Body Image Therapy

See body image therapy FAQs here.

Your poor body image is holding you back in your life. No matter what you do, the body shame just doesn’t go away.

What Is Body Image?

Body image involves two key elements: how you perceive your physical body (including size, shape, and appearance), and your attitude toward your physical self (such as thoughts, feelings and beliefs about your body). Body image may change gradually and can be influenced by a number of social factors, such as culture, the media, and interactions with family and friends. It is dynamic and often adapts to reflect new information, people, and experiences. 

Your body image lives in your mind and in your physical sensations, not in the actual appearance of your body. Therefore, changing the shape of your body cannot heal your body image. This concept is confusing, and something that we can explore in therapy. If hating your body and taking actions to “fix” it worked, it would have worked by now.

It’s time to take a healthy risk and try something new to reclaim your life, and learn to live in your body instead of living to look at your body.

Body Image Distress & Body Shame

Body image distress, or body shame, can contribute to low self-esteem and affect the quality of your life significantly. When your mental image or attitude about your body causes suffering and interferes with your life, a specialized therapist can help explore and heal these issues. 

In your pursuit to shrink or change your body to “fix” your body image issues, you actually end up shrinking your life instead. This malicious cycle of body shame, emotional turmoil, taking actions to manipulate your body shape, the inevitable sense of failure and self-judgment, and worsening self-worth over time is miserable. Rather than attaining the promised perfection, happiness, and love that diet culture promised you for having a particular body shape, you end up with intrusive and insidious obsessions, mental war, self-hatred, and increasing isolation from all the good things and people in your life. Perhaps you wish you could disappear or not have a body at all.

How Body Image Affects Your Life

Your body shame invades every aspect of your life. It is a barrier to being present with your loved ones and enjoying yourself, since you are constantly preoccupied with your body’s appearance and the potential for judgment by other people. You feel uncomfortable in your body and find it difficult to accept the way you look. The invisibility of this battle is lonely and crazy-making. You both hate and are drawn to photos of yourself, and they often cause immense emotional upheaval. You might also avoid social situations, change clothes compulsively, overexercise, delay eating, or go to great lengths to “hide” your body. You live in constant dread and need continuous distraction or escapism to tolerate living in your body. This internal comparison war feels like it has taken over your life and you are ready to do something about it.

Body Image and the Media

Media has a powerful influence over body image. TV, advertisements, and social media can all have a significant impact on how you see and treat your body. All of this comparison and shame fuel makes it easy to see your body as the enemy. You may unconsciously believe that by achieving the "ideal" body, you can solve life's problems and pains. Unfortunately, diet culture shames and lies to us, sending the message that everyone can achieve the "perfect" body, if they only make the effort.

These messages are harmful because the standards of "beauty" portrayed by the media are rigid, narrow-minded, and impossible (read: photoshop and image manipulation). The bodies that are hailed as "beautiful" or "perfect" on screens reflect the media's portrayal of the thin ideal- an ideal that is rooted in white supremacy, is oppressive, and frankly, abusive in many ways. Furthermore, the media at large would have you believe that your value and happiness are dependent on how close you are to this thin ideal. It's no wonder that so many people are unhappy with their bodies, and willing to go to great lengths to try and help themselves.

Body Image Distortion

Since body image is based more on perceptions and feelings than on actual appearance, it can be vulnerable to distortion. Body image distortion refers to a misperception of one or more features of the body. It usually involves a significant discrepancy between the perceived size and shape of one's body or one or more aspects of the body and the actual shape and size of the body or its features. People experiencing body image distortion may see a body in the mirror that is significantly different from their actual physical body. 

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

BDD is a severe form of body image disruption in which you become preoccupied with some perceived flaw in your physical appearance. This disturbance in body image takes over your life, and causes tremendous pain and suffering. You experience a distorted view of your body and obsess over it. Fixation on body appearance is severe enough to interfere with normal functioning in life, and often steals your joy, peace, and self-worth. 

Body dysmorphic co-occurs alongside eating disorders often, and is a treatable condition. Learn more about Body Dysmorphia treatment here.

Addressing Body Image in Therapy

If any part of this article spoke to you, it is time to explore your body image in the cocoon of warmth and safety of therapy. General therapists are often ill-equipped to deal with body image, and I hear commonly that it can be hard to bring up these issues without being directly asked about it. You deserve to work with a specialist in body image to begin your healing process, and finally come home to your body with trust, respect, and safety.

Body image therapy can help you to see yourself in new, affirming and empowering ways, while giving you the tools necessary to take action and make positive changes. You don’t need to wait until you have the "perfect" body to enjoy your life- you deserve to experience joy, freedom and pleasure in the body that you have right now. 

You Don't Have to Suffer with Body Shame Alone

Oftentimes, the work in therapy begins with acknowledging that we live in a culture that is obsessed with perfection, and idealizes thinness as the only possible solution for the problems in life. Once you understand that this "ideal body" that the media promotes as "beauty" is not real, attainable, or healthy- you can begin to respect and care for the body that you are living in, right now.