Cathy DeBuono Introduces What's Your Problem?

Hey Ya'll...

Those of you who know me know that I'm kinda' wired most of the time anyway... but now... I'm SheWired... and freakin' happy to be here.

My name is Cathy DeBuono, I'm an out actor. I love well developed characters, and getting to breathe the life into one is like a gift from god. There is nothing like the cathartic experience of a good film. It's all about exploring the human condition, which fascinates me. For all of its complexities, and the variables are endless, it never ceases to amaze me how at our very core we are all simply and beautifully the same. My fascination with what we are made of and what it is that gets between us and our core and ultimately between one another, led me away from acting and toward my Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology.

I have several years experience as a therapist working with a culturally diverse clientele with a wide variety of presenting issues. I've counseled incarcerated juvenile offenders of gang related crimes while building a garden on prison grounds. I was the program director of an inpatient facility for young adults dealing with eating disorders and addiction. I've lead groups for court mandated adults on cross cultural tolerance, parenting and communicating with children. And I’ve worked with severely emotionally disturbed adolescents at a special placement high school and I've trained volunteer lay counselors to work with the homeless.

A few years ago I began building a private practice in Beverly Hills where I mostly worked with couples and self-referred adults pursuing a journey of deeper self awareness -- as interesting as all the rest is, this is truly my passion. It was at that time that the entertainment industry I had walked away from five years prior came knocking on my door again in the form of director Lee Friedlander (Girl Play, Exes & Ohs). And although I initially tried -- once I read the script by Paula Goldberg -- I could not resist playing the role of Risa in Out at the Wedding.

That film lead to working with Friedlander again on LOGO's Exes & Ohs and my eyes were opened to a sector of the entertainment industry that had been growing while I wasn't paying attention. The gay entertainment sector had finally pushed to the forefront and I found myself inspired.

During a guest spot on The Frank DeCaro Show on Sirius Satellite OUT-Q 109 radio, I hung out with co-host Doria Biddle and guest host, film producer JD Disalvatore. We started talking about my background in psychology and just for fun we opened up the phone lines for discussion about relationships and for folks to ask questions... the boards lit up like Time’s Square. Soon after that my video blog was born.

"What's Your Problem?" made it's debut on the LOGO Network's website, AfterEllen.comin January, where to my surprise it quickly became one of the site's most popular video blogs and was nominated in LOGO's 2008 NEW, NOW, NEXT AWARDS for BEST. LESBIAN. VLOG. EVER.

So many people around the world don't have someone they can confide in about certain things. Our deepest questions about ourselves tend to stay untraversed for fear we will be judged or we will alienate people -- and that is no way to live a full life.

I wanted to create an environment in which people could feel they were spending time with their friends, processing their issues without fear or risk, and at the same time walk away feeling as if they had had a good time, hence all the silliness and in between randomness that can happen sometimes.

The participation in the corresponding forum has been nothing less than amazing to me and I look forward to it here on SheWired.com. I read the threads and watch people from all over the world coming together to offer their personal perspectives, ideas or support and boom... we have a world wide open discussion going with folks who might otherwise feel utterly scared and alone.

I want to be clear, I am not practicing psychotherapy on the vlog. That would be impossible. I call upon my education, training and experience when speaking my mind and I do try to remain neutral and offer guidance. But I allow my personal opinions to infuse the show, as well as my dog Comet, my cat Momma Kitty, my cockatiel Sam and my snarky off camera best friend Lucia. That's not therapy, that's me hanging out with you and I think that's what my guests enjoy about being on the vlog too. It's a chance to share a piece of themselves they may not otherwise have a forum for.

My guest list so far includes such folks as Suzanne Westenhoefer, Thea Gill, Calpernia Addams, Erin Foley, Marnie Alton and Maeve Quinlan to name just a few. The internet allows us to invite people to sit and hang out with us in my living room whether they are in Greece, Italy, Guam or Iraq... we can all get together here.

You can view the entire W.Y.P. library of archived episodes here on SheWired.com. For a taste, watch the first episode below! (Note: the quality of the audio in episode 1 is low, but rectified in the following episodes.)

If you have a question you'd like to see featured on "What's Your Problem?" you can email Cathy at cathy@cathydebuono.com. Just be sure to specify by what name Cathy should refer to you, or if you'd like to remain completely anonymous.

New episodes of "What's Your Problem?" will run here on SheWired.com in three parts, on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays beginning Nov. 3.  In order to respond to more viewer letters than the video alone allows, Cathy will also be responding to letters in writing on Tuesdays and Thursdays.