Search

This practical, accessible book teaches readers how to practice healthy body image habits and let go of an emphasis on body image through research, activities, and personal stories.Body neutrality is a body image approach focused on finding acceptance and liberation from the body-focused culture in which we live. Body neutrality is a shift toward seeing our bodies as a vessel of who we are rather than as who we are. This guide is organized into thirteen chapters, each outlining a different concept of body neutrality ranging from comparison and identity to mindfulness and gratitude, inviting participation from the reader through end-of-chapter activities. For anyone aiming to release the enslaving emphasis placed on appearance in a world where body obsession has become inappropriately “normal,” this book will provide insight and practical guidance toward freedom.Body Neutrality is for anyone struggling with self-esteem and body image issues who aims for acceptance and liberation.

Der Körper hat Symbolbedeutung in verschiedenen Bereichen der Psychopathologie. Über ihn können unbewältigte psychische Konflikte und Defizite, aber auch Traumafolgen und deren Abwehr mehr oder weniger symbolisch ausgedrückt werden. Unter diesem Aspekt betrachten die Beiträger•innen Themen wie Selbstverletzung und Essstörungen, beschreiben die Besonderheiten des therapeutischen Vorgehens bei wenig symbolisierten Körpersyndromen und untersuchen die Kommunikationsfunktion des Körpers in der analytischen Psychotherapie. Nichtsymbolisierte Körpersymptome in frühester Kindheit werden ebenso bearbeitet wie die Verbindung zu zeitgenössischen Formen der Körperkultur wie Tattoo und Piercing. Mit Blick auf die Geschichte der Psychoanalyse werden die Ursprünge der Symbolbedeutung des Körpers aufgespürt und ihre Weiterentwicklung nachvollzogen. Mit Beiträgen von Margarete Berger, Christel Böhme-Bloem, Mathias Hirsch, Gerhard Paar, Fernanda Pedrina, Reinhard Plassmann, Aglaja Stirn und Volker Trempler

This accessible guide for clinicians and clinical students working in the fields of eating disorders and transgender health psychology offers useful tips, constructive case studies and reflective questions that enable readers to feel better equipped in supporting their clients'needs.The book addresses the clinical challenges a therapist may encounter, and provides advice on the key issues involved in therapeutic work with transgender, non-binary and gender-expansive clients, including trauma, minority stress, coming out, family support, appearance and body changes. This book will inspire clinicians to bridge the disconnect between the clinical criteria for eating disorders and the type of eating disorder manifesting in a client with co-occurring gender dysphoria.

Numerous contemporary artists, particularly female artists, have chosen to examine the idealization of the female body. In this crucial book, Emily L. Newman focuses on a number of key themes including obesity, anorexia, bulimia, dieting, self-harm, and female body image. Many artists utilize their own bodies in their work, and in the act of trying to critique the diet industry, they also often become complicit, as they strive to lose weight themselves. Making art and engaging eating disorder communities (in real life and online) often work to perpetuate the illnesses of themselves or others. A core group of artists has worked to show bodies that are outside the norm, paralleling the rise of fat activism in the 1990s and 2000s. Interwoven throughout this inclusive study are related interdisciplinary concerns including sociology, popular culture, and feminism.

This three-part workbook offers a concise and forgiving research- based guide to clients'diffi culties with sustained weight loss. Part 1 is a review of your client's previous efforts at weight control and image change, as well as information and a review of research to help your client understand why weight loss might not have worked in the past. Part 2 contains information and exercises to help your client develop a new acceptance of their body and their relationship with food, as well as tools to develop mindfulness and self- compassion. Part 3 will help your client identify, experiment with, and commit to values related to food, appearance, and other important areas of life, tackling troublesome mental and practical barriers along the way.

Regardless of your client's diagnosis or presenting problems, they're likely to be concerned about their weight. And that impacts treatment.Noted expert on eating and weight disorders, Edward Abramson, PhD, has created the definitive guide to help you approach weight issues and questions clients will have. Easy to read and highly practical, you'll be able to give your clients sound advice and develop realistic plans to manage their weight and feel good about their bodies. How to turn the whys of eating into treatment strategiesDiets, drugs and surgeries -- what you must knowSimple environmental changes that decrease eatingTools to assess and improve body imageTips to make exercise easier (and enjoyable!)

