Ashley Ford

Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship – NYU Langone Health, New York

Adult Psychiatry Residency – Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York

MD – Meharry Medical College, Nashville

BA – Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Ashley is a US-trained, double board-certified psychiatrist working at Central Minds in a psychotherapist/counsellor capacity. Her medical and psychiatric training allows her to approach therapy through psychological, developmental, neurological, and medical perspectives.

Prior to moving to Hong Kong, Ashley served as Medical Director of Child, Adolescent and Family Services at Mount Sinai Hospital and as an attending psychiatrist with Mount Sinai’s OnTrack NY early psychosis program. Previously, she was Associate Director of Child Psychiatry at Jacobi Medical Center. She has extensive experience working with children, adolescents, adults, and families across outpatient, emergency, and specialty psychiatric settings.

Ashley provides therapy to children, adolescents, and adults experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship difficulties, and major life transitions. She helps clients better understand patterns in their thoughts, emotions, and relationships while developing practical strategies to manage symptoms, navigate challenges, and improve day-to-day functioning.

Ashley has particular expertise in ADHD and executive functioning and provides comprehensive clinical and ADHD evaluations, organizational and executive functioning skills training, and support for school avoidance and academic difficulties. These evaluations are intended to inform clinical understanding and treatment planning and do not constitute formal psychoeducational or educational assessments for school purposes and do not include a written assessment report. She works with clients on planning, organization, time management, task initiation, prioritization, and follow-through. With appropriate consent, she can also collaborate with schools to help identify a student’s needs and discuss appropriate supports.

Ashley also has a particular interest in diagnostic clarification and complex presentations, including clients with overlapping symptoms, multiple diagnoses, medically or neurologically complicated histories, or those who feel their current treatment approach is not working. Her medical training allows her to consider how biological, psychological, developmental, and environmental factors may interact when understanding a client’s difficulties.

Although Ashley does not prescribe medication or provide medical treatment through Central Minds, her psychiatric background allows her to collaborate effectively with psychiatrists, pediatricians, and other healthcare professionals. She can help clients understand the potential role of medication within a broader treatment plan and help bridge therapy and medical care, while medication decisions remain with the client’s treating physician.

Ashley’s therapeutic style is warm, collaborative, practical, and non-judgmental. Her individualized and integrative approach draws from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychodynamic psychotherapy, supportive psychotherapy, family systems, executive functioning interventions, and trauma-informed care. She works with clients and families to develop both a deeper understanding of their difficulties and practical strategies for meaningful change.