Today’s episode is a conversation with Sheree Dunwell. She is an award-winning vocalist originally from Lynn, MA. After earning a BFA in opera performance from Carnegie Mellon University, she returned to New England where she has been performing as a professional vocalist ever since. The second installment in our series with “The Investments” girl squad. She and Dr. MC discuss being overachievers while still needing genuine authentic self-care. Finding time for rest, taking breaks, and trying not to do it all. And most importantly, Sheree dishes out some great advice on dealing with toxic people and to NOT feed the trolls. We also hear about her time onset with Patti Lupone and even self-care when wedding planning!   As always we love to hear from our listeners! Reach out to podcast@drmcselfcare.com with any questions or topics you’d like to hear about on future episodes.   Additional Resources: Sheree Marcelle page The Whitney Tribute Show in Ptown Video of her Aria Dr. MC Wedding Blog  Link to The Comedian Movie  Series of memes by Lainey Molhar   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Speaker 0 00:00:27 Welcome to another episode of Dr. MCs self care cabaret podcast. I’m Theresa Melito-Conners a PhD level self care expert in the greater Boston area with a passion for helping others recognize the importance of caring for themselves. Today’s episode is a conversation with my friend, Sherry Dunwell Sheree is an award-winning vocalist originally from Lynn Massachusetts, after earning a BFA in opera performance from Carnegie Mellon university, she returned to new England where she has been performing as a professional vocalist ever since. In 2015, she was named grand champion of WC VBS community auditions hosted by Billy Costa. In 2016, she played a featured singing role in the film, the comedian starring Robert DeNiro, Danny DeVito, and Patti LuPone. I first met Sheree many years ago as we would frequent the same fitness classes. And if you happen to listen to the episode where I interviewed my friend Carina bell tree, and we chatted about our friend group, the Carina dubbed the investments. Speaker 0 00:01:35 Well, Sherry is a part of that group as well. She is smart, friendly, and talented. I remember seeing a lot of myself and Sherry when we first met. And although we have had different lived experiences, there’s a lot of common ground in our lives and shared interests. Later, we started taking ballroom dancing lessons at a local studio and ended up performing together. And it was a blast. Sherry is one of those friends that no matter how much time has passed, we jumped right back into our friendship seamlessly. I am delighted to have her here with us today and talk about self care. Speaker 0 00:02:19 So thanks so much for joining us Sheree today here on the Dr. MC self care cabaret podcast. Speaker 2 00:02:26 I’m so excited. Thanks so Speaker 3 00:02:28 Much for having me. I’m really excited to be here. Speaker 0 00:02:31 Yeah. I’m excited to ask you these questions. We’ve got a handful of questions I came up with. We’re going to cover a variety of topics, but first and foremost, as a performer vocalist dancer, and more, how do you like to practice self-care? Speaker 3 00:02:47 So, you know, I think my answer to that has evolved over t

Today’s episode is a conversation with Dr. Jackie Boivin. She is an Assistant Professor of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, MA. A former elementary school teacher who uses her past experience in the field to contextualize her instruction in teacher preparation.   These two dynamic Dr.’s were in the same cohort for their doctoral studies and have been fast friends ever since. Their conversation discusses the critical need for self-care in all areas of life (even when planning a wedding). Movement breaks, hydration, and most importantly, the Power of saying No to toxic people are several tools discussed in this episode.   As always we love to hear from our listeners! Reach out to podcast@drmcselfcare.com with any questions or topics you’d like to hear about on future episodes.   Additional Resources: Mindful Self-Care for Earlier Schooling: How Self-Care May Help Students Have the Emotional Competencies to Face Transitions at Younger Age Strategies and Methods for Implementing Trauma-Informed Pedagogy Exploring the Role of the School Principal in Predominantly White Middle Schools: School Leadership to Promote Multicultural Understanding (Routledge Research in Educational Leadership) Dr. MC’s Wedding Blog Post EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Speaker 0 00:00:25 Welcome to another podcast episode of Dr. MCs self care cavalry. I’m Theresa Melito-Conners, a PhD level self-care expert in the greater Boston area with a passion for helping others find their spotlight and recognize the importance of caring for themselves. Today’s episode is a conversation with my PhD partner in crime, Dr. Jackie Bowman, Jackie and I embarked on the PhD journey in 2016 together and developed an unstoppable bond. We supported