The Stand with Meg Show

What if you do not have to wait for someone you love to hit bottom?

On The Stand With Meg Show, I sit down with Michael Loverde, owner and clinical director of Family First Intervention. He holds a Master of Science in Addiction Studies and Counseling, and he is a Certified Intervention Professional. For 21 years he has helped families with substance use and mental health problems.

Mike says families do not have to wait for a loved one to want help. He says they already want relief. That is why they are using, and why some are acting out. What decides the next step is the environment. If the cost of staying the same is smaller than what the person is getting from the life, nothing moves.

He walks through a first phone call the way he actually does it. Where does the person live. Are they working. Where do they go after treatment. Who else in the family is carrying a role. Then he asks the question he wants parents to sit with. What are you getting out of the help that keeps them stuck.

The book he just released is S.A.F.E. Self-Awareness Family Education. He calls it the intervention model his team uses. One piece of it is the horse, the fence, and the water. You may not be able to push the horse's head down. You can build a fence tall enough and strong enough, leave the water there, and let survival do the rest. He says that takes patience and boundaries, and a change in how the family talks.

He also talks about labels. A boy was in and out of hospitals, painting on the walls, and he says nobody asked what the boy was painting. He tells a story from his own childhood about behavior that got him a label before anyone asked what he was afraid of at home. His point is to ask the question before the prescription.

We talk about relatives who still will not let someone back in, even after years of change. Mike says he will not order them to open the door. He wants to know what the wall is doing for them.

Parents also tell me they are afraid to report harm because they fear losing their children in family court. That is what families report to me. It is not a court finding. Mike says his team does not litigate those cases. He says if children are in the home and help is refused, his team will make a mandated report.

IN THIS CONVERSATION
• Why he says "they have to want it" keeps families stuck
• The environment, and what he asks on the first call
• Enabling, and the reward a family can get from staying needed
• The horse, the fence, and the water
• Why he says a job, a new person, or a DUI is not a plan
• Labels, the boy painting on the walls, and asking what a child is afraid of
• Relatives who will not let someone back in
• What parents tell me about reporting harm and family court
• His book, his website, and his webinars

ABOUT THE GUEST
Michael Loverde is the owner and clinical director of Family First Intervention. Say Michael once, then Mike. He works with adults, 18 and up. He says most of the calls he gets are about people in their thirties and forties. He says his program spends most of its time with the family, and then stays with the family after treatment, when there is a release of information.

This conversation is general education. It is not a therapy session, a diagnosis, or a promise that an intervention will work.

MIKE'S WEBSITE
Family First Intervention
https://family-intervention.com/

GET MIKE'S BOOK
S.A.F.E. Self-Awareness Family Education: Intervention Program and Family Recovery
https://link.amazon/B0gBVz2jm
This is an Amazon affiliate link. Stand With Meg may earn from a qualifying purchase.

FOLLOW MIKE AND FAMILY FIRST INTERVENTION
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mike.familyfirstintervention/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/familyfirst.intervention/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Family-intervention
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mike.familyfirst
X: https://x.com/ffintervention

Stand With Meg: https://www.standwithmeg.com/
Family Rights Survey: https://my.standwithmeg.com/survey

Sign up for his webinars on his website. He said the signup sends a notice when the next one is coming, and that people can ask questions at the end without their name or face on screen.

If this conversation sounds like your family, send it to the person who is tired of waiting. If you have experience with family court, take and share the Family Rights Survey.

CONTENT NOTE
This episode includes addiction, childhood trauma, sexual abuse, self-harm, family court, incarceration, and a family's grief after a death. Mike is sharing what he has seen in his work and what he teaches. What I say about family court is what families report. It is not a court finding. Nothing in this episode is medical, therapeutic, or legal advice.

Host: Meg
Guest: Michael Loverde
Show: The Stand With Meg Show

Support the show

Thank you for listening to The Stand With Meg Show — Defending Parents’ Rights. Protecting Children. Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.
Join the movement at StandWithMeg.com

. Follow us on all platforms @StandWithMeg for more truth, tools, and action.

 If this episode spoke to you, share it — because together, we fight for justice.

What happens when writing your own story becomes another battle?

Sean Coffin says his memoir, Resenting Joy, sold 200 copies in less than two weeks before a temporary court order stopped him from publishing it. In this episode of The Stand with Meg Show, Sean and his fiancée, Brittany O’Brien, join me for the story behind that moment.

