Mark Cutter
The Man in the Purple Hat - Executive Coach, ADHD Coach and Disability Specialist
The Man in the Purple Hat - Executive Coach, ADHD Coach and Disability Specialist
I draw on my interdisciplinary training and lived experience to create a unique psychology informed coaching model.
Within the context of executive coaching and mentoring I am comfortable working with a wide range of life, work and wellbeing situations. I blend psychological, psychodynamic and executive coaching techniques to put the person at the centre of a relational model. This might also involve group, family or organisational coaching.
Whether you are looking for a coaching psychologist, executive coach or mentor please get in touch via email or the contact form to start a conversation.
In addition, I welcome the opportunity to work with neurodiversity, specific learning difficulties, and other constructs of disability within the coaching frame. I would be comfortable with the additional title of ADHD coach, but I find it slightly restrictive. ADHD is not the only form of neurodiversity that can benefit from the co-thinking approaches of psychology informed coaching.
Whether you are looking for a coaching psychologist, ADHD coach, neurodiversity coach, disability coach or mentor please get in touch via email or the contact form to start a conversation.
I collaborate with a diverse range of practitioners including coaches, psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, psychologists, counsellors, consultants, trainers, mentors, advocates and activists. If we are not the right fit, or I am not the right practitioner for you, I will happily signpost or refer you on if appropriate.
If Ken’s job in the recent Barbie (2023) movie is “beach”, then my job is “disability”. Or at least it feels that way. A firm believer in the social model of disability, I bring lived experience of physical disability, neurodiversity, mental ill-health and financial trauma to all the work that I do. In that regard I wear, and have worn, many figurative and literal hats in my life: many of them purple.
As an advocate, activist and critical thinker I have worked for many years to bring a pragmatic and persuasive disability voice to work in to fields such as hate crime, new technologies, public transport, healthcare systems, social security and the law. These and other projects have always been approached through the lens of my lived experience. Actually, that is not entirely true:
There was time in my life when, despite having been born with cerebral palsy and other physical disabilities, I did not identify as disabled.
There was a time in my life when I did not, and could not, acknowledge my relationship with my own physical and mental health. I did not identify as disabled, nor as having experience of mental illness. (In fact I prefer the term mental ill-health).
There was a time in my life when I did not understand the nature of my own neurodiversity and the impact it was having on my life. I did not identify as disabled, nor as having experience of mental illness, nor did I identify as neurodivergent.
There was a time in my life when I was unable to see the reality of my financial situation and to appreciate the impact that it was having on me and those around me. I did not identify as disabled, nor as having experience of mental illness, nor did I identify as neurodivergent, nor did I recognise the realities of financial trauma around me.
These four elements of my disability profile are each part of me, and have each impacted my life in different ways: some good, some bad, all challenging.
In addition, to my lived experience expertise. I am a polymath and I will never stop learning. Among other things, I have studied: law, politics, social science, philosophy, bioethics, psychoanalysis, psychology and business.
I learn from experience, and from every encounter with a client or colleague or other person. It took me a long time to be humble enough to understand the value of this learning. I enjoy writing poetry. I enjoy eating food with friends and family. I enjoy playing board games. I enjoy films and moving image. I learn from each of these things.
I love to read, but for many years a combination of mental ill-health and neurodiversity made this very difficult; if not impossible. I like to write, but for the same reasons at times I have struggled to be productive.
I like to talk. And I like to listen.
Stories are important.
There have been times in my life where I have felt like my life was saved by my therapist. And to that end I have begun a Doctorate in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy at the Metanoia Institute and Middlesex University.
Additionally, I have recently completed the academic stages of the ILM Level 7 Diploma in Executive Coaching and Mentoring. I am pleased to be able to offer my unique blend of lived experience and polymath learning to others in the form of coaching or co-thinking. I enjoyed my time as a social entrepreneur, but I cannot fully express the sense of isolation that I experienced while running my own business. I remember a close friend once described me as “seeming alone in a busy room”. I know I made mistakes. The results of those mistakes are well documented. It is only now, as I have studied psychology and business, psychoanalysis, counselling psychology and coaching that I have come to fully understand the realities of that was happening at that time, and how I and those around me were experiencing things. I often wonder if things might have been different if I had been prepared to acknowledge my vulnerability at that time and ask for help sooner. I certainly, feel that having access to a coach would have made a difference.
In addition to general executive coaching and mentoring, my unique approach to Psychology Informed Coaching being grounded in my lived experience and wider training allows me to have a second specialism in neurodiversity, ADHD, and disability coaching. (Once again, my job is “disability”).
In either case it is my goal to empower individuals and organisations to reach their full potential. I am currently enrolling new clients in both my general executive coaching and neurodiversity, ADHD, and disability coaching practices. Please get in touch if you would like to explore the posibility of working together.
Beyond coaching, I offer consultancy, training, speaking, chairing and facilitation services within the disability field and beyond. My diverse background and personal story bring depth and authenticity to my presentations and collaborations. If you’re looking to engage a passionate and knowledgeable speaker, trainer, facilitator, consultant, or chair please get in touch.
