Body Image Issues

Diet culture is a system of belief that equates thinness to moral value, sees weight loss as a status gain, and oppresses people for not fitting their definition of “healthy”. It has been found to contribute to disordered eating behavior, fatphobia, and weight stigma. Many therapists reinforce these systems of oppression and stigma and can cause harm to their clients. These effects are often magnified for fat or larger-bodied clients. I believe in HAES, weight-neutrality, & body liberation.

I've always enjoyed working with clients seeking to improve their relationship with food and their bodies. My experience is with behavioral visits in a medical/surgical weight loss setting, as well as a multi-disciplinary team in a college counseling setting. I believe that an intuitive approach to eating and movement is essential to self worth and that there can be value in understanding the stories we have been conditioned to accept about the space we occupy in the world

I extensive experience in working with individuals who struggle with body dysmorphic issues.

I am a fat liberationist which has meant significant client work and training on issues around bodies and how we can all come to love our own bodies.

I support clients in exploring their relationship to their body and the factors that have impeded this relationship, including gender, diet culture, and dissociation. I do not provide formal eating disorder treatment. I may refer you to an appropriate provider if your current situation requires medical monitoring.

In my training and research, I examined the impacts of body image concerns on BIPOC folx, women-identified individuals, and trans and gender-expansive folx across the lifespan.

Everyone has issues with their body image, to some extent. I am curious about where and when this belief first started, and what role it plays in your life today.

I utilize a health at every size and intuitive eating approach to working with body image issues. Intuitive eating is an anti-diet approach to building a trusting and accepting relationship with your body. It involves listening to your body to make food choices that feel good for you without judgment or influence from diet culture.

Cis-Hetero-Patriarchy and White Supremacy has filled us all up with harmful, restrictive, and value ridden attitudes towards bodies. No wonder we have complicated relationships with food, eating, and bodies. The dominant systems in place uphold diet culture and anti-fat bias in order to maintain power and control. By recognizing the origins of harmful practices in your life, you may begin the practice of unlearning and replacing these limiting and painful beliefs.

Healthy Body Image is not popping out of bed to wink at yourself in the mirror with a narcissistic grin. Just like feelings about anything else, how we feel about our size/shape/body parts fluctuates, for better or for worse, due to lots of factors. But how able are you to ACCEPT yourself physically right now? Your body IS what it is right now- whether that's optimal in your opinion or not. It is much easier to change, grow, and improve, when we can accept what currently exists.

Most of us have felt, at one point or another, that our body's size or shape is somehow wrong. For those of us who identify as fat, or whose bodies are otherwise considered atypical, it can feel impossible to distinguish our authentic feelings about our bodies from the forces that profit off of our self-criticism. I approach our work from a fat-positive, all-bodies-are-good-bodies perspective that prioritizes individual bodily autonomy and experience.

As a weight-inclusive, HAES-aligned therapist and a clinician completing training to be an Inclusive Eating Disorder Specialist, I help clients heal their relationship with their bodies—no diets, no shame, no “fixing” required. Whether you’re struggling with body image, diet culture burnout, or self-worth, I offer a compassionate space to unlearn harmful beliefs and build self-trust. Using trauma-informed and somatic approaches, I help you move toward body acceptance and self-compassion.

As someone in recovery from an eating disorder, body image issues and disordered eating are near to my heart. I offer psycho education, space and compassion, and tools to dismantle this experience in our hearts. I am a HAES and Intuitive Eating / radical anti-diet culture warrior.

I work exclusively from a Health at Every Size Approach with my clients and work from a lens of achieving body neutrality with use of modalities such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindful Self-Compassion and Somatic-based modalities. We dive deeper into the purpose or intentions behind body image disturbances and how these take people away from their intended values.

Maybe you feel like you don't have a good idea of how you even appear, your appearance seemingly shifting from one moment to the next, a string that controls how good or bad your day will be. Maybe you feel caught in a cycle of the next diet or next skincare product, just waiting for the thing that will make you feel like you can inhabit your own skin. I'm here to offer a different way, and love helping people find an easier relationship to themselves and their bodies.

I work with Body Image concerns, including but not limited to: Body Dysmorphia; Eating Disorders; Weight Gain/Loss; Food Shame; Food Addiction; Exercise Addiction; Familial Trauma; Bullying/Harassment; Kink; Puberty and Body Changes; Gender Exploration; Plastic Surgery; Ageing; Pregnancy; Reclamation of Self

I have over 3yrs experience working with body image issues, eating disorders and lessened self-confidence. I have worked in all levels of care on these issues.