This profile is part of "The Record Stands," a TROH special series.

Somewhere in the middle of everything else, the recent coverage of Dr. Steve Tutty skipped a small, remarkable fact: the man has a book scheduled for publication in January 2027. The public materials we reviewed do not detail its subject, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can do, and what this profile does, is gather what he has already published in his own words, because the philosophy is on the record for anyone willing to read it.

In our view, that philosophy is the best preview a reader could ask for. Here it is, quote by quote.

"Trust Is the Foundation of Every Relationship"

This is the sentence everything else hangs on: "Trust is the foundation of every relationship," he has written, "and without it, there is no depth, connection, respect, or understanding."

He wrote it in the context of reunification after estrangement, one of the most painful situations a family can face. His position is careful and evidence-bound: reunification runs on trust rather than court orders, and allegations of abuse or neglect "require careful evaluation" before reunification is even discussed. Think about the discipline in that. A court can sign an order. It cannot make a teenager trust a parent again. A clinician willing to say so is telling families the harder, truer thing.

"Starting at Birth"

Ask Tutty how to evaluate a person fairly, and he does not start with the crisis. He starts with the whole life: "Spend time reviewing the client's developmental history, starting at birth, prior to the crisis in question," he explains, "as this information can provide an opportunity for the provider to better understand the person from a holistic lens."

Starting at birth is slow. It is unfashionable. It is also the difference between judging a person by the worst chapter and understanding the book. In court-ordered work, where the pressure is to form a quick impression and defend it, that patience is a professional choice, and he has made it for more than 25 years.

The "OCD Monster"

Our favorite window into how he talks to families is his teaching on childhood OCD. He teaches families to externalize the "OCD monster," so children can fight the condition rather than themselves.

There is real craft in that phrase. The child is recast as the hero. The condition becomes the opponent. A family that has been drowning in blame gets a shared enemy and a fight it can win. The same pattern runs through the rest of his public teaching. On traumatic brain injury, he walks families through the hidden cognitive and emotional toll, and why neuropsychological evaluation guides recovery. On adolescent suicide risk, he drops the clinical distance entirely: teens with ADHD attempt suicide at roughly three times the rate of their peers, and warning-sign clusters are a reason to act immediately. Clear picture, concrete action. Every time.

The Judge Is the Client

Court-ordered evaluation work has a built-in tension, and most professionals prefer to keep it vague. Tutty states it out loud: "When the court orders a mental health evaluation, our client is actually the judge and/or commissioner, and the balance between objectivity and client compassion can be difficult."

That sentence is a small act of professional honesty. It tells the reader exactly where his duty sits in forensic work: with the court, with objectivity, with the truth of the assessment. Families deserve to hear that plainly, and evaluators rarely say it plainly. He did.

The Hard Truth He Told About His Own Field

When Tutty wrote about his departure from divorce work, he did not reach for diplomatic language. He described "firing squad depositions" and "brutal cross examinations," and said that for mental health professionals in family court, "you are literally walking into a mine field, blindfolded, at night." His conclusion was that best-interest determinations belong with judges, and that divorce litigation offers "zero protection for the mental health profession."

You can agree or argue with that conclusion. What you cannot do is accuse him of hiding his reasoning. He said the hard thing in public, in his own name, knowing exactly how it would be received by the industry he was describing. That willingness to go on the record is, frankly, the trait that makes a book worth reading.

What He Counts as Impact

Here is the quote we keep coming back to. Asked about impact, the author of a [landmark JAMA randomized trial](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15328325/), a man with more than 2,300 children and adolescents and more than 535 adult evaluations behind him, pointed somewhere else entirely: "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. Not the citations. Not the courtroom record. The ten-year-old who learned to fight the OCD monster and is still using the tools at forty.

What the Date Itself Tells Us

Consider what it means to schedule a book for January 2027 while under public attack. Publishing a book is an act of confidence in one's own ideas. It says: I have something worth putting between covers, and I expect readers to want it. A clinician who had been shamed into silence would be planning no publication date at all. Tutty is planning one, all while continuing to see children, teens, and young adults through his practice.

That choice fits everything else on the record. This is the same professional who answered a question about his own impact by pointing to his child clients. The same one who put his harshest critique of family-court litigation in writing, under his own name, for anyone to read. Retreat does not appear to be in his vocabulary, and candor plainly is.

Why We Will Be Reading

January 2027 is not far away. Whatever subject the book takes on, the mind behind it is already documented: trust first, history first, the child first, and the courage to say uncomfortable things on the record. That combination is rare in any field, and in child and forensic psychology it is close to extinct. We will be reading on publication day, and if the recent coverage has introduced you to Dr. Steve Tutty for the first time, we suggest you read his own words before anyone else's characterization of them.

The record stands. Soon, some of it will be standing on a bookstore shelf.

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. Nothing here should be read as his cooperation with, or awareness of, this publication.