documentation of this process. 
3. If a participant still does not feel the issue is resolved, they are free to continue the conversation with the Director of Training who will then provide a final written response within five working days. All appeal decisions are final.

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