The Eating Disorder Trap Podcast

Janelle Smith, MS, RDN, CSDH, CEDS is a registered dietitian nutritionist who is a Certified Specialist in Digestive Health and a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist. She works outpatient with UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases to treat disordered eating patterns in patients with chronic health conditions and also has a private practice Janelle Smith Nutrition. She is co-founder of the EDGI Training Project whose goal is to train other clinicians to treat these overlapping disorders, and published the textbook Comprehensive Nutrition Therapy for Co-Occurring Gastrointestinal and Eating Disorders, available for purchase at EDGItraining.com 
 
We discuss topics including:
What Janelle sees inpatient and outpatient with patients taking GLP1's

The pros and cons of GLP1's with clients

The multisystemic results of malnutrition

The downsides of losing muscle mass, bone density and low estrogen levels

Dehydration and the changes of bone marrow in the body due to calorie and fluid restriction.

Altered gut brain

 
SHOW NOTES:
www.janellesmithnutrition.com
www.edgitraining.com
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If you have any questions regarding the topics discussed on this podcast, please reach out to Robyn directly via email: rlgrd@askaboutfood.com
You can also connect with Robyn on social media by following her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on iTunes and subscribe.
Visit Robyn's private practice website where you can subscribe to her free monthly insight newsletter, and receive your FREE GUIDE "Maximizing Your Time with Those Struggling with an Eating Disorder".
Your Recovery Resource, Robyn's new online course for navigating your loved one's eating disorder, is available now!
For more information on Robyn's book "The Eating Disorder Trap", please visit the Official "The Eating Disorder Trap" Website.
"The Eating Disorder Trap" is also available for purchase on Amazon.

Ethan Hansen Pearson, AMFT, is an Associate Marriage & Family Therapist serving clients across Los Angeles and California with a focus on LGBTQ2PIA+ teens, adults, and families. Ethan practices under the supervision of Isabella Laughlin, LMFT, CEDS, ATR-BC at a South Bay-based private practice specializing in eating disorders. His clinical work centers on the intersection of gender identity, body image, and trauma, with particular expertise supporting transgender and gender-expansive clients navigating complex relationships with food, embodiment, and self-compassion.
In addition to his clinical work, Ethan co-founded California Pathways to Practice, a training symposium for early-career clinicians, and has presented on topics involving navigating higher levels of care in clinical practice. His professional mission is to support clients in reclaiming agency, reducing shame, and building lives rooted in authenticity, safety, and embodiment.
We discuss topics including:
The need to have body image and eating disorder support in the LGBTQ2PIA+ community

How online apps harm body image the community

Discovering true identity and being able to live life as you truly are

Exploring what safety truly looks like

Help clients build autonomy, confidence and self reliance

 
SHOW NOTES
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/ethan-hansen-pearson-redondo-beach-ca/1659593
https://www.isabellalaughlin.com/ethan
https://nomoregatekeeping.org
 ____________________________________________
If you have any questions regarding the topics discussed on this podcast, please reach out to Robyn directly via email: rlgrd@askaboutfood.com
You can also connect with Robyn on social media by following her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on iTunes and subscribe.
Visit Robyn's private practice website where you can subscribe to her free monthly insight newsletter, and receive your FREE GUIDE "Maximizing Your Time with Those Struggling with an Eating Disorder".
Your Recovery Resource, Robyn's new online course for navigating your loved one's eating disorder, is available now!
For more information on Robyn's book "The Eating Disorder Trap", please visit the Official "The Eating Disorder Trap" Website.
"The Eating Disorder Trap" is also available for purchase on Amazon.

Signe Darpinian, LMFT, CEDS, is a public speaker and therapist who specializes in eating disorders and body image across the lifespan. Her books include No Weigh!, Raising Body Positive Teens, and A Woman's Guide to Menopause, Body Image and Emotional Well-Being at Midlife
We discuss topics including:
The "menopause goldrush"

What happens when women's body change during menopause

CBT therapy practiced in the menopause space

Understanding that the body is trying to help us out

Reeducate what a woman's body should like as we age

Exploring what a woman values as this stage of life

 
SHOW NOTES:
Website: http://www.signedarpinian.com
Book: A Woman's Guide to Menopause, Body Image, and Emotional Well-being at Midlife
IG: @noweighguide 
____________________________________________
If you have any questions regarding the topics discussed on this podcast, please reach out to Robyn directly via email: rlgrd@askaboutfood.com
You can also connect with Robyn on social media by following her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on iTunes and subscribe.
Visit Robyn's private practice website where you can subscribe to her free monthly insight newsletter, and receive your FREE GUIDE "Maximizing Your Time with Those Struggling with an Eating Disorder".
Your Recovery Resource, Robyn's new online course for navigating your loved one's eating disorder, is available now!
For more information on Robyn's book "The Eating Disorder Trap", please visit the Official "The Eating Disorder Trap" Website.
"The Eating Disorder Trap" is also available for purchase on Amazon.

