Therapy and Treatment in Calgary for Body Image and Weight Issues

Body Image & Weight Issues

Do you seek comfort in food when you’re experiencing difficult emotions? Do you overeat even when you aren’t hungry? Perhaps you have a strong desire to be a certain weight, along with intense fear of gaining weight. Maybe you restrict your diet or exercise excessively.

Are you obsessed with your weight or appearance and constantly comparing yourself to others? Do you judge your self-worth largely in terms of your shape, weight and eating? Does your body define who you are? Do you think life would be better if you could just lose some weight or change something about your body?

Many people struggle to accept their bodies, suffer from food and body preoccupation, weight issues, self-hatred, or eating disorders. The way we feel about our bodies is often intimately linked to how we feel about ourselves. Struggling with weight or appearance can be extremely challenging—straining personal relationships and affecting your mood and well-being. Your body can become an object of hatred, embarrassment or shame. You may be experiencing anger, guilt, frustration, or a loss of control over your eating.

Whether you suffer from a negative body-image, have been formally diagnosed with an eating disorder, experience binge eating or emotional eating, therapy can help you create positive changes. I help people of all sizes adopt healthy behavioral and lifestyle changes and learn to change their body image towards a healthy and positive view of the self. I work with individuals who struggle with their body image or their weight and those whose weight issues are related to chronic diseases (e.g. diabetes), or conditions like depression, anxiety or eating disorders.

Treatment for Body Image and Weight Issues

My treatment approach is focused on helping you develop a healthier relationship with your body and food, and eliminate harmful behaviours. You will learn to change how you think, act, and feel about eating and your body, replacing self-loathing and harsh judgment with kindness and acceptance. Treatment aims to help you:

  • listen to recognize and accept your body’s needs, including hunger and satiety cues

  • challenge conditioned critiques of your body, shape and weight

  • get out of your head and into your body

  • develop a flexible, compassionate and connected relationship with yourself and your body

  • embrace eating for well-being

  • embrace and reclaim the wisdom of your body

Are you ready to develop a more balanced, authentic, and positive view of who you are? Contact me today to learn more about how I can help you.

What are Body Image Concerns?

Body image concerns include over-evaluation of shape and weight and their control, body avoidance (e.g., avoidance of mirrors, weighing, wearing tight clothing, and being photographed), and body checking (e.g., obsessive weighing and shape checking, including pinching, touching, or measuring body parts of concern, looks at mirrors, and assessing the tightness of clothing).

If you struggle with body image concerns, you may also frequently compare yourself to unrealistic cultural body ideals or standards perpetuated on social media and the internet. Pressure to conform to these unattainable standards may result in feeling “ugly or unattractive”, thus deteriorating self-perception, resulting in feelings of shame, guilt and embarrassment, and leading to unhealthy habits like extreme weight loss, restricting food intake, calorie cutting and over-exercising.

Hilary Kinavey & Dana Sturtevant

“I am reclaiming trust in my body. My hunger, my appetites, my longings, my skin, my bones, my size are mine for the taking. I take back my voice, my agency, my worthiness, my belonging in the world of beautiful and diverse beings. I live without apology for the straight lines and curves, living tissue and vulnerable heart that hold my living, breathing manifested story.”