Sean, a New York City teacher, coach, and father, recounts the intervention where he says he was accused of dealing drugs, the police response he describes, and the strain of navigating separation and family court. He also recalls putting the manuscript of Resenting Joy in front of Joy Mangano, his former mother-in-law, and explains the publication dispute as he experienced it.

Brittany brings her perspective on their relationship and the life they were building through court dates, uncertainty, and the work of writing the book. Her love and support are part of this conversation, along with Sean’s determination to remain present as a father.

We talk about:
• The allegations and police encounter Sean recounts
• The practical and emotional pressures he describes during separation
• How Sean and Brittany met
• Writing Resenting Joy and the manuscript meeting
• His account of the book’s early sales and temporary publication restraint
• Support, rebuilding, and what they want listeners to take away

ABOUT THE GUESTS
Sean Coffin is the author of Resenting Joy. His website describes him as a New York City teacher, coach, and father of two.
Brittany O’Brien is Sean’s fiancée and joins the conversation to share her own perspective and experiences.

GUEST LINKS
Sean’s website, updates, and book availability: https://resentingjoy.com/
Read Sean on Substack: https://resentingjoy.substack.com/

Book availability note: When these notes were prepared, Sean’s website listed reservations while distribution remained temporarily restricted. Check the author’s site for current availability and reservation terms.

FOLLOW THE STAND WITH MEG SHOW
Follow the podcast for more full conversations.
Watch full video interviews: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW2c4MVg7aZ0
Show website: https://www.standwithmeg.com/show
Share your experience through the Family Rights Survey: https://my.standwithmeg.com/survey

The experiences, conversations, allegations, and court-order descriptions discussed here are Sean and Brittany’s accounts. They are not presented as independently established findings. #ResentingJoy #SeanCoffin #StandWithMeg #Fatherhood #AuthorInterview

Support the show

Thank you for listening to The Stand With Meg Show — Defending Parents’ Rights. Protecting Children. Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.
Join the movement at StandWithMeg.com

. Follow us on all platforms @StandWithMeg for more truth, tools, and action.

 If this episode spoke to you, share it — because together, we fight for justice.

When the world feels heavy, what story is your child telling themselves?

On The Stand With Meg Show, I sit down with author, musician, and artist Julie Lavender Le Doux for a conversation about children, books, and the stories we carry about ourselves.

Julie introduces The Amazings Series, where a family that sees color lives in a town that sees only gray. We discuss the questions she wants her stories to raise about conformity, independent thinking, and the messages children hear from the world around them. Julie also explains how contemporary social and political debates inform the symbolism in her fiction.

Then we bring the conversation home. What can reading together give a family? How can grandparents use a book to connect? What happens when our good intentions put too much pressure on a child?

One of the most personal moments comes when Julie shares what she regrets about parenting her oldest son. She talks about learning to apologize, giving him room to be honest, and making clear that he was not responsible for her emotional well-being.

We also discuss Wounds to Wonder and Julie's Christian perspective on emotional healing. Her account is shared as personal experience and belief, not as a clinical finding or a promise of treatment results.

IN THIS CONVERSATION
• Why Julie began writing about nonconformity
• The Amazings Series and the fictional world of Wonder
• The social issues and public debates behind the stories
• Reading aloud, audiobooks, and conversations between generations
• Family stress and the stories children tell themselves
• Faith, hope, and Wounds to Wonder
• Parenting regrets, apologies, and giving children space
• Where to learn more about Julie's books

ABOUT THE GUEST
Julie Lavender Le Doux is an author, musician, and artist. In this episode, she also draws on her experiences as a homeschooling mother and grandmother.

BOOKS DISCUSSED
The Amazings Series, including Constance and the Battle for Wonder
Wounds to Wonder
Mrs. Amazing and the Seed

LINKS
Julie's books and resources: https://www.thequestforwonder.com/
About Julie: https://www.julielavender.com/
Stand With Meg: https://www.standwithmeg.com/
Family Rights Survey: https://my.standwithmeg.com/survey

Check Julie's website for current book availability, editions, and preorder details.

If this conversation makes you think of a parent or grandparent, share this episode with them. If you have experience with family court, you can also take and share the Family Rights Survey.