Dr. LaNail R. Plummer is a visionary mental health expert, educator, speaker, and author dedicated to redefining how minorities are seen, supported, and healed in clinical spaces. Her book, The Essential Guide for Counseling Black Women (Jan 2026, Norton & Co), is her first of three serving as both a professional resource for educators and mental health providers, and an accessible guide for Black women looking to heal. For Dr. Plummer, the book is more than theory but a response to a gap witnessed in her entire career; the need for healthcare (especially within mental health) that affirms and reflects the real lived experiences of Black women.

Dr. Plummer brings two decades of clinical expertise and lived experience to inform her work. In 2013, she founded Onyx Therapy Group, a mental health organization with a team of 40+ BIPOC counselors and consultants serving Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Louisiana, with an international footprint in South Africa. Onyx's work spans across culturally responsive mental health care, consultation for local and government agencies, executive coaching, mentorship, and even prison reform work.
We discuss topics including:
Black women can have clinicians that understand how to work with black women

Understanding that we are not all the same as our perspectives are different

Exploring the stereotypes with black women

The importance for black women to be seen and heard

Reviewing the messages that you have been taught about black women

Countertransference makes every black woman not enjoy the experience of therapy or be willing to give another therapist a chance

 
SHOW NOTES:
 
Website: www.onyxtherapy.com
Book: The Essential Guide for Counseling Black Women
IG: @Mahoganysunshine
IG: @onyxtherapygroup
____________________________________________
If you have any questions regarding the topics discussed on this podcast, please reach out to Robyn directly via email: rlgrd@askaboutfood.com
You can also connect with Robyn on social media by following her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on iTunes and subscribe.
Visit Robyn's private practice website where you can subscribe to her free monthly insight newsletter, and receive your FREE GUIDE "Maximizing Your Time with Those Struggling with an Eating Disorder".
Your Recovery Resource, Robyn's new online course for navigating your loved one's eating disorder, is available now!
For more information on Robyn's book "The Eating Disorder Trap", please visit the Official "The Eating Disorder Trap" Website.
"The Eating Disorder Trap" is also available for purchase on Amazon.

Mallary Tenore Tarpley is an assistant professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches journalism classes in the Moody College of Communication and writing classes at the McCombs School of Business.
Her debut nonfiction book, SLIP: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery, which was published by Simon & Schuster's Simon Element imprint in August 2025, explores the under-discussed complexities of eating disorders and recovery from them. The book is equal parts memoir and journalism, and it weaves together Mallary's own narrative with perspectives from clinicians, researchers, and others with lived experience.
In 2023, Mallary received a generous grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support the science-related reporting in the book, specifically around the neurobiological and genetic aspects of eating disorders.
Mallary's articles and personal essays about eating disorders have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, TIME Magazine, and Teen Vogue, among other publications
We discuss topics including:
What it means to live life in the "in between"

Recovery is possible but imperfect

Slips do not have to be failures they can be an opportunity for growth

Reframe your thinking about "full recovery"

Being authentic with yourself while being open to experiment with food instead of always sticking with "safe foods"

 
SHOW NOTES:
www.mallarytenoretarpley.com
Book: Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery
IG: www.instagram.com/mallarytenoretarpley
____________________________________________
If you have any questions regarding the topics discussed on this podcast, please reach out to Robyn directly via email: rlgrd@askaboutfood.com
You can also connect with Robyn on social media by following her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on iTunes and subscribe.
Visit Robyn's private practice website where you can subscribe to her free monthly insight newsletter, and receive your FREE GUIDE "Maximizing Your Time with Those Struggling with an Eating Disorder".
Your Recovery Resource, Robyn's new online course for navigating your loved one's eating disorder, is available now!
For more information on Robyn's book "The Eating Disorder Trap", please visit the Official "The Eating Disorder Trap" Website.
"The Eating Disorder Trap" is also available for purchase on Amazon.