Bodies are fraught. They are the things through which we move through the world and also the things through which we are seen. Our bodies don’t ever stop growing or changing. Even when we sit or sleep, our bodies are doing the things they need to to keep us alive. Amazing. The body is a process.

Every single human has a body story and many stories include shame. The good news is this: your body is brilliant. It has thousands of years of ancestral experience in surviving and thriving. Learning to trust it might feel like a new skill, but really it’s just a beautiful, long-awaited return to self.

We may be a good fit if you find yourself:

• avoiding or limiting social interaction over worry of how you will look to others

• consistently feeling that your body is not good enough as is

• avoiding looking in the mirror

• avoiding wearing clothes that you like because you worry what others will think of you in them

• consistently trying to change your body through restrictive diet and exercise

• having experienced fatphobia or any discrimination based on how you look

I work from a Health at Every Size approach and align with the Fat Liberation movement.

We can’t survive without eating, yet food plays such a complex role in our lives. Our relationships to food are intricately constructed by our experiences and they are constantly changing. Some days, food can be a great source of shame. Other days, a source of celebration…and everything in between.

We may be a good fit if you find yourself:

• constantly thinking about food- to the point that you wonder if something is wrong if you (spoiler: there’s not)

• connecting your self-worth on any given day to what/how you ate

• in a pattern of restrictive dieting and then binging

• afraid to keep food in your home out of fear that you will find yourself ‘out of control’

• avoiding eating altogether or eating certain “good” or “bad” foods in front of others

So much is expected from us to exist in this world. Perfectionism is a very normal response to the uncertainty that exists at any given moment of our lives.

We might be a good fit if you find yourself:

• avoiding social or professional interaction out of fear that you will ‘mess up’

• fearing letting others down if you don’t perform perfectly

• feeling like the 'stakes are always high’ no matter what the task

• fearing that if you mess up, it will reflect on your value as a human

• avoiding starting something new out of fear that you will not do it well enough

Living with a chronic illness means living in a body that is sometimes working against you. Such a heavy societal emphasis on productivity equaling worth can make us feel inadquate.

We might be a good fit if you find yourself:

• feeling shame that you are not able to keep up with non-chronically ill people in your life

• feeling grief around a loss of functioning

• struggling to accept your chronic illness and it’s limitations

• struggling to identify when your body needs a break, or struggling to give your body that break

• having experienced traumatic medical gaslighting and had to fight to be heard by the medical establishment

Living with neurodivergence far too often means living in a world that is not designed for you.

We might be a good fit if you find yourself:

• masking how you or your body acts at baseline as to 'appear normal’

• feeling like you are fundamentally ‘broken’ due to your neurodivergence

• struggling to notice your emotional and/or physical needs in the moment

• struggling to accept and celebrate your brain

• constantly worrying about rejection from others