supportive therapy for fat-phobia + weight stigma
Helping you with the impacts of FAT-PHOBIA + WEIGHT STIGMA
If you’ve found this page you might be seeking:
support that doesn’t shame body size
a provider who has lived experience with weight discrimination
to heal the wounds caused by constantly experiencing weight stigma and fatphobia
to learn tools to support yourself through the hard moments
Have you ever gone to the doctor for a nagging headache and left with a prescription for weight loss and no answer for the main reason you came in? How about going to a class or work meeting only to find the desks or chairs with arms don’t fit your body? A yoga class with no variations to support your larger body as everyone else is up in crow pose? Been denied fertility treatment because of an arbitrary BMI limit?
THIS IS WEIGHT DISCRIMINATION.
When folks in fat bodies are made to feel they’re not as welcomed or that there is something wrong with them because of the size of their body, this is weight stigma and fat-phobia, full stop. This stigma in day-to-day life is damaging and can be violent and traumatic for so many folks. You were quietly (or maybe loudly) taught that you ‘deserve’ this treatment or that somehow because your body is bigger it’s okay for people to treat you this way. It’s absolutely not okay and you never, ever deserve this kind of treatment.
While working together in therapy can’t magically make the systems that harm us disappear, it can help you gain a better understanding of yourself and you can support yourself through these challenges.
Working with a therapist who focuses on supporting folks in larger bodies can help you:
feel seen and understood
learn what boundaries will support your inner peace as you move through the world
expand your understanding of how the system of diet culture is the real problem, not your body
gain strategies for approaching difficult situations (like doctor’s appointments)
HOW DOES BODY IMAGE TRAUMA SHOW UP?
When we’re getting constant reminders that our bodies don’t align with societal expectations, layers upon layers of body shame can pile up. This can lead to walking around carrying the weight of other people’s beliefs and no longer listening to our own.
It can show up as feeling really disconnected from our own desires, needs, and pleasure. It can be not really being sure when we are hungry or full or what we really want to eat. It might be not knowing how to move your body without it being a punishment or way to “earn food.”
HOT TIP: You never have to earn your food. No matter what or how much you ate for your last meal or yesterday, you still deserve to nourish your body today.
You may have started learning these things when you were just a kid. Some questions to reflect on to identify when and how you were taught body shaming:
What were the messages like at school around body types?
What was physical education like for you? (LET ME SAY: You are NOT alone if you had a hurtful and traumatic experience in this setting.)
Did your parents or caregivers have their own beliefs about what bodies should look like? or how we should move them? or how we should feed them?
When do you first remember your body as a problem?
This stuff is really hard. You never deserved to be treated badly because of your body shape, size, or ability. When we have these experiences over and over again, we might start to believe our bodies are wrong. I promise you, your body is not wrong and it never was.
Therapy helps by uncovering the ways we learned to protect ourselves from being hurt and figuring out if those things are still helping us. Maybe we isolated ourselves so we didn’t have to deal with being seen, maybe we engaged with disordered eating habits to try and fit into an unrealistic ideal, or maybe we grew a loud inner critic to remind us of all these harmful beliefs we’ve grown up around.
However you learned to protect yourself, I want to honor that. We have really good reasons for all the things we do, even when they don’t make sense to us. If you’re ready to take a look inside and learn new ways of showing up for yourself, let’s talk.
Meet Your Therapist & Fellow Body Rebel:
I’ve personally experienced the impacts of fatphobia and diet culture in my own body & food healing journey. I’ve had providers invalidate, misunderstand and make assumptions about me based on my body. This has sparked a passion for truly embodying body acceptance with my clients and helping them find liberation & empowerment in their bodies.
Ready to say “f*ck you” to diet culture? I’ve got your back!