Conversations About Who We Become—and How We Live
Deanne Brown, MA, LPCC, is a psychotherapist, author, and speaker whose work explores human development across the lifespan—from the relationships and experiences that shape us in childhood to the questions of identity, meaning, mental health, and change that emerge throughout adulthood.
Drawing from psychology, clinical experience, and her own experiences with parenting, unschooling, cancer, career change, and midlife, Deanne brings psychological ideas into everyday life through research, storytelling, and questions that invite audiences to think differently about themselves and one another.
Deanne speaks to conferences, universities, schools, professional and mental health organizations, parent communities, cancer and survivorship organizations, and other groups interested in human development, relationships, and emotional well-being.
Signature Talks
Children Are Not Projects
Rethinking How We Raise Children and Who We Hope They Become
What changes when we stop treating childhood as preparation for a predetermined outcome and become more curious about the child in front of us? Drawing from developmental science, psychotherapy, and her experience raising three children largely through unschooling, Deanne explores autonomy, connection, motivation, and what children need from adults as they become more fully themselves.
Raising Us
The Way We Raise Children Eventually Becomes the Way We Live Together
Children don't stay children. The ways they learn to understand themselves, relate to others, navigate conflict, tolerate differences, and respond to difficulty eventually travel with them into adulthood. Raising Us explores why the way we raise children matters beyond our families—and how childhood development eventually ripples outward into our relationships, workplaces, communities, leadership, and culture.
Who We Become Shapes What Comes Next
Mental Health, Midlife, and the Lifelong Process of Becoming
Midlife can raise questions that achievement and certainty don't always answer. Who am I now? What still fits? What doesn't? What do I want the next part of my life to look like? Drawing from psychology, human development, and clinical experience, Deanne explores midlife as a period of transition that can challenge our identities, relationships, roles, ambitions, and assumptions about what makes a meaningful life.
Life After Cancer: Who Am I Now?
Identity, Uncertainty, and Life Beyond Treatment
Finishing cancer treatment doesn't always mean life simply returns to normal. Cancer can change our relationship with our bodies, time, uncertainty, identity, relationships, and what matters to us. Drawing from her own experience as a cancer survivor, her work as a psychotherapist, and her book Not Now, Cancer, I'm Busy, Deanne speaks to the often-overlooked emotional experience of survivorship and the question many people face after treatment: Who am I now, and how do I want to live from here?
Interactive Workshops
Deanne also offers interactive workshops that combine psychological insight, guided reflection, conversation, and practical application. Workshops can be adapted to the needs of each audience.
Navigating Life's Transitions
Finding Your Footing When Life Changes
Explore the emotional impact of transition and uncertainty, clarify what matters now, and consider how to move through change with greater intention.
Who Am I Now?
Identity, Meaning, and Mental Health at Midlife
An exploration of the roles, relationships, expectations, and definitions of success we accumulate over a lifetime—and what happens when some of them no longer fit.
Rupture and Repair
What Healthy Relationships Do After Things Go Wrong
Conflict and misunderstanding are inevitable. This workshop explores accountability, apology, reconnection, and what helps relationships recover when we disappoint, misunderstand, or hurt one another.
What Unschooling Taught Me About How Children Learn
Trusting Curiosity, Development, and the Child in Front of You
More than twenty years ago, Deanne took her three children out of school and eventually chose to raise them largely through unschooling. What began as a decision about education became a much larger education about how children learn and develop. Drawing from that experience and her later work as a psychotherapist, Deanne explores curiosity, motivation, autonomy, different developmental timelines, and one of the hardest parts of homeschooling: learning to trust that learning is happening even when it doesn't look the way we expected.
Watch
The Great School Debate
More than twenty years ago, my decision to unschool my children brought me into a national conversation about education, including an appearance on The Dr. Phil Show for "The Great School Debate." Many of the questions we were asking then—about learning, motivation, and what children need in order to thrive—are questions I am still exploring today through Raising Us.
What Audiences Can Expect
Deanne's speaking style is conversational, thoughtful, and grounded in psychological and developmental research. She brings together clinical insight, personal stories, and complex ideas in ways that are accessible and relevant to everyday life.
- Psychological insight without the jargon
- Stories that bring ideas to life
- Thoughtful questions that challenge familiar assumptions
- Ideas they can carry into their own lives and relationships
I don't expect audiences to leave with all the answers. I hope they leave asking different questions.
Selected Speaking & Media
Deanne has presented for the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT), led workshops within the public-school system, spoken to businesses and professional organizations, and presented to audiences on cancer and survivorship.
Her perspective on children and education has also brought her into national media conversations, including The Dr. Phil Show and CBS's The Talk.
Deanne is the author of Not Now, Cancer, I'm Busy and creator of Raising Us, her developing body of work exploring childhood, human development, and how the way we raise children eventually becomes part of how we live together.
Bring Deanne Into the Conversation
Deanne is available for conferences, keynotes, workshops, professional organizations, universities, schools, parent communities, mental health events, cancer and survivorship programs, podcasts, panels, and other events. Topics and formats can be adapted to your audience and event.
Inquire About Speaking