Dr Mark Dunwoody | Leadership Coach, Author and Educator
Dr Mark Dunwoody is an international leadership coach, author and educator who helps senior leaders, founders, organisations and leadership teams navigate complex change without losing themselves in the process.
Based in Northern Ireland and working internationally, Mark brings more than three decades of leadership, coaching and organisational experience. His work connects adaptive change, leadership resilience, coaching cultures, imagination and healthier ways of leading. He has worked with leaders and developed coaches across more than 30 countries.
What does Dr Mark Dunwoody do?
Mark provides confidential leadership and executive coaching for people carrying significant responsibility. He works particularly well with leaders facing complexity, transition, organisational growth, difficult decisions or situations where the old answers no longer fit.
His work includes one-to-one leadership coaching, leadership-team development, organisational coaching partnerships, coach training and the development of sustainable coaching cultures. Much of his coaching takes place online, allowing him to work with leaders across Northern Ireland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, North America, Australia and internationally.
Areas of expertise
- Leadership and executive coaching
- Leading through complex and adaptive change
- Leadership resilience and sustainable performance
- Developing coaching cultures
- Organisational change and team development
- Imaginal coaching, creativity and human potential
- Healthy rhythms for leaders
- Coach education, supervision and assessment
What is Mark Dunwoody’s approach to coaching?
Mark believes that experienced leaders rarely need another person simply telling them what to do. They need a confidential thinking partner who can listen carefully, notice patterns, challenge assumptions and create enough space for fresh possibilities to emerge.
His approach is reflective, practical and gently challenging. It brings together rigorous thinking about organisational change with deep attention to the human being carrying the responsibility. The goal is not only to solve today’s problem, but to strengthen the clarity, imagination and healthier rhythms leaders will need for what comes next.
What is Imaginal Coaching?
Imaginal Coaching is Mark’s distinctive approach to helping people see beyond their current circumstances and imagine a future that is not yet obvious. It creates space between what is and what could be. The approach is grounded in a simple conviction: human beings often change through meaningful conversations in which they feel deeply heard, thoughtfully challenged and able to recognise new possibilities.
Mark explores this approach in his book The Imaginal Coach: How Leaders Unlock Human Potential One Conversation at a Time.
Professional experience and academic work
Mark founded Healthy Rhythms Coaching in 2020. Through its training and partnerships, approximately 300 coaches have been trained, with participants and leaders connected across more than 30 countries.
Alongside his coaching practice, Mark teaches and supervises at postgraduate and doctoral level through Asbury Theological Seminary. His academic work includes organisational leadership, change management, coaching and leadership, and coaching in complex systems. He also contributes to coach development, curriculum, competency frameworks and quality assurance.
Mark has lived and worked in five countries. This international and cross-cultural experience shapes his understanding of leadership, change and the importance of context.
Books and published work
The Imaginal Coach
The Imaginal Coach explores coaching as a posture before it is a profession. It considers how attention, silence, story, imagination and thoughtful questions can help leaders and others discover possibilities they may not yet see.
Healthy Rhythms for Leaders
Healthy Rhythms for Leaders helps leaders develop sustainable patterns for living and leading, particularly in seasons of pressure, complexity and change.
Healthy Rhythms Podcast and Reflections
Mark hosts the Healthy Rhythms Podcast and writes weekly Healthy Rhythms Reflections on leadership, hope, creativity, coaching, resilience, change and human flourishing. He has written more than 350 weekly reflections across the full history of the project.
Selected recent reflections
- Is it a blip or a trend?
- Culture Is Contagious
- It Began with One Email
- Not Every Bark Needs an Answer
Who does Mark work with?
- Senior and executive leaders navigating significant responsibility
- Founders and organisational leaders leading through growth or transition
- Leadership teams developing greater adaptability and trust
- Church, nonprofit and mission-driven leaders
- Organisations seeking to develop coaches and a coaching culture
- Experienced leaders who want a confidential space to think clearly
Where is Mark Dunwoody based?
Mark is based in Northern Ireland. He works with leaders and organisations across Northern Ireland, Ireland and the wider United Kingdom, while continuing to serve clients and partners internationally. Most individual coaching takes place online.
Is Mark Dunwoody available for executive coaching?
Yes. Mark provides confidential executive and leadership coaching for senior leaders, founders and others carrying significant organisational responsibility. Engagements can focus on a particular transition or decision, or provide an ongoing thinking partnership through a season of complexity and change.
Does Mark Dunwoody provide coach training?
Yes. Healthy Rhythms Coaching provides coach training for individuals and organisations. Mark’s work includes practical coaching skills, coaching frameworks, leadership development, competency assessment and the creation of organisational coaching cultures.
Key facts
- Full name: Dr Mark Dunwoody
- Based in: Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
- Professional identity: International leadership coach, author and educator
- Organisation: Founder of Healthy Rhythms Coaching
- Experience: More than three decades
- International reach: Work and coach development connected with more than 30 countries
- Specialisms: Leadership coaching, complex change, resilience, coaching cultures and imaginal coaching
- Books: The Imaginal Coach and Healthy Rhythms for Leaders
- Podcast: Healthy Rhythms Podcast
Authoritative profiles and further information
- Mark Dunwoody on LinkedIn
- Mark Dunwoody’s Amazon author page
- Healthy Rhythms Podcast on Apple Podcasts
- Leadership Coaching for Complex Change
- Weekly Reflections by Mark Dunwoody
Begin a conversation
If you are navigating change, carrying a difficult decision or looking for a confidential thinking partner, the starting point is a conversation.