CONTENT NOTE
This episode includes discussion of family separation, childhood trauma, parenting regrets, faith, and opinions on public issues. The conversation is not medical or legal advice. Books and personal testimony do not replace qualified professional care.

Host: Meg
Guest: Julie Lavender Le Doux
Show: The Stand With Meg Show

Support the show

Thank you for listening to The Stand With Meg Show — Defending Parents’ Rights. Protecting Children. Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.
Join the movement at StandWithMeg.com

. Follow us on all platforms @StandWithMeg for more truth, tools, and action.

 If this episode spoke to you, share it — because together, we fight for justice.

⚖️ Every fraud indictment Shawn has put on this table started the same way. A victim walked into a law enforcement office and put what happened in writing. Nobody came to save them. They wrote it down.

Criminal trial attorney Shawn Lee walks real sworn affidavits, the documents that turn a complaint into a case: a Wichita Police detective's probable-cause affidavit in a Sedgwick County, Kansas false-information case (charged, not convicted, trial set for November 2026), a six-page FBI wire-fraud affidavit, an IRS Criminal Investigation affidavit for alleged wire-fraud conspiracy and money laundering, and Percoco v. United States, the Supreme Court's honest-services fraud case. Then the answer to "that's a civil matter": Shawn's four-legs-of-the-table theory, the same affidavit filed with police, sheriff, FBI, IRS, licensing board, prosecutor, and press. Plus the Supreme Court of Missouri's new rules, effective January 1, 2027, that end regional buddy-network discipline committees, and Shawn's read on the Clancy family's civil complaint against Lindsay Clancy's telehealth providers. Civil allegations and his opinion, not charges.

📂 Every document in this episode is a free download. Go to StandwithMeg.com, tap The Shawn Lee Report, then Documents.

🧠 Shawn's framework is his theory. Everyone named in these records is presumed innocent. General legal education, not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by this content.

▶️ Watch the full episode with every document on screen: https://youtu.be/UMGQvTTN7rw

⭐ Follow on whatever platform you're on: Instagram, TikTok, and X @StandWithMeg, Facebook Stand With Meg. Follow Shawn at Attorney Shawn Lee on Facebook and at ShawnLeeLaw.com. Then share the FIRST EVER Family Rights survey at StandwithMeg.com, over 6,000 families and more than $1 billion in reported losses, every voice makes the case stronger.

I'm Meg, investigative journalist. Stay up to date at standwithmeg.com, and share the survey, it's blowing up.

Support the show

Thank you for listening to The Stand With Meg Show — Defending Parents’ Rights. Protecting Children. Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.
Join the movement at StandWithMeg.com

. Follow us on all platforms @StandWithMeg for more truth, tools, and action.

 If this episode spoke to you, share it — because together, we fight for justice.

⚖️ Families have been saying "fake orders" for years and getting called crazy. This month a United States Attorney's office put those words in a federal indictment.

Criminal trial attorney Shawn Lee walks the actual indictment of a Madison County, Illinois guardian ad litem charged with bank fraud and mail fraud: over $400,000 allegedly withdrawn from minors' accounts, and a fake court order allegedly created and mailed to a minor to conceal it. Charged, not convicted. Then the timeline, with fraud counts continuing after a suspended law license and a cocaine arrest, while he was still a GAL. Plus Shawn's theory he calls Operation Judge Hunter, how cooperation deals climb, the DOJ division bragging that it's going after lawyers, the two victims who started the Houston attorney case themselves, and Shawn's read on tele-GALs billing $250 an hour of remote-work fraud. If this was your GAL, take copies of your invoices to the agencies that charged him.

🧠 Shawn's framework is his theory. General legal education, not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by this content.

▶️ Watch the full episode with all the documents on screen: https://youtu.be/Cy_NlVu9Dhs

⭐ Follow on whatever platform you're on: Instagram, TikTok, and X @StandWithMeg, Facebook Stand With Meg. Follow Shawn at Attorney Shawn Lee on Facebook and at ShawnLeeLaw.com. Then share the FIRST EVER Family Rights survey at StandwithMeg.com, every voice makes the case stronger.

I'm Meg, investigative journalist. Stay up to date at standwithmeg.com, and share the survey, it's blowing up.

