I know you aren’t the biggest fan of your body. Maybe that’s putting it lightly? You avoid mirrors but also feel consumed by them at the same time. You can’t remember a time when you actually liked your body. You’ve done a lot to try and feel good about yourself but it’s been short-lived. Nothing has really lasted. You’ve done the diets and other things to change your body, hoping you might finally like it. You’re growing tired of living like this and want to stop feeling like you are failing. Negative body image doesn’t feel like a real problem, yet you can’t shake it. No matter what you can’t stop caring about it.
I get it. Girl, it’s not just you. Body image issues wreak havoc on women everywhere to varying degrees, and we have just somehow accepted that it’s normal. As women, we even bond over how much we hate our bodies and how much we just need to gain more control over ourselves. We sit at dinner with our friends and tell ourselves how bad we are for eating french foods and how the diet starts on Monday. Someone else will chime in and agree that they too need to be more focused on what they eat because their pants don’t fit anymore. I don’t know about you but I think it’s kinda messed up that we do this as women. Mutual self-hatred isn’t the way to build connection. Honestly, the world would be a better place if we could stop talking about our bodies altogether.
You don’t have to keep living like this though. You can listen to what feels best to your body on how it’s nourished, moves, and how rests. You don’t have to keep talking negatively about your body to your spouse, your family, and your friends. You can stop the madness of being consumed and ruled by your appearance but as you and I both know, it won’t go away on its own. The answer isn’t finding another way of changing your body.
Why should I go to body image therapy?
Body image therapy allows you to work with a professional who specializes in treating body image issues. There are only so many books you can read (although there are some good ones) to make a difference in how you feel about yourself. It’s no secret to the women I work with that I think negative body image is about so many other beliefs you have about yourself. Negative beliefs can manifest themselves through how you feel about yourself. We do live in a world that is OBSESSED with what we look like. It’s hard to be surrounded by messages that we need to take up less space and shrink our bodies but it goes even further than that. Body image therapy can help you bring those issues to light and help you work through them.
Reasons to go to body image therapy
There are many reasons to go to body image therapy. Everyone has a unique experience and they gain something unique from the experience but these are some of the common reasons for body image therapy.
Body image therapy can help you make peace with your body
Constantly trying to change and alter your body creates a war between you and your body. Being angry at your body for not dropping weight or looking a certain way makes it hard to live with yourself. Many women tell me they know they should be grateful for their bodies and feel guilty because they don’t feel that way. I think it’s pretty normal to be frustrated with your body from time to time and struggling with your body image isn’t something that you need to feel guilty for. It’s a hard enough struggle to deal with without the guilt on top of it all. Body image therapy can help you change the anger you feel about your body to something more neutral. You can stop actively trying to change your body and accept it for what it is you. Working with a body image therapist can help you stop this battle and find more compassion and respect for the body you live in.
Body image therapy can help decrease the negative thoughts you have about your body
You probably don’t realize all the negative thoughts you have about your body in a day. We think so many thoughts and aren’t consciously aware of how much negativity we are putting out about our bodies. You can be thinking a series of negative thoughts about your body hundreds of times a day. This can lead to behaviors that don’t align with your values and feelings of depression and anxiety. Body image therapy can help you increase your awareness of the thoughts you are having about your body and what triggers them. You can learn to understand more about the situations, places, and people that bring up these negative thoughts about your body. Once you have more awareness and understanding you can learn how to manage them better. A body image therapist can help you find ways to cope with thoughts and decrease having negative thoughts altogether. You might be skeptical that you can feel any different about your body than you do now but I assure you that you can feel much better.
Body image therapy can help you find value outside of your body and appearance
There are many things that make you valuable and worthy as a person. The way you treat others, your relationships, the passions you pursue, and just simply because you exist to make you worthy and valuable. As a woman, you get the message that one of the biggest values lies in your appearance. You are expected to have a perfect body (whatever that means) if you want to measure up. While some women know they have worth outside of their appearance they still feel strongly about needing to look a certain way. You also may look at others and know they are more than their body and have meaning and purpose regardless of what their body looks like but you may not realize that about yourself. Body image therapy can help you recognize other values you have in your life that aren’t related to your appearance. Recognizing these values and finding ways to align your behaviors more with them can make a difference in how you feel about yourself.
