Body Image Issues

Rita is trained in Intuitive Eating and is a Health at Every Size aligned clinician. She uses intuitive eating principles to help Clients heal their relationships with food and their bodies. Rita believes that health looks different for everyone and comes in all shapes and sizes.

Body image issues and eating disorders are sometimes co-occurring for some clients with anxiety disorders. For the past two years I have worked with adolescents and adults who struggle with body image.

I extensive experience in working with individuals who struggle with body dysmorphic issues.

You were not put on this planet to diet. Or obsess about your weight, or to lose weight, or hate yourself because you don’t look like a photoshopped model, or to loath yourself. You have such a larger contribution to make in this world. I see you, I know you, because I am just like you. Inner Life is a safe place to explore different ways to think and feel about your body. There is way more to your life then what your body looks like. Let's reveal more of of it!

Healthy Body Image is not popping out of bed to wink at yourself in the mirror with a narcissistic grin. Just like feelings about anything else, how we feel about our size/shape/body parts fluctuates, for better or for worse, due to lots of factors. But how able are you to ACCEPT yourself physically right now? Your body IS what it is right now- whether that's optimal in your opinion or not. It is much easier to change, grow, and improve, when we can accept what currently exists.

In a world that often emphasizes unrealistic beauty standards, finding peace and acceptance within our own bodies can be a challenging journey. As a dedicated therapist specializing in body image, I am here to guide and support you through this process. I understand the intricate relationship between our self-esteem and how we perceive our bodies. Together, we will explore the roots of these issues, and work towards a body-neutrality framwork.

Cis-Hetero-Patriarchy and White Supremacy has filled us all up with harmful, restrictive, and value ridden attitudes towards bodies. No wonder we have complicated relationships with food, eating, and bodies. The dominant systems in place uphold diet culture and anti-fat bias in order to maintain power and control. By recognizing the origins of harmful practices in your life, you may begin the practice of unlearning and replacing these limiting and painful beliefs.

Development of skills for handling negative thoughts about physical appearance; building habits of more positive self-talk and self-perception.

I am a Health At Every Size advocate. Through journaling exercises and exposure exercises, I help womxn become more comfortable with their bodies. I help clients shift the focus from what they hate about their bodies to what amazing things their bodies do for them. I also work to challenge the unrealistic, Western, thin ideal that has become such a dangerous but predominant narrative in our culture.

Diet industry and fat phobic culture continues to grow more profitable for corporations fueled by the old shame cycle perpetuated by pseudo-science now debunked that diets don't work and never have for over the hundreds thousands of years for homo sapiens. We had to evolve to survive famines and droughts so our bodies fight this whole process of trying to intentionally loose weight. Time to learn to be free of this diet culture and fat phobia and work on body liberation.

Body image and self worth have huge impacts on how we live our lives. I believe ideal body image is a social construct, and want to help you challenge your views on your body. I aim to help you recognize how you came to view yourself as you do, work to challenge it, and work to create a healthier, more realistic self-image. When we are able to accept and be kind to ourselves, it improves relationships with others, social skills, and overall functioning.

A major area of my dissertation research, and an area of passion of mine, clinically and personally!

Constantly criticizing our looks and having persistent low self-esteem in our appearance seems to be a norm in our culture. Finding freedom from our own negative beliefs can be the biggest act of kindness you give yourself.

As a weight inclusive provider, I acknowledge the hardships many (if not most) folks face due to the societal promotion and acceptance of fatphobia and weight stigma. I aim to support clients in finding body neutrality/acceptance in order to take space in this world and focus on living a life without feeling ashamed or the need to control your physical appearance. This may involve exploring and processing our own forms of internalized narratives and rewrite our script to live more authentically.

Imagine spending your life with the people and things you love, without worrying about what you ate or how long you worked out today. Imagine feeling fulfilled, like you deserve to be happy: that you're good enough just as you are. Through therapy, you can feel at ease in your body, make peace with food, and live a life that reflects your true values.

Our society encourages us to feel bad about our bodies. Together, we will find ways for you to accept yourself as you are. I will encourage you to focus on what your body can do instead of what it “should” look like. I will support you in pursuing better health at any size while feeling happier in your own skin.

As a HAES (Health at Every Size) practitioner, I believe strongly that community is one of the most important parts of healing our relationships with food, our selves, our feelings, and how we present in the world. I am starting a HAES group for people who self identify as small fat and larger in October 2021, for people who were AFAB (assigned female at birth), were raised female until approximately age 16, and believed themselves to be female most of that time, and now are any gender.

We all deserve to feel good about our bodies- but for many of us, that's complicated by years thinking or hearing that there's one right size or shape that we need to attain. I support you in sorting out diet culture programming from what's right for your health and well-being, and developing confidence and healthy habits that do not require a certain size.

I work exclusively from a Health at Every Size Approach with my clients and work from a lens of achieving body neutrality with use of modalities such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindful Self-Compassion and Somatic-based modalities. We dive deeper into the purpose or intentions behind body image disturbances and how these take people away from their intended values.