In this episode of Body Justice Podcast, Allyson Inez Ford, LPCC sits down with Monika Orstroff, LICSW, CEDS-S, Executive Director of ⁠MEDA⁠ for part two of an honest and deeply informed conversation about dissociative identity disorder (DID) and eating disorders.

Monika shares her lived experience of being diagnosed with DID in 1993 (when it was still called 'multiple personalities disorder'), breaks down what DID actually is (and what it is not), and explains why dissociative systems are often misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and stigmatized. Together, we explore how DID can shape eating disorder recovery, why treatment often fails when clinicians ignore or pathologize parts, and what it looks like to support safety, collaboration, and internal communication, without fear-based demands and expectations of neuronormativity.

Learn more about Monika’s work at ⁠healingmyparts.org⁠. You can also find her other resources through Healing My Parts, including her podcast and Substack.

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Disclaimer: this podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. This is not a replacement for individual therapy or medical advice.

As always, you can find the host of this podcast, Allyson, on her website: ⁠www.eatingdisorderocdtherapy.com⁠ or IG: ⁠@bodyjustice.therapist.⁠

In this episode of Body Justice Podcast, Allyson Inez Ford, LPCC sits down with Monika Orstroff, LICSW, CEDS-S, Executive Director of MEDA for an honest and deeply informed conversation about dissociative identity disorder (DID) and eating disorders.

Monika shares her lived experience of being diagnosed with DID in 1993 (when it was still called 'multiple personalities disorder'), breaks down what DID actually is (and what it is not), and explains why dissociative systems are often misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and stigmatized. Together, we explore how DID can shape eating disorder recovery, why treatment often fails when clinicians ignore or pathologize parts, and what it looks like to support safety, collaboration, and internal communication, without fear-based demands and expectations of neuronormativity.

Learn more about Monika’s work at healingmyparts.org. You can also find her other resources through Healing My Parts, including her podcast and Substack.

_______________________________________________________________

Disclaimer: this podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. This is not a replacement for individual therapy or medical advice.

As always, you can find the host of this podcast, Allyson, on her website: www.eatingdisorderocdtherapy.com or IG: @bodyjustice.therapist.

What happens when hunger feels like a demand, and demands feel like threats?

In this episode, Allyson Ford, MA, LPCC (@bodyjustice.therapist) is joined by Livia (@livlabelfree) for a neurodivergent-affirming conversation about PDA and eating disorders. While PDA is often labeled “Pathological Demand Avoidance,” the neurodiversity affirming movement invites a different frame: Persistent Drive for Autonomy: a nervous-system response rooted in the need for safety and agency.

Together, we talk about:

• Why standard eating disorder treatment can mirror ED rigidity (protocol over person)

• How being labeled “defiant” or “treatment resistant” can miss the real need underneath

• Reframing “control” as safety and survival adaptation

• Why “recovery” can feel vague, pressurized, or even coercive; and how “discovery” offers a more spacious alternative

• What affirming care can look like for PDA-ers with eating disorders

Find Livia’s work: @livlabelfree | livlabelfree.com
Connect with Allyson: @bodyjustice.therapist

Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not provide individual therapeutic, psychological, or medical advice. For personalized support, please consult a qualified licensed professional.

In episode 76 Allyson interviews guest speaker, Naomi Tapia, an associate therapist in CA with lived experience, specializing in eating disorders and body image, specifically in Latine culture. Naomi so graciously shares her own story of an eating disorder, trauma, SI, grief and loss. Naomi talks about what led her to healing, and shares so much great wisdom. Find Naomi on her IG @mylatinatherapist

Content warning: this episode does include mentions of SA and suicidality. Please listen at your own discretion and make sure to give yourself permission to take breaks, use coping skills or even skip this episode if listening to it would be harmful to your mental health right now.

About our guest speaker:

Naomi Tapia-Abrego, M.S., AMFT #128232, is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California and a member of a new practice, Warrior Path Therapy. As the eldest daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first-generation college graduate, she brings cultural depth, lived experience, and a little sass to every session. Fat, queer, and unapologetically herself, Naomi works virtually with Millennial and Gen Z clients navigating boundary-setting, family dynamics, disordered eating, imposter syndrome, and the many struggles that come with being a child of immigrants. She believes healing starts when we stop shrinking ourselves and finally take up the space we deserve.

This podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute a provider-patient relationship.

Please seek the support of a local therapist if you are currently struggling and in need of treatment. To find out more about what therapeutic services I offer visit my website at: ⁠www.eatingdisorderocdtherapy.com⁠

As always, you can find me on IG ⁠@bodyjustice.therapist

In the field of Eating Disorders, we are seeing an increasing occurrence of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) in our clients. In this episode, we talk to Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani to learn more about this overlap, signs and symptoms of MCAS , how it impacts healing from an eating disorder and treatment.

