Deborah Kuzmin

To fulfill those goals, she provides leadership and support to her staff, offering a sounding board, eliminating barriers, and assisting with interventions as needed. She also meets with families to answer questions and provide information. She is dedicated to teaching and modeling best practices for staff, emphasizing a holistic approach when working with individuals dealing with mental health and substance use conditions.

Before coming to Caron in 2024, Deb held leadership positions at substance use disorder treatment centers for almost 20 years. In those roles, she led and managed clinical, supervisory, and directorial activities, including providing supervision, overseeing systems for development and evaluation, ensuring quality assurance, and collaborating with other departments to provide a seamless continuum of care.

As a clinician treating addiction, Deb worked with a range of patients, specializing in working with those who had multiple treatment attempts and struggled to find intrinsic motivation for change. She also created several programs aimed at treatment and prevention, from a prevention program for young adults to an information program addressing substance abuse for older adults.

Deb is a designated qualified supervisor and has trained in cognitive processing therapy (CPT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR), trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and narrative exposure therapy (NET). She also has extensive experience in motivational interviewing. She is a licensed clinical social worker with a Master of Social Work from Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts. Deb has a Bachelor of Arts in social work from Cleveland State University, Ohio.