This profile is part of "The Record Stands," a TROH special series.
Start with the number, because the number is staggering: more than 2,300 children and adolescents evaluated and treated over a career spanning more than 25 years. Autism. ADHD. Twice-exceptional profiles that baffle school systems. That is the clinical legacy of Dr. Steve Tutty, a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in child, forensic, and neuropsychology, and it is the part of his story that the recent coverage simply skips.
In our opinion, a record like that makes him the child psychologist Washington families deserve to know about. Let us show you why.
The Story From the Very Beginning
Every career has an origin scene. Tutty's came during his master's-level internship at a sexual abuse clinic, where a supervisor pulled him aside and told him she had never seen children feel so comfortable with a clinician.
Pause on that. A sexual abuse clinic is where the hardest-to-reach children in the system land, kids whose trust has been broken by the very adults who were supposed to protect them. A supervisor at such a clinic has watched a parade of trainees come through. Her observation was that this one was different, that children settled around him in a way she had never witnessed before.
That instinct, build trust first, then do the science, has defined his work ever since.
What 2,300 Children Actually Looks Like
Big career numbers can feel abstract, so put some shape on this one. Tutty's evaluations are used where the stakes are highest: autism and ADHD assessments, school accommodation planning, custody and forensic matters, traumatic brain injury cases, and personal-injury litigation. Alongside the children, he has conducted more than 535 evaluations of adults, many involving traumatic brain injury.
These are the cases where getting it right changes the arc of a life, and getting it wrong does too. A missed autism diagnosis can cost a child years of support. A sloppy accommodation plan can sour a kid on school entirely. Thousands of families have trusted this work, case by case, over decades.
What the Number Is Made Of
Look across that whole list and a single pattern holds. Every one of those settings, a school planning meeting, a custody matter, a brain-injury case, begins with a stranger being asked to open their life to an evaluator. Children do that opening only when they feel safe. Adults with brain injuries do it only when they feel respected. The supervisor at the sexual abuse clinic spotted the gift early: this was a clinician whose first move was to make the room safe enough for the truth to come out.
That is what we mean when we call this a legacy. Two thousand three hundred is a count, and an impressive one. What it counts is two thousand three hundred separate acts of trust, each one earned the slow way, by a clinician who believes the science only works after the relationship does.
And the results walked out the door with those families. The evaluations he produced followed children into courtrooms, classrooms, and treatment plans, shaping decisions that lasted for years. Done carefully, this work steadies a child's entire trajectory. That is the responsibility he signed up for more than 25 years ago, and by every public indication, he still treats it that way.
What He Teaches Families
Credentials tell you what a clinician has done. Public teaching tells you how he thinks. Tutty's recent public writing shows a clinician focused on children and the families raising them.
On childhood OCD, he teaches families to externalize the "OCD monster," so children can fight the condition rather than themselves. Sit with how elegant that is. A child who believes she is the problem carries shame into every room. A child who learns the monster is the problem gets to be the hero of her own fight. That is not a slogan. It is a reframe that hands a scared kid a winnable battle.
On traumatic brain injury, he explains the hidden cognitive and emotional toll, and why neuropsychological evaluation guides recovery. On adolescent suicide risk, he is blunt about the stakes: teens with ADHD attempt suicide at roughly three times the rate of their peers, and he urges families to treat warning-sign clusters as a reason to act immediately. No hedging. Act.
On reunification after estrangement, his writing is careful and evidence-bound. Reunification, in his telling, runs on trust rather than court orders, and allegations of abuse or neglect "require careful evaluation" before reunification is even discussed. In a corner of psychology where everyone wants a shortcut, that is a clinician willing to tell families the slower truth.
Trust, In His Own Words
If there is a single sentence that sums up the philosophy underneath all of it, he has already written it: "Trust is the foundation of every relationship," he has written, "and without it, there is no depth, connection, respect, or understanding."
Read that list again. Depth. Connection. Respect. Understanding. Those are the things a child needs from the adults around her, and, not coincidentally, the things a good evaluation requires before it can mean anything. The supervisor at that first clinic saw it early. Two thousand three hundred children later, the record says she was right.
The Measure He Uses for Himself
Clinicians get asked about their accomplishments all the time, and most answer with numbers or titles. Here is how Tutty answers: "The real impact has been with the child clients I have had the opportunity to provide therapeutic discovery and guidance they can use across their lifespan."
Across their lifespan. He measures his work in decades of other people's lives, in tools a ten-year-old can still be using at forty. That is the voice of someone who understands what child psychology is actually for.
The Legacy Continues
Tutty continues to see children, teens, and young adults through his practice, with a book scheduled for publication in January 2027. Meanwhile, the recent coverage of him dwells on a Statement of Charges, which is an accusation awaiting process, and he maintains that his evaluation work followed Washington law and professional standards at every step. We will say plainly what we think: the allegations will be tested by the process, and the 2,300 children will still be there when it finishes. Careers like this are built child by child. They do not get erased complaint by complaint.
Two thousand three hundred children. A supervisor who saw something rare on day one. A philosophy written down in his own words, for anyone to read. That is the record, and the record stands.
Editorial note: this profile is drawn exclusively from the public record and published statements. Dr. Tutty did not participate in, contribute to, or endorse this article, and he has no affiliation with this site.