Resources mentioned in the show:

• Four part blog series on MCAS and EDs by Dr. G
• Gaudiani Clinic MCAS Questionnaires (RASH-PF and Q)

About Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani

Jennifer L. Gaudiani, MD, CEDS-S, FAED, is the Founder and Medical Director of  the Gaudiani Clinic. Board Certified in Internal Medicine, she completed her  undergraduate degree at Harvard, medical school at Boston University School of  Medicine, and her internal medicine residency and chief residency at Yale. Dr.  Gaudiani served as the Medical Director at the ACUTE Center for Eating Disorders  prior to founding the Gaudiani Clinic, which is a Denver-based outpatient medical  clinic dedicated to people with eating disorders and disordered eating. The Gaudiani  Clinic is a HAES (Health At Every Size)®-informed provider and embraces treating  people of all shapes, sizes, ages, and genders. The Gaudiani Clinic is licensed to  practice in over 35 US states via telemedicine and offers international professional  consultation and education.

Dr. Gaudiani has lectured nationally and internationally, is widely published in the  scientific literature as well as on blogs, is a Fellow of the Academy for Eating  Disorders, and is a recent former member of the editorial board of the International  Journal of Eating Disorders and the Academy for Eating Disorders Medical Care  Standards Committee. Dr. Gaudiani’s first book, Sick Enough: A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders (Routledge, 2018) is available on  Amazon.

_______________________________________________________________

This podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute a provider-patient relationship.

Please seek the support of a local therapist if you are currently struggling and in need of treatment. To find out more about what therapeutic services I offer visit my website at: www.eatingdisorderocdtherapy.com

As always, you can find me on IG @bodyjustice.therapist

In this episode of Body Justice, Allyson discusses sexual trauma and eating disorders with trauma therapist Seema Sharma, SEP, CST, MBA, PHD. Content warning: discussions of sexual abuse are explicitly discussed. Please listen with care and make sure you are resourced enough to proceed. It's normal for these conversations to bring up a lot of complicated feelings. Our hope is that you also feel less alone, and gain some insights into what the healing process can look like.

We'll explore what makes sexual trauma healing different than other traumas, the soul wounding that comes with sexual abuse, types of sexual trauma, helpful therapy approaches, the connection to eating disorders and more.

As always, you can find me on my website: www.eatingdisorderocdtherapy.com and my Instagram: @bodyjustice.therapist.

About our guest:

Seema Sharma, SEP, CST, LMFT is the founder of Holistic Trauma Therapy. Introduced to holistic healing as a young adult, she has devoted her life to exploring global healing traditions often overlooked in the West, traveling through Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Europe. With over 25 years of senior leadership experience at prestigious global companies, Seema brings a rare insight into the intersection of corporate culture, workplace trauma, and resilience. Her practice is redefining the way therapy is approached — integrating evidence-based methods with a whole-person focus on mind, body, and spirit. She specializes in sexual abuse trauma, childhood trauma, cultural trauma, religious trauma, and workplace trauma. Seema holds a Master’s in Integral Counseling Psychology and is a PhD candidate in Integral and Transpersonal Psychology, with an emphasis on the Contemplative Neuroscience of Consciousness Studies. As an integrative, depth-oriented, and experiential psychotherapist, Seema has extensive training in trauma and dissociation and guides clients on the path toward wholeness. Whether you are seeking somatic therapy, sex therapy, EMDR, or depth work, you can learn more at https://wwwholistictraumatherapy.com.

Episode 73 of Body Justice is all about how life changing disability justice and emergent strategy are as frameworks for how we show up in the world and how we are in relationship with one another. Our guest, Angela Montijo, is a licensed clinical social worker who also has lived experience as a pysch survivor. Angela shares insights from social justice movements and how they incorporates them into her practice as a social worker. Angela also sheds light on how to hold both truths: the mental health industrial complex is the site of a LOT of harms- and there are pockets of true healing that we can be apart of, which creates a ripple effect of change.

As always, you can find me on IG @bodyjustice.therapist or my website: www.eatingdisorderocdtherapy.com

More about Angela:

Angela Montijo, LCSW (she/they) is a healing-centered relational facilitator, writer, and creator rooted in youth justice, community care, and liberation work. As a first-gen Latine woman raised in Inglewood, Angela’s personal journey fuels her passion for building spaces that challenge oppressive systems. With 10+ years of experience in juvenile justice, mental health, and education, she leads with emergent strategy and restorative practices, centering those most impacted. Angela designs and facilitates workshops that provoke thought, deepen connection, and spark collective imagination—always prioritizing people over rigid protocols.

