EDeology: The People Behind Today's Eating Disorder Treatment Landscape26 Nov 2025

Is Therapy Political? With Allyson Inez Ford, MA, LPCC

Is it a therapist’s responsibility to advocate for social justice, to take a stance on political issues that impact the lives of their clients and/or minoritized groups? Or are therapists supposed to be apolitical, to enter the therapy space without an ideological agenda so they can hold space for whatever belief systems the client brings in?

When we remove the “shoulds” the “supposed tos”, the moralistic judgements of what makes a good or bad therapist or a good or bad person, what we’re left with are very impactful clinical questions: What role do systemic forces play in the issues we face as individuals? What impact does acknowledging those systemic forces have on a person’s healing process? How do we address shame and internalized oppression in a way that empowers rather than disables? And how do we make impactful political issues speakable in the therapy space?

In this episode, Allyson Inez Ford talks about the role that understanding systemic oppression played in her own recovery from an eating disorder. She talks about the systems that shape us, the role that politics plays in how she holds the therapy space, and how she relates to clients and others who hold different, and potentially very triggering, political viewpoints.

Because one thing that is for certain is that so many people are holding so much pain around current events. We cannot shy away from these topics.

Allyson Inez Ford, LPCC, is a licensed mental health therapist specializing in eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She has experience working with adults and adolescents in individual, group, and family therapy across multiple levels of care. Her work is informed by a liberatory and anti-oppression perspective.

She has a particular interest in supporting individuals with multiple marginalized identities, informed by her own experience as a multiracial, neurodivergent, and queer clinician. Allyson owns and operates a group private practice, hosts a podcast focused on eating disorders and social justice, and participates in speaking engagements and professional trainings. She also provides consultation for complex clinical cases.

Episoder(38)

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Moralistic judgment is the root of so much division in our field and in our society. The perception of ideologically opposing groups as uninformed, evil, or inherently harmful is the surest way to eli...

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Many of the hot topics in eating disorder recovery—health at every size, food neutrality, whether some foods are manufactured with addictive qualities—extend beyond eating disorders and to the message...

12 Mai 1h 1min

“I Learned from Some Very Smart Women You Don’t Do a Lot for Free”: On Money and Mental Health Care with Robyn Kievit NP, RD

Periodically, I hear someone describe a past therapist, a particular therapy modality, or a treatment center as “just in it for the money.”On the flip side, I’ve had many conversations with therapists...

11 Mar 39min

This is your trigger warning!

In this episode, I discuss why this podcast has no content rules and how I address information that might be triggering to the listener. I also do a deep dive into the question, can words cause harm?M...

5 Feb 22min

Dialogue: Is eating disorder treatment evidence-based, heart-led, or some of both? Family-Based Treatment meets Somatic therapy

How do we know what is real? There is a growing number of treatment modalities, each with its own acronyms and catchphrases. There is also a large diversity of opinions around issues related to food, ...

21 Jan 1h 7min

Does lived-experience matter in clinical work? With David Wiss, PhD, RDN, IFMCP

When we argue with other clinicians about treatment-related issues, it’s natural to focus almost exclusively on content. And when it doesn’t go well, we often attribute that to the wrongness of the ot...

7 Jan 52min

The Invisible Specialty: Ethical veganism and eating disorder recovery with Maneva Gill

It can be taken for granted that there are many non-disordered ways of eating. In addition to food preferences and aversions, allergies, food-sensitivities, and body composition, our food choices can ...

23 Des 20251h 9min

Attraction, love, and erotic feelings in the therapeutic relationship with Rebecca Prolman, LMFT

The therapeutic relationship is, in some ways, a bizarre one. On one hand, it’s a meeting between two people, a space where you share so much of yourself, your deeper emotions, and experiences. And at...

10 Des 20251h 4min