Debbie Kuttner (she/her)

In the alternative high school where I was a language arts teacher for almost three decades, I had an advising group of roughly 22 students per year that is similar to a case load for a social worker. I have helped students and families navigate learning differences, divorces, family transitions, independence, individuation, cultural and ethnic complexities, build college, career and technical futures, contemplate existential dread. I have walked alongside joy, suffering, confusion, and hope.

I have lived out and proud for over 30 years. I have helped friends, family, and so many students navigate identities. As a teacher, I facilitated a queer group--we believed our school was already a Gay/Straight Alliance--until we morphed into an identities support group 12 years later. In the last decade I have been researching the overlap of neurodivergence, queer, and chronic illnesses.

Neuroptypes: ADHD/Dyslexia/ASD. It is estimated that 1/5 of the population has dyslexia. There is a huge overlap with ADHD. "If you have met 1 person with ASD, you've met one person". It's no longer ADD because some people have hyper minds. AFAB people present so differently. MLLs and BiPOC populations are woefully under-diagnosed. Many older women are discovering ADHD through the wilds of perimenopause. And then chronic illness: POTS, EDS, ME/CFS...

Do you suffer from executive functioning problems? Or maybe you do something called catastrophizing when problems come your way--you start worrying about one thing and suddenly find yourself thinking of everything that can and will go wrong and the spiral is unbearable. Some people have something called persistent demand avoidance, which can also look like task initiation problems, but isn't exactly the same. CBT is not "the answer" to these struggles, but let's see if it can help.

I am NOT an art therapist, nor trained expressive art therapist. I find modalities other than talking through every session can sometimes unstick a stuckness. I do artistic work with people like me who do not define themselves as artists, writers, musicians, but are open to exploring. Sometimes working on a doodle, a collage, or word art can help a person feel more comfortable and relaxed in a session; sometimes it is the work itself that opens doors.

How can I help you become more you? Perhaps in telling your stories you will find a voice you didn't know you had. Sometimes we tell ourselves stories that interrupt our growth and keep us stuck. Perhaps there is another version of the story. Narration means that you are the author of your story: you are the expert. The word deconstruction comes up in narrative therapy, but my central modality is constructivism. Let's work together to construct, build, name, voice, be you.