Over the past twenty-five years, our quest for thinness has morphed into a relentless obsession with weight and body image. In our culture,'fat'has become a four-letter word. Or, as Lance Armstrong said to the wife of a former teammate,'I called you crazy. I called you a bitch. But I never called you fat.'How did we get to this place where the worst insult you can hurl at someone is'fat'? Where women and girls (and increasingly men and boys) will diet, purge, overeat, undereat, and berate themselves and others, all in the name of being thin?As a science journalist, Harriet Brown has explored this collective longing and fixation from an objective perspective; as a mother, wife, and woman with'weight issues,'she has struggled to understand it on a personal level. Now, in Body of Truth, Brown systematically unpacks what's been offered as'truth'about weight and health.Starting with the four biggest lies, Brown shows how research has been manipulated; how the medical profession is complicit in keeping us in the dark; how big pharma and big, empty promises equal big, big dollars; how much of what we know (or think we know) about health and weight is wrong. And how all of those affect all of us every day, whether we know it or not.The quest for health and wellness has never been more urgent, yet most of us continue to buy into fad diets and unattainable body ideals, unaware of the damage we're doing to ourselves. Through interviews, research, and her own experience, Brown not only gives us the real story on weight, health, and beauty, but also offers concrete suggestions for how each of us can sort through the lies and misconceptions and make peace with and for ourselves.

Mom in the Mirror: Body Image, Beauty, and Life after Pregnancy is for every woman who has ever doubted herself or her self-worth after the birth of a child. Because most women spend much of their lives attempting to change their bodies, it's not surprising that the weight gain that comes along with pregnancy (and post-pregnancy), coupled with the challenges of parenting, only exacerbate issues with weight, body image, disordered eating, and self-esteem.Drawing on the wisdom of eating disorders expert Dr. Dena Cabrera, as well as the personal experiences of former anorexic Emily Wierenga, Mom in the Mirror is a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual response to a female generation seeking its true identity in an appearance-based world. With chapters that deal with bruises from the past, misconceptions about pregnancy, life before and after children, marriage and motherhood, spiritual and physical nourishment, relationships with friends and family, and the changing role of a mother as her children age, it is a holistic approach to the age-old questions: Who am I, and why am I here? Comprising personal stories, expert advice, reflection questions, and helpful tools, this book is an inspiring read intended for women everywhere who want to restore a positive body image and to overcome the insecurities that arise when pregnancy is over and child-rearing begins.

Let's be honest: most people are unhappy with at least some aspect of their physical appearance. Just think of all the money we spend each year trying to improve our looks! But if worrying about your appearance is getting in the way of living, maybe it's time to start thinking about body image in a completely new way. Based in proven-effective acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), Living with Your Body and Other Things You Hate offers a unique approach to addressing your struggle with body image. In this book, you will not be told that your self-perceptions are wrong, that your thoughts are irrational, or that your feelings are misguided. Instead, you will learn to live with the reality that these often painful thoughts and beliefs about yourself will arise from time to time, and that what is really important is accepting these distressing thoughts without allowing them to dominate your life. You know what it's like to constantly be checking the mirror, to avoid certain social situations where your body may be exposed, or to gaze longingly at a fashion model in a magazine and think, “Why can't I be her?” But what you may not know is that people who struggle with negative body image are at an increased risk for depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and low self-esteem. Body image problems can even lead to major financial issues. By focusing on your appearance and little else, you are hurting yourself in more ways than one. If you are ready to find a purpose in life that is more important than the pain you feel about your appearance, this book provides a truthful, powerful resource.

In the past decade, obesity has emerged as a major public health concern in the United States and abroad. At the federal, state, and local level, policy makers have begun drafting a range of policies to fight a war against fat, including body-mass index (BMI) report cards, “snack taxes,” and laws to control how fast food companies market to children. As an epidemic, obesity threatens to weaken the health, economy, and might of the most powerful nation in the world. In Killer Fat, Natalie Boero examines how and why obesity emerged as a major public health concern and national obsession in recent years. Using primary sources and in-depth interviews, Boero enters the world of bariatric surgeries, Weight Watchers, and Overeaters Anonymous to show how common expectations of what bodies are supposed to look like help to determine what sorts of interventions and policies are considered urgent in containing this new kind of disease. Boero argues that obesity, like the traditional epidemics of biological contagion and mass death, now incites panic, a doomsday scenario that must be confronted in a struggle for social stability. The “war” on obesity, she concludes, is a form of social control. Killer Fat ultimately offers an alternate framing of the nation's obesity problem based on the insights of the “Health at Every Size” movement.

