Body Image Therapy
Is your relationship with your body filled with shame, hatred, dissatisfaction or disconnection?
We can help you heal your relationship with your body.
The impact of body image issues can be profound.
How is your relationship with your body impacting you?
Do you find yourself spiralling into body shame? Do negative feelings about your body throw off your whole day? Do you avoid certain activities because of how you look or concerns about what others will think of your body? Do thoughts or worries about your body make it hard to be present and engaged with others? Are you tired of critical thoughts and feelings about your body consuming your thoughts, dictating how you feel, and holding you back?
You are NOT alone.
Body image issues can negatively affect your quality of life in many ways.
Common symptoms or results of body image issues:
Feeling obsessed or preoccupied with thoughts about your appearance and/or your body
Avoiding activities or people because of how you look (e.g., avoiding swimming because you don’t want to wear a bathing suit in public, avoiding having your photo taken, avoiding physical intimacy, avoiding being around others generally or people who are built a certain way)
Constantly checking and monitoring your body through behaviours like weighing yourself or seeing how clothes fit
Constantly comparing yourself to others
Engaging in unhealthy behaviours in an attempt to lose weight or change your body
Feeling angry or frustrated with yourself when efforts to change your body “fail” or do not last
Feeling immense shame or anxiety about the way you look
Trying not to take up space in the world or your relationships in an effort to compensate for the size of your body
Decreased sense of self-worth
Feeling less than others whose bodies you consider better than your own
Your body image issues make sense.
Many experiences can contribute to the development of body image issues. Our society has very clear messages about which bodies are valued and not valued. Many people have had painful experiences with family members, friends, influential adults or peers who delivered harmful messages about their body specifically, or bodies in general. Oppression, trauma and bullying can also be significant contributors to body image issues.
Changing your body is not the answer.
Despite making sense in light of your experiences, changing your body will NOT heal your relationship with your body and attempts to change your body often makes things worse.
“We can’t hate ourselves into versions of ourselves we love.”
— Lori Deschene
Be empowered to reclaim a relationship with your body that is based on respect, attunement, trust and responsiveness.
“And I said to my body, softly, ‘I want to be your friend.’ It took a long breath and replied, 'I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.’”
~ Nayyirah Waheed
What if you live in a body that is subjected to discrimination and oppression?
Many bodies are valued less than other bodies in our society. This is evidenced by weight stigma and anti-fat bias, racism, ableism, patriarchy, homophobia and transphobia. At Being and Becoming Counselling and Wellness Services we firmly believe that ALL BODIES ARE GOOD BODIES but we also acknowledge that all bodies are not seen as good bodies out in the world.
If you have a body that is not valued, or is valued less, by our society, we will strive to support you in navigating this experience so that you do not have to go through it alone. We will strive to make space for the feelings you have about how your body is treated (e.g., processing grief, redirecting anger to where it really belongs — the systems that oppress you); help you learn to treat your body with the respect and care that it, and all bodies, deserve; help you begin to shift or let go of harmful beliefs about bodies that you may have internalized; and possibly work on implementing boundaries, when possible, that serve to protect you.
Body Image Counselling
Work with a counsellor who is trained to help you improve your relationship with your body and with yourself.
In the beginning stages of therapy, your therapist will help you understand your relationship with your body — how you came to be feel and think the way you do about your body and what perpetuates you feeling and thinking this way. Everyone’s body image issues make sense in light of their lived experience.
Working with you, and considering your goals, your therapist will then make a personalized plan to help you begin to shift your relationship with your body. The approach taken with each individual will vary, but body image counselling often involves:
Processing adverse and/or traumatic experiences that have shaped your relationship with your body
Supporting you to reinhabit your body
Supporting you to shift your focus to how you feel inside, rather than what you look like on the outside
Supporting you as you shift toward treating your body with the respect and kindness it deserves, no matter what it looks like
Shifting your internal self-talk and shifting your relationship to different parts of yourself (e.g., inner critic, inner body shamer)
Increasing your access to self-compassion
Releasing unhelpful beliefs
Working through internalized weight stigma
Redirecting anger to where it actually belongs — the systems and people who have made you feel you aren’t enough as you are
Moving through body grief