each other through the dissertation process, which can be quite challenging to navigate, but having each other definitely helped us both. We managed to finish and successfully defend our dissertations during the summer of 2019, since then it has been nonstop for us. We have coauthored one published chapter in an educational handbook and another one in the editing phase. But Jackie has been up to a lot on her own as well. Dr. Jackie Bowman is an assistant professor of elementary and early childhood education at Bridgewater state university. Speaker 0 00:01:33 She is a former elementary school teacher who uses her past experience in the field to contextualize her instruction in teacher preparation, Dr. Bowman’s research specialization is in multicultural education and anti-racist pedagogy. She is the author of the book exploring the role of the school principal in predominantly white middle schools, school leadership to promote multicultural understanding. She teaches a math methods course to elementary teacher candidates at Bridgewater state. She integrates her knowledge of project based place based education to her multidisciplinary approach, to fostering conceptual understanding of mathematics. She also teaches a course titled deconstructing racism, yourself, your world, your schools, in which students explore their unconscious biases and how these impact the world around them contributing to systemic racism like modern day racial segregation of public education. Her largest passion is authentically connecting academics with social justice. I am honored to call Jackie my friend and call me Spe

Today’s episode is a conversation with Dr. MC’s amazing cousin, Allison Derrico. As if that wasn’t enough of a reason to listen she joins us with a wealth of experience as an Ayurvedic Health Counselor, Yoga & Meditation teacher.    As always we love to hear from our listeners! Reach out to podcast@drmcselfcare.com with any questions or topics you’d like to hear about on future episodes.   Additional Resources: Allison’s Website on Back Bay Yoga Dr MC blog post on ayurveda Banyan Botanicals Dosha assessment quiz You can learn more about Dr. MC and this podcast on her website: https://drmcselfcare.com/podcast-home/ EPISODE TRANSCRIPT  Speaker 0 00:00:27 Well, welcome to another episode of Dr. MCs self care cabaret podcast. I’m Theresa Melito-Conners a PhD level self care expert in the greater Boston area with a passion for helping others recognize the importance of caring for themselves. Today’s guest is a member of my family, my cousin, Alison Derrico. Alison is an ayurvedic health counselor, a yoga and meditation teacher. In addition to being a wife and dog, mom Xtrordinair. The story goes that when my mom and dad went to the hospital and held Alison shortly after she made her appearance into the world, my mom thought to herself, wow, I want one. Well, I was born about nine months later, almost to the day. I will let you connect the dots of what happened when my parents left the hospital that sunny June day. But as a result, I have an older cousin whom I am very close to and have shared many adventures with. I admire Allison’s free spirit and openness to the universe. Speaker 0 00:01:36 I remember when Alison was going to become a yoga teacher. It was not as trendy then. And I was not as familiar with it and its benefits, but we have both been interested in self care and non traditional healing methods for quite some time. Alison has been an entrepreneur for years and she was one of the first people I told when I was launching Dr. MCs self care cabaret. I have to say for those, who’ve taken a workshop with me since COVID, you have likely heard me raving about my cousin and her private yoga classes that she has been hosting for my mother and I, well, this is that cousin, and I’m so excited to have her here with us today. Allison teaches group and private yoga classes and offers our Vedic health consult too. I am delighted to share our plans conversation with you. Let’s get started. So first question, tell me a little bit about how you became a yoga and meditation teacher and, and are you Vedic health counselor? Because that’s fascinating. Speaker 1 00:02:41 All right. So yo, I’ll start with yoga teaching because that came first. Um, I had been practicing yoga probably for about five years at a studio just outside Boston. It no longer exists, but it was Pronto power yoga. It was a Vinyasa, um, style yoga. And so when the teacher training came around, I kind of felt like it was something I always was curious about. Um, so in 2012 I did my 200 hour training at prom and that was in Cambridge. Um, and then from there I kind of dove right in and just started teaching classes and for yoga, for why I was practicing yoga, I guess, to get into that a little bit more. Um, it was something t