Body image therapy can help you heal from past negative experiences about your body
The hurtful things people have said to you about your body don’t just go away. I have listened to clients share that it’s silly or weird that they still think about the thing that a friend said to them when they were young kid. Why would that still have an impact on them? Many women I work with have had parents be critical of their bodies or they’ve experienced trauma because of their bodies. Even if you haven’t had these experiences, witnessing other people speak negatively of their bodies or other people’s bodies may have influenced you to start viewing your own body in that same way. Body image therapy helps you get to the root of these experiences and the emotions that come up when you think about them. It makes sense that they still have an impact on you and haven’t just gone away. The way our brains work is that it processes these experiences as important and shows us how to act. Body image therapy can help you reprocess these experiences and heal from them. Being able to heal and work through these experiences can help them not to have such an impact on you.
Body image therapy can help you to stop trying to change your body
How most women try to feel better about their bodies is through trying to change them. That’s what they’ve been told by the media and other people would make you feel better about yourself and your body. The irony is that changing your body does the opposite. You may temporarily feel better about yourself and your body but then you aren’t satisfied long term. You constantly feel empty and that you need to keep changing yourself. It’s a body image blackhole to go through this cycle. The goal of body image therapy is for you to accept your body for what it is. You don’t have to be thrilled about your body. You don’t even have to like your body but if you can stop hating it and stop trying to change it then you are in a much better position than you are now. Body image therapy can help you stop the cycle.
Body image therapy can help decrease your anxiety about your body
When you think about going to social situations you might dread them because you think that everyone is going to notice your body. You imagine hushed whispers and people being critical about what you look like. Believe it or not, you don’t have control over this and even though most of the time people don’t care about what your body looks like as much as you do, other people still aren’t the problem. It’s the anxiety and fear you have about what other people think about you. Body image therapy can not only help you cope with the anxiety you have about your body but to lower the amount you have in general. If you recognize why your brain is responding with anxiety and fear you can begin to learn to find ways to manage triggers and find healthy outlets for this stress.
Begin working with a body image therapist in Utah
You don’t have to keep hating your body. You can stop thinking about what you look like in every social situation. You can find the relief you are after, and body image therapy can help. This Utah Counseling Practice has a body image therapist specializing in body image therapy. To begin counseling follow the steps below:
Meet with a body image therapist in Utah
Start making peace with your body
Online Therapy in Utah
I know how important it is to prioritize therapy because it can have a profound difference in your life. I also understand how you may not have all the time or access to seeing a therapist in person. Utah is a big old state, and it has many rural parts that don’t have access to working with a therapist that specializes in body image. I’m passionate about helping women have greater access to the specialized therapy they need, which is why I offer online therapy in Utah.
I work with women all over the state of Utah who experience body image issues. I provide therapy for people located in Logan, Salt Lake City, Heber, St. George, Cedar City, and more. Reach out today to start online counseling.
Other mental health services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy
Body image therapy isn’t the only counseling service provided by this Utah Counseling Center. Other mental health services offered by Maple Canyon Therapy include anxiety therapy, eating disorder therapy, trauma therapy including birth trauma, and binge eating disorder treatment.
About the Author
Ashlee Hunt is a licensed clinical social worker and owner of Maple Canyon Therapy in Utah. She has a bachelor's in psychology and a bachelor's in family life and human development from Southern Utah University. Ashlee has a masters in social work from Utah State University. Ashlee has worked with women with eating disorders and body image issues since she was a graduate student therapist. She enjoys helping women make peace with their bodies and learning to heal from experiences that taught them their appearance mattered. Ashlee believes in using self-compassion to help women in therapy. When Ashlee isn’t doing therapy, she enjoys exploring Utah and most recently discovered the beauty of Tibble Creek Reservoir and loves watching her dogs swim in it.