The way I practice therapy is deeply rooted in Fat Liberation – and more broadly rooted in Body Liberation. You might be more familiar with body positivity – the idea that all people deserve a positive body image, regardless of harmful societal standards (hell yeah we do). Body liberation stretches body positivity further – body liberation strives for freedom from oppressive systems (including racism, anti-fatness, classism, ableism, patriarchy, and the like). These systems contribute to the ideas that some bodies are more worthy or desirable than others – just based on the way they look – and we feel the impacts of those ideas in our relationships with ourselves and others.

Body liberation work at an individual level looks like a lot of unpacking shame and internalized beliefs about our own bodies. Unpacking makes space for compassion and care for our bodies, ourselves, and for other people.

Alongside lived experience, I draw from the decades old Fat Liberation Movement, the Body Liberation Movement, Health at Every Size, and the works of contemporary fat scholars, researchers, advocates, and activists. These ideas and frameworks can be helpful for people of any size who are working toward a more compassionate relationship with their body and who hope for a world that is kinder to fat people.

While I have developed a nuanced understanding of fatness through lived experience and community building, my experience isn’t your experience. I hold our overlapping identities with care, allowing you to explore your own experience and values related to fatness or body image.

Sometimes loving our bodies can feel insurmountable in the face of anti-fatness and diet culture. While self-love might be the goal for some people, it isn’t always the goal. I prefer to meet people where they are. Body neutrality more achievable? Let’s work on that. Looking to
I won’t tell you how to feel about your body – rather, my job is to guide you and to gently challenge old beliefs; I hold space for grieving body changes and shifts in identity; in our work together, we carve out ways that you can have a more peaceful relationship with your body – whatever that looks like for you.

Fatness and body image are massive topics – and no two experiences are alike. In my work with clients, some common themes emerge, including :

• Coping with anti-fatness in family, community, or work structures.
• Confronting internalized anti-fatness.
• Fostering self compassion.
• Navigating the difficulties of dating while dat.
• Building self advocacy in medical contexts.
• Relationship to food, including disordered eating while fat.
• Fears of gaining or losing weight.
• History of holding yourself back until you lose weight.
• Coping with and healing from emotional or sexual violence while fat.
• Grieving body and identity changes.
• Processing compounding oppression across fatness, race, gender, class, ability, etc.
• Building self-confidence and self-esteem in the body you’re in now.

Body liberation and body image work can be difficult for people of any body type. It can be doubly difficult when you hear the world telling you that your body is something innately undesirable and in need of change. No matter your body size, I invite you to this journey toward a more compassionate relationship with your body.