 Find Angela on her IG @angelaalchemy

In episode 72, Allyson chats with psychiatric nurse practitioner and lived experience advocate, Grace Kim PMHNP-BC, about the contradictions of psychiatry, as well as what psychiatry in eating disorder care can look like. There is so much (understandable) skepticism when it comes to psychiatric medications, how can we hold both the ways that it can be useful and life saving, as well as the ways it can create more harm and distress? You'll hear us cover:

• Care vs. Control in Psychiatry
• Science vs. Subjectivity in Psychiatry
• Liberation vs. Oppression in Psychiatry
• Medication Supports for Eating Disorders
• How to hold client skepticism through an anti-oppression lens
• Grace's personal experience with EDs, Korean beauty standards and psychiatric support.

About our guest:

Grace Kim, PMHNP-BC (she/her) is a board-certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner offering virtual and in-person care for adults across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Her practice is grounded in a collaborative, trauma-informed approach that recognizes healing is often non-linear and actively rejects coercive models of care. She specializes in mood and anxiety disorders, trauma, identity exploration, and disordered eating, providing comprehensive psychiatric evaluations, medication management, and supportive therapy. Grace earned her Bachelor’s degree from UCLA and her Master of Science in Nursing from Yale University.

Website

Instagram: @psychnpgrace

As a reminder, this podcast is for educational purposes only. It is not meant for individual medical or therapeutic advice. Please consult with your providers for specific treatment options. If you're interested in becoming a client at my practice, ED and OCD Therapy, please reach out! We see therapy clients in CA, WA, UT & FL, as well as recovery coaching clients worldwide. We would be honored to support you.

Allyson's Website

Allyson's Instagram

Lastly, it would mean the world to me if you left Body Justice a review, either on Apple or Spotify. This helps the show reach more people, and I need your help. I appreciate your support <3

Episode 70 of Body Justice is truly a gift of wisdom from my dear friend and colleague, Alishia McCullough. In this episode we talk about some of the core concepts from her book, Reclaiming the Black Body.

In this episode we explore:

• How EDs show up for Black girls/women
• Shifting terminology from Eating Disorders to Eating Imbalances
• Adultification Bias and the Hypersexualization of Black women and femmes
• The ties between colonization, the trans Atlantic slave trade and eating imbalances
• The trafficking of Saartjie Baartman and the conflation of fatness and blackness
• Intergenerational body trauma
• Maternal disdain and rejection of daughters as a survival tactic from enslavement
• What healing looks like through this lens, what it means to truly Reclaim the Black Body

About Alishia:

Alishia McCullough (LCMHC) is a millennial Licensed Clinical Mental Health Therapist and owner of Black and Embodied Consulting PLLC. 

She specializes in somatic therapy, trauma healing, and eating disorder treatment with a focus on cultivating embodiment and fostering anti-oppression. In 2020, Alishia co-founded the Amplify Melanated Voices Movement, a global movement to elevate the voices of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color online and in-person. Alishia currently runs the self-paced online course Reimagining Eating Disorders 101. She  was awarded the 2023 Alumni Award from the Department of Psychology for the noteworthy contributions she has made to the field. An accomplished writer, Alishia is the author of a collection of poems called Blossoming, and  Reclaiming the Black Body now available in bookstores nationwide. 

In her work, Alishia centers the intersectional narratives of Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, dual-heritage, and individuals indigenous to the Global South, andor those who have been racialized as 'ethnic minorities' experiencing mental and emotional distress. She also specializes in working with those living with eating disorders, upholding the values of body justice and fat liberation. She was one of the Mental Health Influencers in Meta's 2022 Well-Being Collective. Alishia's work has been featured in Bustle, WordInBlack, STAT News, BlackGirlNerds, Essence, Reckon, Wondermind, Pen America and Forbes.

*As always this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute individual medical or therapeutic advice.

Please reach out if you are interested in becoming a therapy or coaching client: www.eatingdisorderocdtherapy.com or visit my instagram for more info: @bodyjustice.therapist

Episode 69 is a solo episode from me. I want to offer you all some insights around building hope- how it's messy and dark, not easy and joyful. We'll explore how hope is a relational concept, how it grows through action, and we'll draw on wisdom from BIPOC activists and how they remained hopeful during times of political unrest and oppression. We'll also explore the concept of relative safety, and practice cultivating it in our own bodies. The purpose of this episode is to offer education and tools to help us navigate hard collective and personal times. You are not alone.

Find me on my website to work with me or a member of my team- we offer therapy in CA, WA, UT & FL, as well as recovery coaching for eating disorders and OCD worldwide.

www.eatingdisorderocdtherapy.com

I am also on IG @bodyjustice.therapist

Thank you for supporting Body Justice!

*This podcast is not individual medical or therapeutic advice, it is for educational purposes only!