About Me

Lisa Capa

My background combines a working knowledge of the business world and skills for leading a very functional life with a unique knowledge of attention and an immersion in creativity. These life experiences give passion and power to my one-on-one attention coaching practice.

I entered into the business world in 1983 while still a student at the University of Washington, landing an internship at IBM. For the next fourteen years I ascended the career ladder in the computer industry. Upon graduating with a Bachelors of Science degree in Mathematics in 1984, I accepted an offer to work as a staff consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), the largest management and technical consulting company in the world. During the four years I worked throughout the U.S. on various software development projects, I was successful and enjoyed the challenges that each new assignment had to offer.

While working on a project in Chicago, a college friend called and asked if I would interview for an opening at Microsoft. I was hired as the product manager for Xenix (a Unix based operating system). After a year at Microsoft I moved to Denver to be with my fiancé. For two years I worked as an independent contractor on a $250M (1990 $’s) software development project. Colorado offered so much natural beauty—I had some incredible skiing and biking experiences. When we returned to Seattle, I had no difficulty obtaining employment in the expanding computer industry.

My last conventional job was at the University of Washington Medical Centers. As the Project Manager in the Information Systems department I led a four year project to design and implement a new patient registration system. While managing a budget of $2M (1994 $’s), I supervised twelve technical staff, coordinated a large number of end users throughout University of Washington Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center, and communicated with executives in both hospitals. After overseeing the installation of the system into both hospitals and training over one hundred users, I was ready for a significant change in direction and focus.

I left UWMC in 1997 and spent the next seven years exploring the areas of life I had ignored. One of my careers during this time included an immersion into creativity as a visual artist. For three years I combined my artistic ability and business skills and I sold my work at craft fairs, Seattle area stores, and on the internet. More importantly, I discovered the magic of being with and parenting my son, and I found a freedom that emerged through paying deep attention to my inner world. During part of the exploration process into this inner world, in January 1999 I met my mentors, Paul and Patty Richard of the Senté Center (www.sentecenter.com). Thus began a unique training to become a “Seer.”

What is a Seer? Paul Richard explains, “A Seer is an agent of change. He or she possesses real, concrete extraordinary powers of Energy, mastery of attention, and Intent. These are tangible, specific capabilities that allow Seers to lead remarkable lives. A Seer lives in two levels of awareness at once, simultaneously witnessing the ordinary perceptual world of physical reality and, more importantly, another entirely different nonordinary environment.”

I have also worked many years with Ernie Thayer (erniethayer.com) and Peter Nelson. The gift of their attention has changed me in significant ways.

In addition to working with my mentors, I completed the MBA program at Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) in Spring 2006. Upon completion of this program I thought I would re-enter the business world, but my passion led me in another direction. From my unique combination of fifteen years of accumulated experience and knowledge in the business world, eleven years of focusing attention on my inner world (with a resultant highly functional life), over ten years of training with my mentors, five years of teaching classes on the topic of attention, countless hours immersed in creative activity, and five years of involvement in sustainable business through BGI as a student, Teaching Assistant and co-instructor, I have fashioned an unprecedented contribution: I coach students and business people to help them harness the single most powerful tool with which they can bring about change – their attention.