Support the show

Thank you for listening to The Stand With Meg Show — Defending Parents’ Rights. Protecting Children. Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.
Join the movement at StandWithMeg.com

. Follow us on all platforms @StandWithMeg for more truth, tools, and action.

 If this episode spoke to you, share it — because together, we fight for justice.

👩‍⚕️ She spent her days saving other families' children. Family court still took hers.

I sit down with Dr. Adwoafuaa Nwokocha, Houston family medicine physician, first generation Ghanaian American, mother of five, and author of Custody MD: Fighting for the Woo. In her words: homeless with a newborn and a Northwestern degree, medical school as a single mom, then a custody battle where she describes a full year without her children, three nannies whose courtroom stories contradicted each other, and Physician of the Year won in the middle of the worst season of her life. We talk faith, rebuilding, the guilt of moving on, and what she tells every parent still in the fight: the system is banking on your shame keeping you silent.

📚 Get Custody MD: Fighting for the Woo at CustodyMD.com, in my shop at StandwithMeg.com, and on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.

📲 Follow Dr. Nwokocha: TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, all @CustodyMD.

This episode shares Dr. Nwokocha's personal story and perspective. General education and lived experience, not legal advice.

I'm Meg, investigative journalist. Stay up to date at standwithmeg.com, and share the survey, it's blowing up.

Support the show

Thank you for listening to The Stand With Meg Show — Defending Parents’ Rights. Protecting Children. Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.
Join the movement at StandWithMeg.com

. Follow us on all platforms @StandWithMeg for more truth, tools, and action.

 If this episode spoke to you, share it — because together, we fight for justice.

Criminal trial attorney Shawn Lee lays five prescriptions on the table, a sedative hypnotic, an opioid, a benzo, an amphetamine, and an antidepressant, and reads the FDA's black box warnings out loud: warnings that apply even when a drug is prescribed, supervised, and taken exactly as directed. He walks through the FDA's warnings on substance-induced disorders, his theory of pseudo-addiction and how patients end up on medication cocktails, the Lindsay Clancy case, and the fraud half: negative drug test certificates for sale online, and why he argues a bought result filed in a virtual custody hearing could be evidence tampering and conspiracy to commit telehealth fraud. Plus the full law enforcement ladder for escalating a stalled fraud complaint, and Connecticut's child welfare telework audit.

After every episode, Meg and Shawn go LIVE for one public Q&A, open to everyone. Subscribers get Q&A priority, behind-the-scenes access, and bonus content. Join the Sub Hub, $5 a month on Facebook or Instagram.

Watch the episode free on YouTube, and find every statute and filing Shawn cites at standwithmeg.com under Episode 7 documents.

Share your story on the survey at standwithmeg.com. 5,670 families across 51 states and DC have reported $982 million in losses, and every voice makes the case stronger.

Follow Meg @StandWithMeg on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and at standwithmeg.com. To request a consultation with Shawn Lee, or an information organization consult with Meg, the booking page is standwithmeg.com/shawn-lee-report/services.html. A request starts Shawn's conflict check, it does not create an attorney-client relationship, and please send contact information and your state only, no case documents.

If this episode spoke to you, share it, because together, we fight for justice.

General legal education, not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by this episode. Nothing here is medical advice, never start or stop a medication without talking to your doctor.

Support the show

Thank you for listening to The Stand With Meg Show — Defending Parents’ Rights. Protecting Children. Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.
Join the movement at StandWithMeg.com

. Follow us on all platforms @StandWithMeg for more truth, tools, and action.

 If this episode spoke to you, share it — because together, we fight for justice.

Criminal attorney Shawn Lee walks Meg through the conviction of Ohio family court judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze, who pleaded guilty to felony tampering with records and got 60 days in jail, and the legal concept underneath it: willful ignorance and deliberate indifference. Plus a live walkie-talkie experiment that shows how court-ordered co-parenting apps turn a five minute miscommunication into a $120 bill, the real conspiracy statutes, and the DOJ's Ferguson report on courts that ran on revenue. Shawn's theory, not legal advice.

NEXT LIVE: Episode 7 premieres Sunday, August 30 at 5 PM, and right after, Meg and Shawn take one public Q&A, open to everyone. Subscribers get Q&A priority, behind-the-scenes access, and bonus content.

Share your story on the survey at standwithmeg.com. 5,670 families across 51 states and DC have reported $982 million in losses, and every voice makes the case stronger.

