This week, Paola, Leslie, and Brittanny take a behavioral dive into Netflix Love Is Blind season 9 episode 10 and 11, exploring what Applied Behavior Analysis reveals about the way people love, fight, and stay in unhealthy relationships. Using the couples they break down how reinforcement, punishment, and learning history shape emotional patterns and attraction. Paola opens the episode by sharing her experience advocating for herself in her second hospital stay, connecting it to the importance of empathy and communication in both healthcare and behavior analysis. Throughout the discussion, the hosts connect these relationship patterns to behavioral principles like functional analysis, reinforcement history, private events, and environmental contingencies. They emphasize that these same dynamics appear in therapy rooms, workplaces, and families, not just reality TV. This episode helps listeners understand how reinforcement drives connection and conflict, why empathy and bedside manner matter in every field, and how “trusting your gut” can function as a cue for self-advocacy and boundary setting.   ☕ Support your favorite ABA podcast hosts by showing them love at buymeacoffee.com/everydayaba ⭐ Help EveryDay ABA reach more people by following the show + , turning on automatic downloads, and leaving a 5-star review!  📲 Follow us on Instagram: @EveryDayABA.3 for daily ABA insights and behind-the-scenes podcast updates. 📖 Get your CEU certificate here! 👟 Get a 10% Discount at Tiny Explorings Shoes using discount code PAOLA   💲Earn Rewards every time you shop by using Fetch  To advertise on this podcast please e-mail: everydayaba.3@gmail.com    After listening to the episode, participants will be able to: Identify examples of how bedside manner or empathic communication influences client outcomes.  Differentiate between reinforcement patterns that maintain healthy versus unhealthy relationship behaviors, using examples from the Love Is Blind couples discussed.  Analyze one example of how mismatched reinforcement histories contribute to chronic conflict or avoidance behavior within a partnership. Explain how clinician desensitization or burnout can lead to reduced empathy and poorer decision-making.  Apply behavior-analytic principles to assess relational power dynamics without making medical or psychological diagnoses. Describe how to use “listening to your gut” as a behaviorally anchored self-management strategy—recognizing internal cues as discriminative stimuli for self-advocacy or boundary-setting. References:  Fals-Stewart, W., O’Farrell, T. J., & Birchler, G. R. (2000). Behavioral couples therapy for male substance-abusing patients: Effects on relationship adjustment and drug-using behavior. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(5), 944–955. Fischer, D. J., Baucom, D. H., & Cohen, M. J. (2013). Clinical processes in behavioral couples therapy. Behavior Modification, 37(6), 723–751.  Flückiger, C., Del Re, A. C., Wampold, B. E., & Horvath, A. O. (2020). Assessing the alliance–outcome association in psychotherapy: A meta-analytic overview. Clinical Psychology Review, 82, 101934.  Halford, W. K. (1998). The ongoing evolution of behavioral couples therapy: Innovations for the treatment of relationship distress. Clinical Psychology Review, 18(6), 613–640.  Howick, J., Steinkopf, L., Ulyte, A., Roberts, N., & Meissner, K. (2018). Effects of empathic and positive communication in healthcare consultations: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 111(7), 240–252.  Wilkinson, H., Whittington, R., Perry, L., & Eames, C. (2017). Examining the relationship between burnout and empathy in healthcare professionals: A systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 73(6), 1276–1288.