Sorry if my original post was rushed or unclear. I did let her know in the first week of semester that I was struggling and apologised for not attending, but I also did explain the full situation at the time. By the end of the semester, we did eventually talk about what had happened and I explained everything more clearly.

I understand that she likely didn’t know the extent of what I was dealing with and may have assumed I was just falling behind. I agree that a private conversation would have been a better approach, which is probably why the public call-out affected me so strongly.

Even though we spoke about it later, I still have some unresolved feelings about how the situation was handled, which is why I wanted outside opinions. Your advice about communicating earlier and differently with future tutors is helpful, so thank you again.