Today’s episode is with one Karina Beltre. A Wife, Mother, Model, Radio Host of a Rhythm Lifestyle, she and Dr. MC go way back to their days rockin’ the front row of Zumba classes together, and together they discuss their self-care needs, life as married women, and reminiscing on their old “gurl” squad: “the Investments.”   As always we love to hear from our listeners! Reach out to podcast@drmcselfcare.com with any questions or topics you’d like to hear about on future episodes.   Additional Resources: Dr MC Blog: Guest appearance on Karina’s Radio Show Karina’s website You can learn more about Dr. MC and this podcast on her website: https://drmcselfcare.com/podcast-home/   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Speaker 0 00:00:27 Well, welcome to another episode of Dr. MCs self-care cabaret podcast. I am Theresa Melito-Conners, a PhD level self-care expert in the greater Boston area who loves to help others take control of their health and wellbeing. Sometimes you meet people in life with whom you just click. Today’s episode is a conversation with just such a person. My friend, Carina bell tree. We met several years ago when we would rock of the front row during Zoomba classes. And we became instant friends. Corrina’s no BS, attitude and style are so refreshing. Although she no longer lives in Massachusetts, we remain in contact despite any geographical or scheduling challenges back in the day when Corina and I were showing up for Zoomba, we bonded with a few other special ladies attending these classes, calling ourselves the investments. I believe Karena herself came up with that name because some people are just worth investing your time and energy into Corina is a wife, mother of two beautiful children, a model. And recently she began hosting her radio show called a rhythm lifestyle. I am thrilled. The Corina was visiting Boston recently, and we were able to see each other and catch up. This is my conversation with her and I hope you win. Speaker 0 00:02:04 So let’s, let’s get started. Okay. Speaker 1 00:02:07 Tell me a little bit about your self-care practices and how you like to practice them. Speaker 2 00:02:12 So for me, self care has a lot of things and it’ll definitely depend on my mood. So self-care could be reading a book, right? Just disconnecting. It could be a Netflix type of day, which doesn’t happen often. Right? Um, I even self-indulgent YouTube makeup videos. Nice. Right? Because you know how I like to do my makeup, right? Your makeup is gorgeous. I will self indulge and make up videos. Um, one of the things I also love to do as I write a letter to God, nice. I write to God a lot. And I have notebooks like lingering in my bedroom everywhere, sticky notes. Because sometimes when I’m feeling, you know, despair stressed, I feel like I have to run it down. So self care there. Now, one of the things that I started doing, and this was a long time ago before I had my gastric bypass, my doctor said, what do you, what do you want to do to make you feel beautiful? Speaker 2 00:03:17 So at the time I didn’t have a lot of money. So I started with skincare, right. Taking care of myself. So what I would do is take my time with my skincare, with my moisturizer and all that stuff. Now it’s a little bougie now I’m going to say so by the time I get up, I think I last more moisturizing than I do in the shower, because it is the only thing that I

Today’s episode is a conversation with Jeffrey Benson. As internally known author (and having worked over forty years as a teacher, mentor, and administrator) he’s had the good fortune of working with wonderful people on school reform, conflict resolution, learning theory, trauma, addiction, advisory programs, math education, staff development, leadership training, and curriculum development. Together, he and Dr. MC discuss their self-care routines, the benefits of rest, the current climate of education in a post-Covid world and so much more!   As always we love to hear from our listeners! Reach out to podcast@drmcselfcare.com with any questions or topics you’d like to hear about on future episodes.   Additional Resources: Jeffrey Benson’s website ASCD website Personal Best Article by Atul Gawande You can learn more about Dr. MC and this podcast on her website: https://drmcselfcare.com/podcast-home/ EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Speaker 0 00:00:26 Welcome to another episode of Dr. MCs self care cabaret podcast. I’m Theresa Melito-Conners a PhD level self-care expert in the greater Boston area with a passion for helping others recognize the importance of caring for themselves. Today’s episode is a conversation with Jeffrey Benson. Jeffrey is an internationally known author and has worked for over 40 years as a teacher mentor and administrator. He’s had the good fortune of working with wonderful people on school reform, conflict resolution, learning theory, trauma addiction, advisory programs, math, education, staff development, leadership training, and curriculum development. He now coaches, principals and teachers writes about education, speaks at conferences, all in an effort to upload what he has learned in hopes others can make good use of it. His work focuses on schools being more successful to more students, always