To close out Season 1, we took the Choices mic on the road. This bonus episode was recorded live at Connect Night, an evening for foster and adoptive parents, where families brought their most pressing questions straight to Maggie Dunn.

She answers what she'd tell a child grieving a bio parent they never met, how to know when a therapist is actually a good fit, the one key to connecting with a child who fights connection at every turn, and why the cheap imitations for intimacy, from pornography to enabling acquaintances, quietly hijack the attachment you're working so hard to build. Woven through all of it is the thread that ran through the whole season: real relationship is hard work, and children who have been through trauma deserve the real thing, not a substitute for it.

Thank you for being part of Season 1 of Choices. We'll see you next season, when the conversation turns to perspectives.

Disclaimer: The content shared in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. While Maggie Dunn is a licensed clinical professional, the conversations on this podcast are not intended to provide therapy, clinical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Listening to this podcast does not create a therapist-client relationship. If you or someone you know needs mental health support, please seek guidance from a qualified professional in your area. If you are experiencing a crisis or emergency, call 911 or contact a local crisis support service immediately.

You can do everything right to build attachment and still watch it quietly come undone. In this final part, Maggie and Karemmy name the three things that sneak in and tear down the connection you're working so hard to build.

In Episode 6 of Choices, they call them cheap imitations for intimacy: the enabling acquaintance who has no skin in the game but plenty of opinions, pornography as a lonely substitute for real relationship, and the therapist who triangulates instead of partnering with the parent. They talk through how to spot each one, how to hold a boundary without owing anyone an explanation, and what questions to ask before you trust a clinician with your child's healing.

This conversation is practical, honest, and hopeful for parents, caregivers, and anyone walking with a child from a hard place. Children who have been through trauma deserve real relationship, not a substitute for it. They deserve to be known, protected, and kept close.

Disclaimer: The content shared in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. While Maggie Dunn is a licensed clinical professional, the conversations on this podcast are not intended to provide therapy, clinical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Listening to this podcast does not create a therapist-client relationship. If you or someone you know needs mental health support, please seek guidance from a qualified professional in your area. If you are experiencing a crisis or emergency, call 911 or contact a local crisis support service immediately.

You can't force a child to attach to you. But you can build the kind of safe, steady relationship where attachment becomes possible, and you can guard it from the things that quietly work against it.

In Episode 5 of Choices, Maggie and Karemmy continue unpacking the pillars of attachment repair: the difference between can't and won't, setting boundary stones around the relationships in a child's life, catching the moment connection starts to wither long before it dies, why safe physical touch matters, and why you sometimes have to subtract to add connection. They close by walking through what healthy attachment usually looks like, and why it gets so much harder when a child missed that bond early on.

This conversation is practical, honest, and hopeful for parents, caregivers, and anyone walking with a child from a hard place. Attachment isn't repaired through pressure or control. It's built slowly, protected carefully, and grown through safe, steady relationship.

Disclaimer: The content shared in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. While Maggie Dunn is a licensed clinical professional, the conversations on this podcast are not intended to provide therapy, clinical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Listening to this podcast does not create a therapist-client relationship. If you or someone you know needs mental health support, please seek guidance from a qualified professional in your area. If you are experiencing a crisis or emergency, call 911 or contact a local crisis support service immediately.

When a child has experienced trauma, structure can help them feel safe. But structure and control are not the same thing.

In Episode 4 of Choices, Maggie and Karemmy begin unpacking the pillars of attachment repair, starting with the difference between healthy structure and unhealthy rigidity. They talk about felt safety, power struggles, trauma-informed parenting, and the moments when a parent’s need for control can quietly get in the way of connection.

This conversation is practical, honest, and hopeful for parents, caregivers, and anyone walking with a child from a hard place. Healing is possible, but attachment repair does not happen through control. It happens through safe, steady relationship.

Disclaimer: The content shared in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. While Maggie Dunn is a licensed clinical professional, the conversations on this podcast are not intended to provide therapy, clinical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Listening to this podcast does not create a therapist-client relationship. If you or someone you know needs mental health support, please seek guidance from a qualified professional in your area. If you are experiencing a crisis or emergency, call 911 or contact a local crisis support service immediately.

In Episode 3 of Choices, Nicole Mitchell’s story begins in survival mode: instability, addiction, foster care, abuse, and years of believing there was no good life available to her. But her story does not end there.

Nicole shares how healing began one step at a time, through faith, community, and people who helped her believe she was loved, valuable, and not broken. Her journey is a powerful reminder that trauma may shape the way we see ourselves, but it does not have to define who we become.

This conversation is honest, tender, and deeply hopeful. It speaks to the courage it takes to let people in, make different choices, and believe that pain does not get the final word.

Disclaimer: The content shared in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. While Maggie Dunn is a licensed clinical professional, the conversations on this podcast are not intended to provide therapy, clinical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Listening to this podcast does not create a therapist-client relationship. If you or someone you know needs mental health support, please seek guidance from a qualified professional in your area. If you are experiencing a crisis or emergency, call 911 or contact a local crisis support service immediately.

In Episode 2 of Choices, Karemmy and Maggie unpack two foundational words for understanding children who have experienced severe trauma: trauma and attachment.

Together, they talk about what trauma is, how it can shape a person’s identity and relationships, and why attachment matters so deeply in the healing process. They also speak honestly about one of the hardest tensions for caregivers: creating a safe place where every feeling can be named, understood, and cared for, while still helping a child learn that not every behavior is okay.

This episode pushes back on the lie that trauma gets the final word. Trauma is real. Attachment wounds are real. Healing is not easy, quick, or always clean. But repair is possible.

For parents, foster parents, caregivers, and anyone walking alongside a child with a hard story, this conversation offers practical understanding, honest encouragement, and a hope-filled reminder: what happened to you may shape your story, but it does not have to define who you become.

Disclaimer: The content shared in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. While Maggie Dunn is a licensed clinical professional, the conversations on this podcast are not intended to provide therapy, clinical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Listening to this podcast does not create a therapist-client relationship. If you or someone you know needs mental health support, please seek guidance from a qualified professional in your area. If you are experiencing a crisis or emergency, call 911 or contact a local crisis support service immediately.

In the first episode of Choices, hosts Maggie Dunn and Karemmy Schinzing introduce the heart behind the podcast and the work of House of Providence. Together, they begin unpacking what it means to hold trauma and truth in the same conversation.

This episode explores why trauma matters, why choices still matter, and why healing begins with both compassion and responsibility. Maggie and Karemmy discuss felt safety, maladaptive coping skills, victimhood, free will, redemption, and the hope that no story is beyond God’s ability to restore.

If you are a parent, foster parent, adoptive parent, kinship caregiver, or someone walking alongside a child who has experienced trauma, this conversation is an invitation to pull up a chair and begin the journey.

Disclaimer: The content shared in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. While Maggie Dunn is a licensed clinical professional, the conversations on this podcast are not intended to provide therapy, clinical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Listening to this podcast does not create a therapist-client relationship. If you or someone you know needs mental health support, please seek guidance from a qualified professional in your area. If you are experiencing a crisis or emergency, call 911 or contact a local crisis support service immediately.

Welcome to Choices, a podcast from House of Providence where trauma and truth collide.

In this trailer, you will be introduced to the heart behind the podcast and the honest conversations to come around trauma, foster care, family, healing, faith, and hope.

New episodes coming soon.