Body Image Counseling
Research shows that 97% of folks who identify as women struggle with body image. What does this mean? Basically, 97% of us very seriously dislike the appearance of our bodies. Another large percentage of us spend excessive time, money, and overall energy on changing the appearance of our bodies. And yet another percentage of us engage in unhealthy and even abusive behaviors towards our body in the name of changing it.
Body image counseling may be an option if you identify with any of the above.
What would it be like to feel at peace with your body? Better yet, what would it feel like to feel at home in your body? You’ve spent years at war with it. Years hating the appearance of your body. Years dedicating time and energy to changing it - demanding that it be more of this or less of that. Can you imagine what it would feel like to let go of the fixation on all your perceived bodily flaws? How much more mental brain space might you have for other things in your life? You know, the important things like hobbies, relationships, passion projects, and making the world a better place. At Wildflower Therapy, we help you to decouple body image from self-esteem so that you can begin spending all of that precious energy on the really juicy parts of life.
Our Body Image Therapy Approach
Our body image counseling services use an integrated therapeutic approach to help people heal their body image. We draw from feminist relational and interpersonal lenses, which basically means that we work towards helping you garner a really deep understanding of how your childhood, society, culture, and various lived experiences and traumas came together to impact how you feel towards your body.
We have found that really unpacking and processing all of this is necessary to move forward and finally shift thinking. Teaching you tools and techniques to combat the negative body image thoughts and eventually change the actual thoughts is key. That’s right - there is actual research that shows that we all have the ability to carve out new and different neural pathways to create different patterns of thinking about things such as body image. It just takes time, the right tools, and the desire to do so. Basically, if you have the time and the desire, then we got you.
The Goal of Body Image Therapy
You may think that our ultimate goal is to have you walk out of our office one day absolutely loving how your body looks. But really, our goal is much deeper than that. We want you to be able to live in such a way that the appearance of your body takes a backseat. We actually don’t care too much about whether you love the appearance of your body or not. (Although if you want to work on totally celebrating the way you look, then we are definitely on board with that!)
But really, we want you to love your life. We want your appearance to be put back into its rightful place – just being a part of who you are. Also, we want you to be able to participate in all the activities that you want to participate in - from swimming to moving, to sex, to being in pictures - without shame or fear. We want you to be able to live your life in an embodied way so that you can respect your body as the home to your soul. Because when we live in a truly embodied way, we are able to come home to ourselves in a way that brings lasting peace.
Body Image Counseling Can Help…
If you find yourself struggling with body image issues and it’s impacting your relationships we would be honored to help you address those needs. Our online therapists in Pennsylvania are available to help you begin the journey to loving yourself again. Below are some steps to follow if you feel overwhelmed and would like to ask for help.
Step One:
Visit our About page to get a better understanding of who we are and what we stand for!
Step Two:
We encourage you to get to know a little bit about our therapists, their specializations, and their credentials. Get to know our body image therapists here.
Step Three:
If you feel like we would be a good fit for you, please reach out to us to set up a free 30-minute consultation through our therapy appointment page. We look forward to hearing from you!
Step Four:
Begin your journey to self-healing and understanding!
Other Mental Health Services Provided by Wildflower Therapy in Philadelphia, PA
Life is a unique journey for each of us and we all have our individual battles to fight. We know there is no one-size-fits-all approach to any of life’s difficulties and we offer many unique perspectives and approaches to help meet you where you are with our Philadelphia, PA Therapy services. In Addition, we offer services for body image counseling, and services for depression and anxiety, and have practitioners who specialize in LGBTQIA+ affirming care. We also offer specialized therapy for college students and athletes. There are even therapists who specialize in perinatal and postnatal support. Reaching out is often the most difficult step you can take to improve your mental health. And it is also the most important step you can take toward recovery. We look forward to helping you on this journey!
We are licensed to provide therapy to clients residing in PA, NJ, DE, FL, MA, VA, and VT, as well as students living in any of these states (even if your parents live elsewhere).