In this episode, we sit down with Wael Al Awabdah — Board Certified Behaviour Analyst, founder of ABA Experts, and the first Syrian BCBA in the world — to explore the science behind why people do what they do, and what it means for every relationship, habit, and pattern in your life.
We go beyond self-help advice and motivational content to examine how behaviour actually works — through 15 years of clinical practice with real families, real children, and real consequences.
In this conversation, we discuss:
• Why behaviour is communication, not a character flaw
• The 4 functions of behaviour and what drives everything we do
• The gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it
• Why toxic relationships feel addictive — the variable reinforcement trap
• Skill deficit vs motivation problem — and why solving the wrong one keeps you stuck
• What the Milgram experiment reveals about leadership, obedience, and power
• How childhood patterns quietly run your adult relationships
• What trauma does to a child’s developing behavioural system
• The truth about ADHD self-diagnosis on social media
• What to do if you’re an exhausted parent who doesn’t know where to start
This episode challenges the idea that difficult behaviour is a personality problem — and asks a deeper question:
What if every pattern you can’t break is simply trying to tell you something?