Deborah Dunn is a high-energy, sassy, strong, and outspoken woman of faith who is an expert in marriage and family therapy, women and romance, and critical incident traumatic stress. She has been blessed with the gift of emotional healing in body, mind, and spirit. This is her life's work and calling from God.

"Deborah Dunn communicates truth that will transform the way you think about yourself, about marriage, and about the beauty that God has given you." ~ Dr. Scott Turanksy, Co-Founder, National Center for Biblical Parenting

A licensed marriage and family therapist with years of clinical experience, Deborah speaks to both general and Christian audiences with ease, delivering a powerful, positive message of hope and change, particularly to women struggling to maintain their faith and integrity in these difficult times.

Deborah is not afraid to tackle the tough questions in life. Her “no-nonsense” Southern style and humorous messages are softened by a big heart that truly loves people, no matter who they are. Her delivery is fast-paced, polished and professional, but also warm, compassionate, and down-to-earth.

Married more than 40 years and the mother of two adult children herself, Deborah is honest and transparent about her own mistakes, struggles, and family issues. Her audience trusts her because they know she truly understands their pain and suffering. She has been there herself!

In private practice near Raleigh, NC. she is the author of two books, the most recent being Stupid About Men: 10 Rules for Getting Romance Right (Simon and Schuster/Howard Books, 2009). Don’t let the title mislead you. Every woman needs to hear the message no matter how smart they’ve been about romance and marriage. Deborah is an expert on marriage, dating, and family relationships and understands that even the best of relationships go through dark times. Not only has she has been quoted in nationally known magazines for women, she has appeared on several syndicated television programs such as Daytime in Tampa, Florida and Fox Atlanta (Atlanta, Georgia). She has been interviewed by over sixty radio show hosts in the US and Canada in the last few years and was interviewed in print on AOL Canada’s dating and relationship blog, Love and Blueberries. She is frequently called by radio hosts to comment on breaking news in high-profile scandals and divorces.

In addition to her own speaking ministry, she and colleague, Vonda Skelton, have created SCW Productions, and travel together as a team to deliver their comedic dramatic monologues, The Story of a Woman’s Life, their side-splitting take on life, love, and all things female.

However, in addition to her more lighthearted speaking topics and keynote addresses, Deborah teaches lay counseling techniques to Christians in the church and other ministries. She loves sharing stories about her adventures as a certified critical incident/corporate crisis specialist. Whether the story is about living on a dredge boat in the Mississippi after Katrina, working with staff after the Virginia Tech massacres, being on-site to counsel victims in the midst of a hostage crisis, and regularly responding to murders, suicides, accidents, and other serious events in the workplace, she manages to inspire hope, especially in the tragedies of our lives. Often called to train workers in companies across the nation, in the summer of 2010 she taught a day-long conference on counseling techniques and community disaster response to forty UMC pastors in El Salvadore, and has been invited to teach in two UMC locations in Sri Lanka.

(keynote address)
Every woman experiences a spring, summer, fall, and winter of her life. Each season has its blue skies and its storms. Calling on stories from her own life as southern farmer's wife, the author shows that no matter what the weather, God uses each season to bear fruit for the Kingdom.

(humorous keynote)
This address is for more informal settings and is best suited for women under the age of sixty still in the work force. FBI is a metaphor for stress, and the address is to help women deal with it in positive ways by eliminating perfectionism, prioritizing, and dealing with their anger, emotional eating, and anxiety so that they can call in the CIA (Christ In Action).

Based on a chapter from her book, Trapped in the Magic Mirror, Deborah gives the audience new love and respect for the little girl inside all of us whose hopes and dreams were shattered by abuse, neglectful parents, substance abuse in our families, illness, and other painful and life-altering tragedies and gives a new model for understanding that God was present even while the enemy was doing his worst. This is a workshop that helps women overcome depression, anger, and shame.

(keynote, retreat or workshop)
For women, men, and couples to show them how past patterns of behavior, childhood experiences, traumas, and their own emotional health impacts the health of their marriage. This can be delivered as a workshop most aptly suited for a small group that is willing to be open about their need for inner healing.

A custom designed package to train, either in person or online, local lay counselors to effectively intervene in a family crisis or help their communities after a disaster. Other counseling training programs are effective but have been shown to focus so much on those needing help they fail to teach how to avoid counselors how to protect themselves. This training, usually 8 to 10 weeks) does both and is accompanied by a workbook. Step-by-step it teaches attendees how to recognize their limitations and refer complicated cases to professionals trained to understand clinical issues. Trainees will learn how to recognize when they are dealing with a person with a mental illness, the basic descriptions of the major diagnoses, ethical and legal issues in counseling, avoiding burnout, and recognizing rescuing/enabling behaviors that encourage dependence rather than independence in those they are helping.

(keynote address)
Many women live in "quiet desperation." They do not have a clue what Jesus meant when he called us to live abundantly. Instead, they worry, try to fix others, rescue, and assume false responsibility for everyone they love, assuming that if they love sacrificially one day everyone will "rise up and call them blessed." By sharing stories of her own journey to wholeness and right thinking and those of the women she's counseled, Deborah gently teaches women how they can love without giving up their life, and learn to laugh their way to abundant living.

(educational workshop or keynote)
Same as above but from a less humorous and more clinical perspective for lay leaders in women's ministries and those counseling women and couples in churches.

(keynote or workshop)
Humorous address for audiences under 50 years old showing how marketing and the media have given us unrealistic expectations of life, men, and marriages. Using her books Stupid About Men and Trapped in the Magic Mirror, Deborah shows women just how much folk tales have shaped our thinking from birth, and how to break free from our bondage to false expectations without breaking up our marriages!

(educational workshop for teens, young adults, battered women, prisons) Using her book, Stupid About Men, Deborah talks frankly and openly to the audience about the dangers of addiction to romance and "bad boys."

(women’s divorce support groups, prisons, women's shelters)
Participants are shown the five S-M-A-R-T Steps: (Self Acceptance, Managing Emotions, Action, Resilience and Renewal, Time and Tenderness) for getting their lives back after a life-altering serious mistake.

(couples retreat or workshop)
Based on her years of work with couples and marriages and her own marriage of over 40 years, Deborah takes couples through a process of learning how to communicate more effectively, how to enjoy spending time together, and how to reconnect emotionally and spiritually as God intended them to be.

As a published author and counselor, Deborah is also available to teach at Christian writer's workshops on several topics related to human psychology, mental illness, and character development in our writing, and managing stress and loneliness of the writing life.

The Story of a Woman's Life is the dream child of seasoned Christian writers and speakers, Deborah Dunn and Vonda Skelton, as a fresh and funny way to share their heart for women through comedy, drama, and song. Their most recent production is Diapers2Diapers, a review of life starting with being born, all the way through falling in love, motherhood, growing old, going into the nursing home, then standing front of the Gates of Heaven celebrating because they don't have to wear diapers any more! Whether you are single, married, divorced, or widowed you will find yourself laughing and crying, often at the same time. But most of all you will be encouraged, realizing that its all part of the story we are writing for God...and that He will be with us every single step of the way, no matter what we are going through. If want an event that will leave your ladies talking (and chuckling) for years to come, then look no farther than The Story of a Woman's Life.