rooted in the understanding of how people learn, what should be the starting point for all we do in schools. Speaker 0 00:01:29 I first met Jeffrey back in 2011, fresh out of grad school round one, when I was hired to be the guidance coordinator at a therapeutic high school in Massachusetts folks who have attended my trainings on creating a trauma sensitive school have likely heard me reflect on this experience for many reasons. Jeffrey was the director of education at the school when I was hired. And I learned so much from working with him. Our paths crossed once again, in my next role, as I hired Jeffrey many times to present to a large conference of special education professionals that I used to put together for a statewide trade association in Massachusetts Jeffrey’s workshops, always received rave reviews from his attendees. Jeffrey has so much information to share, and I’m delighted. He’s here with us today. Speaker 0 00:02:21 Thank you so much, Jeffrey for joining us here today on the Dr. MC self care cabaret podcast. We’re going to jump right in here with, um, question one. I know you’ve written on the topic of sel

Today’s episode is a conversation with Amber McMahon, a Reiki Master, intuitive energy healer, spiritual guidance Coach, spiritual medium, and licensed therapist.  Together she and Dr. MC discuss their self-care routines, the benefits of Reiki, therapy, setting boundaries, and much more! As always we love to hear from our listeners! Reach out to podcast@drmcselfcare.com with any questions or topics you’d like to hear about on future episodes.   Additional Resources: Dr. MC blog post on Reiki Amber’s Website You can learn more about Dr. MC and this podcast on her website: https://drmcselfcare.com/podcast-home/ EPISODE TRANSCRIPT  Speaker 1 00:00:37 Welcome to another episode of Dr. MCs self care cabaret podcast. I’m your host Theresa Melito-Conners a PhD level self-care expert in the greater Boston area with a passion for helping others recognize the importance. . Speaker 1 00:00:59 Amber is a Reiki master Reiki, master teacher, spiritual energy healer, spiritual, medium intuitive spiritual coach, and licensed therapist in Arlington, Massachusetts. We met about 10 years ago when I was the guidance coordinator at a therapeutic high school. And Amber worked in a similar setting. I set out to create a job alike group for counselors working with similar populations of students. And Amber was part of this endeavor. We clicked immediately. However, we lost touch for a bit after Amber left that position until I was choreographing a production of the musical legally blonde. I was chatting one day with a woman who owned the dog who was cast to play bruiser. She asked me what I did for work, and I told her she remarked that it sounded like the work her niece did. She then told me that I reminded her of her niece. Out of curiosity, I asked, what is your niece’s name? Speaker 1 00:02:01 Never in a million years? Did I think I would know her niece, but guess what I did and it was Amber, I nearly fell over. That was the spark we needed to reconnect, cut to present day where I have been seeing Amber for regular Reiki appointments for about five years. And I love it. I often credit never sacrificing sleep and never skipping my Reiki appointments as one of the ways I got through the doctoral program that, and the support of my husband and mom. But back to Amber, she is such a remarkable woman and someone I am grateful to have in my life, Amber, his passion is supporting, guiding and empowering others to ignite that bright light within their journey of self-awareness self-mastery self discovery and healing. Amber has found that combining all of her healing modalities using Reiki as her foundation has been the most effective approach to healing and wellness. I am so excited for you to hear my conversation with you. Cross that bridge when we’re not recording, but yeah, no, that makes sense. And we can just dive right in. Speaker 2 00:03:21 All right, go. Let’s go. Speaker 1 00:03:24 All right. Welcome Amber to the Dr. MC self care cabaret podcast. Thank you so much for joining me here today. For this episode, I want to get

Today’s episode is a conversation with Tristyn Sepersky, a Boston-based performer and personal friend. Together she and Dr. MC discuss their self-care routines, the benefits of having various interests, Michael Sheen and much more! And as always we’d love to hear from you! Reach out to podcast@drmcselfcare.com with any questions or topics you’d like to hear about on future episodes.   