Tamara Hubbard, MA, LCPC, is a licensed clinical professional counselor with more than 20 years of clinical experience. IShe specializes in helping parents of children with food allergies find the balance between managing anxiety and living fully. An active allied health member of professional allergy and immunology organizations, Tamara is a national speaker and has created several widely used resources within the allergy community. She is also the author of May Contain Anxiety: Managing the Overwhelm of Parenting Children with Food Allergies.

Some of the topics we explore include:

-Tamara’s own experience parenting a child with food allergies shaped her work as a therapist

-How ACT informs her clinical approach and writing

-Balancing appropriate safety precautions with quality of life, flexibility, and values-based living

-Common clinical challenges families face, including post-diagnosis overwhelm, school transitions, OCD, eating disorders, and more

-How parents can model healthier coping for their children, collaborate effectively with allergy care teams, and help kids build resilience rather than fear-driven identities

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Tamara’s Website: https://www.tamarahubbardlcpc.com/

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Thank you all for checking out the episode! Here are some ways to help support Mentally Flexible:

You can help cover some of the costs of running the podcast by donating a cup of coffee! www.buymeacoffee.com/mentallyflexible

Please subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It only takes 30 seconds and plays an important role in being able to get new guests.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mentally-flexible/id1539933988

Follow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomparkestherapy

Check out my song “Glimpse at Truth” that you hear in the intro/outro of every episode: https://tomparkes.bandcamp.com/track/glimpse-at-truth

Check out my new album, Holding Space! https://open.spotify.com/album/0iOcjZQhmAhYtjjq3CTpwQ?si=nemiLnELTsGGExjfy8B6iw

My guest today is Paul Eastwick, a social psychologist and professor at the University of California, Davis, whose research focuses on attraction, romantic relationships, and the gap between what we think we want and what actually unfolds in real life. His latest book, Bonded by Evolution, challenges a lot of common assumptions about dating and compatibility.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why many of our inherited “rules” about attraction—like mate value, having a type, or alpha/beta dynamics—don’t hold up in real life
• How attraction is far more dynamic and often grows over time rather than appearing instantly
• The gap between what people say they want in a partner and who they actually choose
• How context (social environments, timing, even a first kiss) plays a powerful role in shaping connection
• What dating apps get wrong—and why real-life networks and shared spaces matter more than we think
• How loosening rigid expectations allows attraction and relationships to unfold more naturally

Thank you all for checking out the episode! Here are some ways to help support Mentally Flexible:

You can help cover some of the costs of running the podcast by donating a cup of coffee! www.buymeacoffee.com/mentallyflexible

Please subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It only takes 30 seconds and plays an important role in being able to get new guests.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mentally-flexible/id1539933988

Follow me on Instagram: @tomparkestherapy

Check out my song “Glimpse at Truth” that you hear in the intro/outro of every episode: https://tomparkes.bandcamp.com/track/glimpse-at-truth

Check out my new album, Holding Space! https://open.spotify.com/album/0iOcjZQhmAhYtjjq3CTpwQ?si=nemiLnELTsGGExjfy8B6iw

Today’s guest is Jason Luoma, PhD. Jason is a clinical psychologist, researcher, entrepreneur, and psychotherapy trainer based in Portland, Oregon. For over two decades, Jason’s research has focused on shame, stigma, and the interpersonal functions of emotion, with more recent work centered on psychedelic science. He served as Principal Investigator on one of the first MDMA-assisted psychotherapy trials in the Pacific Northwest and has contributed to multiple NIH-funded clinical trials in roles including co-investigator, consultant, therapist, and trainer.

Jason is co-author of the bestselling ACT text Learning Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Values in Therapy, and is currently writing a book on psychedelic-assisted therapy for Guilford Press. A longtime leader in the ACT community, he is a peer-reviewed ACT trainer, former president of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, and co-founder of several innovative organizations, including the Portland Psychotherapy Clinic, Research, & Training Center and the Portland Institute for Psychedelic Science.

He also hosts The Research Matters Podcast, where he interviews leading researchers about what makes their work impactful and effective.

Some of the topics we explore in this episode include:

-His early development in Steve Hayes’ lab

-The evolution of ACT and contextual behavioral science

-The need for more experiential learning for clinicians

-psychedelics and their application for healing

-Hopes for the future of psychedelic assisted therapy

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Jason’s Website: https://jasonluoma.com/

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Thank you all for checking out the episode! Here are some ways to help support Mentally Flexible:

You can help cover some of the costs of running the podcast by donating a cup of coffee! www.buymeacoffee.com/mentallyflexible

Please subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It only takes 30 seconds and plays an important role in being able to get new guests.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mentally-flexible/id1539933988

Follow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mentallyflexible/

Check out my song “Glimpse at Truth” that you hear in the intro/outro of every episode: https://tomparkes.bandcamp.com/track/glimpse-at-truth

Check out my new album, Holding Space! https://open.spotify.com/album/0iOcjZQhmAhYtjjq3CTpwQ?si=nemiLnELTsGGExjfy8B6iw