Follow Meg @StandWithMeg on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and at standwithmeg.com, where every episode and the documents Shawn reads on camera live free. To request a consultation with Shawn Lee, or an information organization consult with Meg, the booking page is standwithmeg.com/shawn-lee-report/services.html. A request starts Shawn's conflict check, it does not create an attorney-client relationship, and please send contact information and your state only, no case documents.

If this episode spoke to you, share it, because together, we fight for justice.

General legal education, not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by this episode.

Support the show

Thank you for listening to The Stand With Meg Show — Defending Parents’ Rights. Protecting Children. Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.
Join the movement at StandWithMeg.com

. Follow us on all platforms @StandWithMeg for more truth, tools, and action.

 If this episode spoke to you, share it — because together, we fight for justice.

Handing a lawyer a false document that gets filed in court is a felony charge in criminal court. So why do families say the same conduct gets called "a civil issue" in family court?

In Episode 5 of The Shawn Lee Report, criminal trial attorney Shawn Lee walks through a real Kansas felony charge for exactly that conduct and explains why he argues the criminal code does not stop applying just because the filing happened in a family case. His framework, his analysis, taught at a kitchen-table level.

In this episode:
• A real Kansas felony charge: a false document, handed to a lawyer, filed in court
• Why Shawn argues "that's a civil issue" is the wrong answer to a criminal act
• The Martha Mitchell Effect: the 50-year-old playbook of calling a truthful witness crazy, and the 2022 Netflix documentary that named it
• Complaint versus indictment in plain English, walked through on a real federal indictment of a sitting judge
• The newspaper investigation that brought down a sitting Missouri attorney general when no prosecutor would touch him, and why the media is a front in the fight against corruption

Episode 6 premieres LIVE Sunday, August 23 at 4 PM CT with a public Q&A with Meg and Shawn right after the episode, inside the same broadcast. Subscribers on Facebook and Instagram get their questions answered first.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bJA57OjJdDs

Stay up to date on every story and share the survey: https://standwithmeg.com

I'm Meg, investigative journalist. Stay up to date at standwithmeg.com, and share the survey, it's blowing up.

General legal education, not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by this content. The fraud framework presented is Shawn Lee's legal analysis.

Support the show

Thank you for listening to The Stand With Meg Show — Defending Parents’ Rights. Protecting Children. Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.
Join the movement at StandWithMeg.com

. Follow us on all platforms @StandWithMeg for more truth, tools, and action.

 If this episode spoke to you, share it — because together, we fight for justice.

Is a court-ordered parenting app just an app? Shawn's argument: it is social media, with profiles, messaging, monitoring, and mandated costs, and once you call it what it is, the legal questions change completely.

In Episode 4 of The Shawn Lee Report, criminal trial attorney Shawn Lee walks through what is actually in the parenting app's terms of service, who profits from the professional contracts around these platforms, what the Meta lawsuits could mean as precedent, and why he reads mandated digital communication through the lens of "scheme or artifice to defraud." His framework, his analysis, taught at a kitchen-table level.

In this episode:
• The 'Scoundrel' experiment and the high cost of digital communication (0:00)
• Scheme and artifice to defraud, and why parenting portals are social media (2:58)
• Professional contracts, AI "high conflict" flags, and sponsorship conflicts (7:22)
• The new generation of lawyers and the Meta precedent (12:41)
• The 'Cash for Kids' analogy and auditing legal bills (19:45)
• Debtors' prison, due process, and the right to trial (28:21)
• Wire fraud memorandums and the rise of tele-justice (37:21)

Episode 5 premieres LIVE on Facebook Sunday, August 16 at 4 PM CT, with a public Q&A with Meg and Shawn right after the episode inside the same broadcast.

Stay up to date on every story and share the survey: https://standwithmeg.com

I'm Meg, investigative journalist. Stay up to date at standwithmeg.com, and share the survey, it's blowing up.

General legal education, not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by this content. The fraud framework presented is Shawn Lee's legal analysis. Family experiences described are family-reported.

Support the show

Thank you for listening to The Stand With Meg Show — Defending Parents’ Rights. Protecting Children. Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.
Join the movement at StandWithMeg.com

. Follow us on all platforms @StandWithMeg for more truth, tools, and action.

 If this episode spoke to you, share it — because together, we fight for justice.