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 ofADHD 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.
I have worked as an activist in the field of disability travel / accessible travel for many years, and recently I have been grateful for the opportunity to take more of a leadership role in the field, having been appointed by Northern Rail to the role of Chair of Northern’s Accessibility User Group (NAUG). In addition to working with Northern in this role; I also chair the Rail Accessibility and Inclusion Forum for the North (RAIFN). RAIFN brings together all of the train operating companies (ToCs) that connect people and places to, from and within the north. In both roles, I am able to bring my wholeself to the table: holding space for difficult conversations and facilitating dialogue between the rail industry and a diverse range of stakeholders.
My own relationship with travel is complicated. When I was younger I was more independent, but in recent years I have become increasing reliant on other people. I no longer travel independently, and always travel with a carer companion (I prefer “companion” to the word “carer”, partly because it gives me mysterious Doctor Who vibes, and partly because I not always as comfortable sitting with my vulnerability and dependence on others as I make out.)
All aspects of my disability profile are relevant to the conversation– physical disability, neurodiversity, mental illness/mental ill-health and financial trauma - as are all aspects of my wider training and lived experience. Sometimes I am lawyer at the table, sometimes I am a psychologist, some times I am a coach, and some times I am a poet. At all times, I am bringing my entire lens of lived experience in to the room.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to speak at Transport for the North’s annual conference in 2024 (on a lunch time panel). You might find it interesting to watch / listen to the panel, to get an understanding of my broad approach to inclusion.
When I chair meetings, I like to begin with a code of values. I can think of so many times in the past where I got these things wrong, and as a result made bad decisions. However, from that learning I have drawn together five principles that underline the way I like to work. They are captured by the acronym ROCCK, pronounced “rock”. N.B. I am planning to write this up in a formal way, but here is a breif summary of my ROCCK approach to meetings.
Respect: It is important to treat everyone in the room with respect, and to acknowledge that we all come from different backgrounds and bring different lived experience and/or professional experience to the table. Even in the context of holding an organisation to account, it is important to avoid an “us and them” approach. Rather it is important to create a sense of mutuality, and to acknowledge and appreciate the different perspectives in the room.
Openness: There is nothing to be gained from a lack of transparency, or from a sense of needing to hide things in a meeting (or in any other setting). However we are only able to bring our whole self to the room and to share openly if we feel safe to do so, and if we feel we will be treated with respect for doing so. Everyone in the room should be open: no hidden agendas, no attempts to hide mistakes.
Curiosity: Curiosity is a powerful tool, and rather than sitting with our own assumptions it is helpful to be curious about everything that happens in the room. Even if the content of a presentation seems familiar, we have an opportunity to be curious and interested and to notice new things in the material. If someone introduces something new that challenges us, curiousity is a powerful tool to help us overcome that challenge. It helps us learn more rather than shutting down or rejecting an idea. This encourages openness and allows us to be more accepting and inclusive of other perspectives.
Compassion: Compassion is a hugely important value, and one that we should learn to apply to ourselves and others. Sometimes we might entirely disagree with someone, sometimes there may have a been critical failure in an organisation, and some times people may have experienced challenging situations. In these contexts and many more, being curious about the reality of others’ lived experience and meeting it with compassion rather than negativity will result in a more productive meeting, and a safer space.
Knowledge: Knowledge is something we all have. We are lived experience experts and we should seek to share our knowkedge and learn from others in room. Acknowledging different perspectives and meeting them with compassion rather than conflict strengthens the combined knowledge and learning of the group.
I find the over arching image and metaphor of a rock is also helpful. For example, in stakeholder meetings the rock represents: a strong base from which to support, challenge and build for the future.
