Dr. M's Women and Children First Podcast

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #111: Duey Freeman, MA – Attachment

Welcome back to Dr. M’s Women and Children First. Today’s conversation moves into one of the deepest layers of human development: attachment, relationship, and the way early experiences shape the architecture of our emotional lives. My guest today is Duey Freeman, a licensed therapist, teacher, mentor, and internationally respected voice in attachment theory, human development, and relational psychology. Duey has spent decades teaching therapists, graduate students, and helping professionals around the world, developing a practical framework for understanding how connection, or the absence of it, shapes the nervous system, identity, and the capacity for intimacy. He has logged nearly 80,000 direct clinical hours and co-founded both the Gestalt Equine Institute and the Gestalt Institute of the Rockies. What makes Duey’s work unique, and it is unique, is that he does not approach attachment as a sterile academic theory. He approaches it as lived human experience. His work centers on a simple but profound truth: what is injured in relationship is often only healed in relationship. In this episode, we explore how attachment patterns emerge in childhood, how they quietly shape adult relationships, parenting, stress physiology, and even our sense of safety in the world. We discuss the roots of attachment theory through the work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, and we move into modern concepts involving trauma, nervous system regulation, emotional attunement, and relational repair. We also touch on an uncomfortable reality in modern culture: many people are surrounded by communication yet starving for authentic connection. Children especially do not simply need instruction or behavioral management. They need co-regulation, attunement, eye contact, emotional presence, and secure relational anchors. This conversation is not just for therapists. It is for parents, physicians, educators, coaches, and anyone trying to understand why humans behave the way they do under stress, conflict, intimacy, or loss. Duey brings an unusual combination of wisdom, groundedness, tenderness, and clinical depth to this discussion. I have heard him frequently called Yoda, and if you knew him, you would immediately understand and agree with that moniker. You can feel that he has spent a lifetime studying not just psychology, but people. So sit back and enjoy this remarkable conversation with Duey Freeman on attachment, psychology, and the relational foundations of being human. Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Volume 16 Issue 11 – Magnesium

Screenshot Magnesium Magnesium is a major cofactor in over 300 enzymatic reactions in the body, less a supplement than a piece of physiologic infrastructure. It is required for energy production (ATP), insulin signaling, protein synthesis, blood pressure regulation, and proper muscle and nerve function, essentially touching every major system we care about. And it goes deeper: magnesium is necessary for the creation and protection of DNA and RNA and for the production of glutathione, one of our most important intracellular antioxidants/detox mechanisms. About half of our magnesium is stored in bone and most of the rest in soft tissues, with less than 1% circulating in the blood, tightly regulated by the kidneys, so the serum level we commonly measure is a very limited window into total body status.... Enjoy, Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Volume 16 Issue 10 – Covid 6 Years Later

Covid 6 Years Later What Should We Remember The COVID Post-Mortem: What We Missed (and What We Still Can Fix) We ran the largest public health experiment of our lifetime. We failed. Not everywhere. Not always. But in the places that mattered most, children, truth, and upstream health, we got it wrong. And if we don’t name it clearly, we’ll do it again. The First Mistake: Forgetting the Child When the world shut down, we told ourselves it was temporary. Two weeks. Flatten the curve. Regroup. Then two months became a season. A season became a year. For some kids, it became a disappearance. Over 230,000 children vanished from the school system across 21 states. Not lost like keys. Lost like opportunity. Lost like trajectory. And here’s the uncomfortable truth: The kids who disappeared were not the kids with options. The well-resourced adapted: Private schools Learning pods Reliable internet Parental support They bent. Some even thrived. The vulnerable? They absorbed the shock. Education lost → structure lost → nutrition lost → safety net lost. and more.... Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #110: F3 Nation and Fatherhood

Welcome to Dr. M's Women and Children First Podcast. Today’s conversation is a little different. Six men. One table. No scripts. Just a shared commitment to something that doesn’t come with a manual—fatherhood. We’re talking about what it means to show up as a dad when you’re tired, when you’re stretched thin, and when the stakes feel higher than anything else you do. And we’re grounding that conversation in the ethos of F3 Nation—fitness, fellowship, and faith—where men gather early, push each other physically, and, more importantly, build something deeper: accountability, purpose, and community. Because strong fathers don’t happen by accident. They’re forged—day by day, rep by rep, conversation by conversation. Let’s get into it. Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Volume 16 Issue 9 – Leadership

Brene Brown - Leadership Tools to Teach Your Children and SELF “Stand firmly enough to lead, loosely enough to listen.”  Strong Ground by Brené Brown published in 2025 Breaking down this new book by the excellent Brene Brown, we find that strong leaders don’t eliminate tension or risk. They hold it. And this is key! What does the hold look like? How does it show up to the team? The theme in my mind is "toughness with tenderness" Clarity is kindness. Vagueness is avoidance dressed as politeness. You can be both confident and uncertain. That’s not weakness, it’s reality. Values are not what you believe. They’re what you do under pressure. Most leadership failures are emotional avoidance, not strategic failure. Accountability without empathy is cruelty. Empathy without accountability is chaos. People don’t disengage because work is hard, they disengage because trust erodes. The goal is not control. The goal is grounded presence in uncertainty. You can’t build brave cultures with armored leaders. Paradox is not a problem to solve, it’s a condition to manage. If you’re always comfortable, you’re not leading. You’re maintaining.  I especially, like the last one. Discomfort is the path to growth in all things. Think euthermia for temperature, not a recipe for human cellular health or plants for that matter. Temperature through environmental swings are keys to protein elaboration for handling the cold and the heat. The lack of swing equates to a lack of adaptability.... and a piece on the Stakeholder. Dr. M