My goal is to create a warm, welcoming environment where you feel comfortable to share your concerns. Body-image concerns and body-dysmorphia can be distressing and you're not alone. Your needs are important to me and in therapy, we can explore those concerns, better understand the influences that have played a role in your experiences, and work to take your power back from distressing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors using strategies that genuinely resonate with you.
Our therapist help clients explore their body image issues by identifying their negative thought patterns and challenging their maladaptive thoughts with the use of art therapy interventions and CBT.
Body Image issues often go hand-in-hand with eating disorders and obesity and weight issues. People can judge their body harshly or have a negative relationship with it. Body image issues are often one of the latter topics that get discussed in therapy, because they are often so personal, and in some cases they may even be unknown to the client. There are a significant number of ways to address body image issues, but one that always is effective somewhat is to say to clients "Your body doesn't have a mouth. If it did, what would it say, and how would it say it?" Putting these words to one's body is a great and refreshing start to dealing with these important issues.
Dr. Burgess has experience providing therapy for body image concerns. She has extensive experience providing evidence-based treatment for body image concerns using therapy modalities such as cognitive-behavioural therapy, mindfulness and self-compassion approaches, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).
So many messages tell us how our bodies and faces should look to be accepted, valued, validated, and fit in. In fact our bodies and faces are beautiful and work so hard to help us function and experience the world. Together we will discover the messages received that have lead to feeling disconnected from your true self, and reclaim it and honour it.
Our team includes several therapists who specialize in body image issues. In individual therapy, we will help you deal with difficult, painful, and/or vulnerable emotions and issues, and skillfully work with you to transform them in lasting ways.
Are you struggling with your self-image? Our clinicians will work with you by applying modalities such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Emotion Focused Therapy to understand and challenge these beliefs about yourself.
Often body image concerns are an expression of an underlying issue. Issues such as low self-worth, self-doubt and feelings of not being good enough. We help you to understand where these symptoms may have come from and support you for with strategies to build confidence in yourself again.
Therapy is often an effective way to address body image concerns. In therapy, a person may explore all the factors that have contributed to a current mode of relating to self. We can work together to develop awareness of how much of our self-perception can come from negative comments by others as well as explore the impacts of societal and systemic expectations and pressures. I would like to help you identify the roots of low self-esteem and begin a healing process that focuses on building greater self-compassion and self-acceptance.
How you perceive and feel about yourself is a key indicator of how happy and emotionally stable you are. You may be feeling insecure, critical, helpless, incompetent or unlovable. I work with clients to explore the root of these beliefs and challenge them. This allows my clients to unlearn thoughts and beliefs that are harmful and limiting while learning to genuinely love and appreciate themselves and the value that they bring to the world. I would love to hear from you to determine if I can help you re-imagine how you see yourself. Reach out to book a free consultation.