Body Trust

Diet Culture hasn’t done you any favors.

It’s starting to piss you off. As a woman* living in a patriarchal society, society taught you to think about and “care” for your body from a place of restraint.

You have used techniques to help control your hunger, shrink yourself, and take up less space. As feminist theory would say, “To take up less space is to silence yourself. To quiet yourself is to be controlled.“

Trying to attain the ideal body “standard” is self-punishment. When your body does not agree or comply, our weight-centric society punishes you. That negative response is the reason you tried to lose weight in the first place. Living in a fat* body punishes you significantly more, not to mention if you hold other socially disadvantaged identities.

You beat yourself up while feeling wounded with shame, suffering in silence, and blaming yourself for the “unacceptable” body you were born with.

Disconnection is your way of life.

The chattering in your mind about ways to control your shape and size never stops. It’s as if you navigate the world as a floating head, utterly detached from the rest of your being.

You feel like a stranger in your own body – ignoring when your body says, “Pay attention to me!” You don’t listen to that advice because truly nourishing yourself means eating more, which causes weight gain and more self-loathing.

As a result of Diet Culture, you have lost all trust in your body.

You’re angry.

You have an effed-up relationship with food thanks to Diet Culture and the patriarchy. You know that avoiding the foods you enjoy leads to binging on those foods later.

Finding it hard to have a loving relationship with your body is frustrating. You’re desperate for change and ready to dig deep and find freedom.

Healing is possible when you cultivate body trust.

We can’t heal our relationship with our body when we focus on using behaviors to shape it into what the patriarchy and other oppressive systems think it should be.

Yes, that’s part of it, but food and body healing goes beyond divesting from the social constructs of beauty, health, and the diet industry.

Body trust takes shape when you explore your body’s story with someone like me, who will help you understand it with compassion and tenderness. I know that your story is sacred, and it matters.

I’ll help you sort out the parts of your story that aren’t your fault and hold the grief with you.

Come home to your wisdom.

As your body story unfolds, you’ll explore the external oppressive systems and anti-fat bias that have shaped your story. You’ll learn about the racist roots of Diet Culture and why the BMI is bogus. Newfound knowledge will allow you to greet your body kindlier and respectfully.

As you deepen your understanding of what has made you feel unwelcome in your body, you’ll begin to replace rigid and perfectionistic thinking with flexibility and acceptance. Self-care practices will no longer be on the back burner. They’ll be your priority. Instead of neglecting your body, you’ll feel connected, grounded, and present.

Nutrition and health behavior recommendations will be based on a weight-neutral framework. Making room for pleasure and satisfaction through nourishment and learning to let go of deprivation will be the focus of these recommendations. We’ll use the Body Trust® framework, Intuitive Eating, and Health At Every Size® principles as our guide.

We will trust your body to sort out the weight.

Let’s heal together.

It would be a lie to say I’ve figured out this body trust thing. Cultivating body trust requires a fiercely courageous willingness to relate to food, your weight, and your health in a new way.

Gaining that new relationship is easier said than done. Applying the Body Trust® framework to the healing process is a liberatory act of resistance against systems of oppression. This type of healing is rooted in a social justice movement that cares for and centers fat* people in a culture of systems that do not.

Cultivating body trust is wholly worthwhile. This work is challenging to put into words, but it’s all about honoring, caring for, and respecting all bodies – including yours.

Reclaim your body and story. Reach out now to schedule your free consultation!

* Please note that the reference to woman includes those who identify as women, trans, non-binary, or gender expansive. The reference to fat is a neutral descriptor, not a pejorative term. I use it to align with the fat activist community, who reclaimed the word to reduce its use as a weapon against individuals living in fat bodies.