Category: Body Image
The Good Therapy Blog
August 12th, 2010 |
People dealing with body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, often pursue cosmetic surgery and other procedures in an attempt to control or ‘improve’ an element of their physical appearance that they perceive to be defective. BDD is characterized by a preoccupation with such elements, but a new study shows that “correcting” the trait rarely causes BDD to subside. The person may feel the procedure is insufficient, or their preoccupation may spread to another aspect of their appearance. Because BDD is, at the root,... Read More
© Copyright 2010 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Dallas Bureau - All Rights Reserved.
August 12th, 2010 |
As noted last month, cancer treatments can have a significant effect on a person’s sexuality and desire to be intimate. Common side effects of chemotherapy include nausea, which may be worsened by sexual activity, and fatigue, which may persist for months after treatment is finished. Hair loss is another common side effect of chemotherapy, and it can be particularly distressing to women. One woman described feeling like “an old man” because of her mastectomy and baldness.
Chemotherapy also has some gender specific side effects. Depending on a woman’s age, it may cause a profound... Read More
August 6th, 2010 |
A recent nation-wide study on body image, mental health, and adolescents finds that the group at highest risk for weight-related depression is not overweight girls, as is commonly thought. Rather, underweight boys are most at risk to experience unhappiness and distress because of their bodies. The second highest at-risk group was average weight girls who perceive themselves to be heavier than they are. Helping teens and pre-teens fight body image issues can be a challenge. A combination of social awareness and media accountability can... Read More
© Copyright 2010 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist West Hollywood Bureau - All Rights Reserved.
August 2nd, 2010 |
It’s summer in North Carolina, and, as is the case with the rest of the country, an unseasonably hot one. My office is on the second floor, and by mid-afternoon the sun has moved over to my side of the building and even with the AC blasting away, it gets very hot. I wear sleeveless tops and skirts or capris, and sandals. The thought of sleeves covering my shoulders and arms or denim on my legs feels stifling. I like hot weather and I like dressing this way. I move with a sense of lightness and ease, carefree, with no worries about dressing for the weather except the possibility of entering a... Read More
July 13th, 2010 |
“Alice” is a long-term cancer survivor. She has beaten the odds of dying from stage four breast cancer many times over the years. She came into therapy because she was feeling “stuck,” and was wondering if she might be depressed.
Several visits into our work together, after exploring how things were going in different areas of her life, she said she wanted to talk about something that was difficult to discuss: her sex life with her husband. “Sex” is one of the most emotionally charged words in the English language. Our personal histories, family values and attitudes play a role... Read More
July 1st, 2010 |
How many of the people that you know are truly happy with their bodies?
Be honest: Are you satisfied with yours? If not, you might have a body image issue.
Body image does not just refer to aspects of our physical appearance, attractiveness, and beauty. It also has to do with the mental picture you have of your own body as well as your thoughts, feelings, judgments, sensations, awareness and behaviour. Read More
June 30th, 2010 |
A GoodTherapy.org News Summary
Psychologists in Canada are in the process of developing a cognitive behavioral therapy program to help treat body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD. While still in the developmental stages, the program has so far proven highly successful and is planned to continue. BDD is classified as an obsessive-compulsive disorder. People who struggle with it try very hard to deal with mental health problems by controlling their physical appearance. They will fixate on... Read More
© Copyright 2010 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Olympia Bureau - All Rights Reserved.
June 30th, 2010 |
Much attention has been given to overweight teenagers and their risk of being depressed as a result of their weight. But a new study suggests that weight-related depression has less to do with actual weight, and more to do with weight perception. Over 12,000 teenagers were studied, and the conclusions differed between boys and girls. For girls, depression was strongest in average-weight girls who perceived themselves to be overweight; stronger, even, than overweight girls who did... Read More
© Copyright 2010 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Allen Bureau - All Rights Reserved.
June 18th, 2010 |
Clients often tell me that they hate their bodies. Sometimes I reply, “Really? You hate your spleen and your liver and your kidneys?” And they look baffled and say, “I never thought about that.” Because when a client says that she hates her body, she means, “I can’t stand the way my body looks, and I can’t distinguish between my physical appearance and my body it self. I’ve reduced my body to a one-dimensional object. I’m repelled by what I see, and I consider my body to be only what I see, no more than that.”
I have heard this from clients of all shapes and sizes. The client... Read More
June 14th, 2010 |
A new study from the University of Michigan, recently published in Psychology of Women Quarterly finds that young women’s perception of their own self-worth as tied to their weight varies between ethnic identities. The study surveyed over 900 college women, aged 17-24, and asked them questions about ethnic identity, eating habits, drive for thinness, appearance esteem, weight-based self-worth, and interactions with other ethnic groups. The result showed that young white women, Asian American women, and African American women who were... Read More
© Copyright 2010 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Simi Valley Bureau - All Rights Reserved.
June 2nd, 2010 |
Much of the body image work that I do with clients suffering from eating disorders comes back to building up self-esteem. What follows are a few activities I’ve found helpful in exploring this topic with clients. These can be used as homework between sessions, or an activity done with your therapist guide.
Self Confidence First Aid Kit (Adapted from CareerTrack)
Take a shoebox or similar-sized container & on the outside create a collage using magazine clippings of all your favorite things, the people, places and things that you hold most dear.
To put inside, begin a collection of items... Read More
April 20th, 2010 |
One of the misery-makers in which many women engage is comparing themselves to other women. And it is by no means a fair comparison. Typically we are the underdog. The one who does not measure up. We compare ourselves to all the girls we see to be more beautiful—their height, their toned stomachs, the grace in the way they move, their quick wit, and so on and so on. As a result, we end up feeling just lousy.
Elena is a college sophomore. Beautiful both inside and out to all but herself. While sitting in an auditorium of students she is distracted by comparing herself to the girls in... Read More
April 15th, 2010 |
Among women who experience concerns and fears over their body image, both outward and underlying signs of the negativity or preoccupation may be especially visible to professionals. But such signs may also be present in women who otherwise present a healthy body image, suggests new research carried out at Brigham Young University. The research scanned the brains of women who viewed pictures of others, and researchers found that an area of the brain related to self-reflection and identity was activated when viewing images... Read More
© Copyright 2010 by http://www.GoodTherapy.org Therapist Plano Bureau - All Rights Reserved.
March 18th, 2010 |
People who struggle with eating and food issues often also struggle with poor self-esteem. I say “poor” rather than “low” because I believe the concept of high and low self-esteem to be problematic. If low self- esteem means perceiving one’s self to be inferior to others, it follows that high self-esteem means perceiving one’s self to be superior to others. Healthy self-esteem is neither high nor low. It is defined by the lack of concern about one’s worth, coupled with a sense of competence and a belief in one’s... Read More
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