Additional Resources: Dr. MC blog post on sleep Kate Winslet story on Calm Arnold Schwarzenegger photo You can learn more about Dr. MC and this podcast on her website: https://drmcselfcare.com/podcast-home/ EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Speaker 1 00:00:27 Welcome to the inaugural episode of Dr. self care cabaret podcast. I’m Theresa Melito-Conners a PhD level self care expert in the greater Boston area with a passion for helping others recognize the importance of caring for themselves. This is a brand new podcast where we will dive deep into the true meaning of self-care dismantling the stereotypes and the societal ideals that make us feel that self-care is selfish and a luxury reserved for those who can afford such things. The time is now to stop the cycle of deprivation. Let go of the idea of perfection and step into the world of genuine self care. I will teach you sustainable realistic cost accessible, effective, and efficient ways to attend to your mental, emotional, and physical needs. I am so excited to take this journey with you. Today’s episode is a conversation with Tristen. a Boston-based performer and personal trainer currently working as a patient coordinator for an orthodontics office, but more importantly, a dear friend, Tristan and I met 10 years ago when I was choreographing and award-winning production of the musical hair, where she was a member of the cast. Speaker 1 00:01:49 I immediately recognized her spirit and fearless attitude and asked her to be my dance captain for the show. Typically a dance captain is someone who is not only a skilled dancer, but is able to help others learn the choreography and run dance rehearsals in the choreographers absence, basically the choreographers right-hand man Tristan and I later went on to work on several shows together for both children and adults. I am delighted to chat with her today. She brings a unique perspective to talking about self-care great. So we’re going to go right in, so I’ll wait for you to finish your, putting your hair in a ponytail. She is now ready for her clothes for my voice up welcome Triston to Dr. MC self-care cabaret podcast. Speaker 2 00:02:47 Thank you. Thank you for having me. Speaker 1 00:02:49 So let’s just dive right in. So first question, can you tell me a little bit about your self-care routine? Speaker 2 00:02:57 My self-care can look like a lot of different things depending on my mood. Sometimes it’s like, I need to like flick off my brain and then I’l

A new self-care podcast has entered the scene and we’re so excited to share this with you! This will be a bi-weekly endeavor where Dr. MC will have conversations with guests ranging from the world of education, spiritual healing, nutrition & wellness, as well as friends she’s made along the way!   The first 3 episodes will be available on Weds July 21st, and future episodes to be released every other week. When listening to this podcast on your preferred player, it is important to like, rate, and subscribe!   Also, we’d love to hear from you! Reach out to podcast@drmcselfcare.com with any questions or topics you’d like to hear about on a future episode!   You can learn more about Dr. MC and this podcast on her website: https://drmcselfcare.com/podcast-home/   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT  Speaker 0 00:00:01 Let’s face it. We all Speaker 1 00:00:04 Experienced stress and challenges in our lives. There is no easy fix or miracle cure for this, but I can tell you that by taking care of ourselves and by that, I mean, true, authentic self care. You can manage this in productive ways to take your power back, putting your health and wellbeing on center stage. I’m Theresa Melito-Conners founder of Dr. MCs. Self-care cabaret. I’m a PhD level self-care expert in the greater Boston area with a passion for helping others recognize the importance of caring for themselves. It is time to find your spotlight. This is a brand new podcast. I am starting. That will be our space to talk about health well-being and how to manage what life throws at us. We will examine all aspects of self care and we’ll cover topics such as learning to love your body, making peace with food, exercising in ways that are joyful, fostering, fulfilling relationships, resting, developing more. Self-compassion how to Sue ourselves and be more mindful, attracting abundance intention setting, and so much Speaker 0 00:01:22 More. We will dive deep Speaker 1 00:01:25 Into the true meaning of self-care dismantling the stereotypes and the societal ideals that make us feel that self-care is selfish and a luxury reserved for those who can afford such things. The time is now to stop the cycle of deprivation. Let go of the idea of perfection and step into the world of genuine self care. I will teach you sustainable realistic cost, accessible, effective, and efficient ways to attend to your mental, emotional, and physical needs. We’ll have guests from all walks of life, joining us on this adventure. And of course I want to hear from my cabaret followers as well. What questions do you have pertaining to self care and wellbeing? Self-care is more than a bath bomb and a smile. It is the daily consistent, foundational way you take care of yourself so you can show up as the best you possible. And with that, welcome to Dr. MCs self care cabaret podcast. And we’ll see you soon for bi-weekly episodes with the doc Speaker 2 00:02:36 To help you on this journey. Make time for yourself. Now your future self will. Thank you. Thank you.