The standard reference for practitioners, researchers, and students, this acclaimed work brings together internationally recognized experts from diverse mental health, medical, and allied health care disciplines. Contributors review established and emerging theories and findings; probe questions of culture, gender, health, and disorder; and present evidence-based assessment, treatment, and prevention approaches for the full range of body image concerns. Capturing the richness and complexity of the field in a readily accessible format, each of the 53 concise chapters concludes with an informative annotated bibliography. New to This Edition •Addresses the most urgent current questions in the field.•Reflects significant advances in key areas: assessment, body image in boys and men, obesity, illness-related body image issues, and cross-cultural research. •Conceptual Foundations section now incorporates evolutionary, genetic, and positive psychology perspectives. •Increased coverage of prevention.

A mother recounts her daughter's battle with anorexia in this “affecting and informative memoir” (Booklist). In this chronicle of a family's struggle with anorexia nervosa, journalist and professor Harriet Brown recounts in mesmerizing and horrifying detail her daughter Kitty's journey from near-starvation to renewed health. Brave Girl Eating is an intimate, shocking, compelling, and ultimately uplifting look at the ravages of a mental illness that affects more than 18 million Americans.“One of the most up to date, relevant, and honest accounts of one family's battle with the life-threatening challenges of anorexia. Brown has masterfully woven science, history, and heart throughout this compelling and tender story.” —Lynn S. Grefe, Chief Executive Officer, National Eating Disorders Association“As a woman who once knew the grip of a life-controlling eating disorder, I held my breath reading Harriet Brown's story. As a mother of daughters, I wept for her. Then cheered.” —Joyce Maynard, New York Times-bestselling author of Count the Ways

People with eating disorders often exhibit serious misconceptions about their own body image. Overcoming Body Image Disturbance provides a treatment programme (piloted by the authors) for people with eating disorders who have a negative body image. The manual offers advice for therapists, enabling them to deliver the programme, as well as practical guidance for the sufferer, encouraging them to learn the appropriate skills to change their attitude towards their body.Alongside the programme, this treatment manual provides: an introduction to the concept of body image and body image disturbance worksheets and homework assignments for the client recommendations of psychometric measures to aid assessment and evaluation coverage on innovative techniques and approaches such as mindfulness. This manual – intended to be used with close guidance from a therapist – will be essential for all therapists, mental health workers and counsellors working with clients who have negative body images.'Workbook resources can be downloaded free of charge by purchasers of the print version.'

In a society where a blemish or “bad hair” can ruin an otherwise perfect day and airbrushed abs dominate the magazine rack, many of us feel ashamed of our bodies. If dissatisfaction with your looks is a distressing preoccupation, this compassionate book offers a way to break free from the mirror. Harvard psychologist Sabine Wilhelm leads you through a step-by-step program that helps you fight the urge to spend hours “fixing” your skin and hair, working out, or shopping for flattering clothes. Reality-check exercises based on cognitive-behavioral therapy demonstrate how to identify unfounded beliefs about your appearance. Once you understand the negative thoughts and feelings that distort your self-image, you'll be able to shed lengthy grooming rituals and overcome the embarrassment that keeps you from enjoying life. With Dr. Wilhelm's expert guidance, you'll learn to replace self-doubt and insecurity with confidence and a positive outlook. Whether you've spent thousands on plastic surgery or avoid trips to the beach, dating, or socializing, you owe yourself this opportunity to make peace with your looks. If you or someone you care about is struggling with a body image problem, effective care is finally at hand. Health care professionals, see also the related treatment manual: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Body Dysmorphic Disorder.

Discrimination based on body shape and size remains commonplace in today's society. This important volume explores the nature, causes, and consequences of weight bias and presents a range of approaches to combat it. Leading psychologists, health professionals, attorneys, and advocates cover such critical topics as the barriers facing obese adults and children in health care, work, and school settings; how to conceptualize and measure weight-related stigmatization; theories on how stigma develops; the impact on self-esteem and health, quite apart from the physiological effects of obesity; and strategies for reducing prejudice and bringing about systemic change.

In this powerful guide, Kingsbury and Williams equip readers with simple reflections, vignettes, and everyday analogies that they have successfully used with their own clients to counter destructive feelings and shatter distorted ideas of food and weight. Pithy and positive statements replace compulsive, perfectionist rules with new strategies to cope with blame, guilt, vulnerability, and self-criticism.Concrete activities help people with eating problems get off the scales, get in touch with their feelings, and make friends with their bodies.Written by experienced therapists who understand the needs and fears of people with eating problems, the book is a refreshing guide to lasting change and recovery.