Body Image
Therapy for Body Image
When the mirror sets the tone for your whole day, it can crowd out almost everything else. Body image work here is about making peace with your body and reducing the power it holds over your time, your mood and your choices.
When the mirror sets the tone
Maybe you check your reflection before deciding whether today will be a good day. Maybe you change clothes three times, avoid photos, or skip the pool, the party or the doctor's appointment because of how you feel in your body. Body image is less about how your body looks and more about the relationship you have with it: the thoughts, the feelings and the rules that decide what you are allowed to do. That relationship can be painful, and it can also change.
- Comparing yourself to every body in the room or on your screen
- Avoiding photos, mirrors or certain clothes
- Exercise that feels like punishment instead of care
- Thoughts about your body that crowd out the rest of life
- Feeling like a stranger in your body after a big change
Comparison and the fear of what others think
My passion is helping people make peace with anxiety and worry, especially around body image and the fear of what other people think. Comparison sits right at the center of that. A scroll through social media, a glance around a room or a passing comment from a relative can send you into measuring yourself against everyone else. In our sessions we slow that moment down. We notice what sets it off, what your mind says, and how your body reacts, and then we practice responses that are kinder and more honest than the comparison.
Bodies change, and that can be hard
Bodies change through pregnancy, injury, illness, age and the end of a sport, and each change can shake how you see yourself. After birth you may be living in a body that did something remarkable and still feels unfamiliar, while pressure to get back to how things were comes from every direction. We make room for grief about what changed and curiosity about what your body needs now. If you are in that season, therapy for postpartum anxiety and mom guilt may also fit.
For athletes, expectations of the body are part of the job, and they can turn into restriction, bingeing or a daily battle with the mirror. When the sport ends or an injury changes your training, your body changes too, and so can your sense of who you are. Therapy for athlete injury and retirement looks at that transition, and the athletes page shares more about my own background in sport.
Lowering the volume on food, body and exercise
Part of the Intuitive Eating Model I work from is limiting the power that food, body image and exercise have come to have in your life. That does not mean ignoring your body. It means moving from control and criticism toward listening and care. We look at the rules you follow, where they came from, and what they cost you. Movement can become something you choose for strength, play or joy rather than a punishment. There is no moralizing about food, no disguised pursuit of thinness, and no new set of rules to fail.
Respect for your body, not a new ideal
Body image work here is not about learning to love how you look or chasing a different ideal. Appearance is not the goal. The goal is a quieter, kinder and more respectful relationship with your body, so your attention can go to the people and purposes that matter to you. Some days that looks like neutrality rather than love, and neutrality is enough. If binge eating or cycles of restriction are part of the picture, binge eating therapy and eating disorder intensives take that work further.
Sessions in person, outdoors or online
Walk-and-talk sessions happen outdoors, side by side, which can take some pressure off when being looked at feels hard. In-person sessions are at my Southwest Austin office on Fridays and some select other times and days as schedules allow, and telehealth by secure video is available anywhere in Texas while you are located in Texas. Sessions are offered in English and Spanish. You do not need a diagnosis to start, and the free 15-minute consultation is a chance to ask anything about fit, cost or format.
Common Questions
Is body image therapy about learning to love how I look?
Not necessarily. The aim is a quieter, kinder and more respectful relationship with your body, and on some days neutrality is enough. Appearance is not the goal.
Do you work with body image after having a baby?
Yes. Pregnancy, postpartum changes, mom guilt and shifting identity are all part of the work here. Telehealth from home anywhere in Texas can make sessions easier to fit in.
Do you work with athletes on body image?
Yes. Expectations of the body and changes in body and food after sport are part of athlete work, and I use the Intuitive Eating Model. Therapy is available in Texas, while athletic mental health coaching and mentoring is non-clinical, available globally, and not therapy.
Do I need an eating disorder to work on body image?
No. You do not need a diagnosis to start. If the way you feel about your body is getting in the way of your life, that is reason enough to reach out.
The consultation is free and there is no obligation on either side.
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