Healing Body Image from the Inside Out
Sydney Holofcener
Eating Disorder Director
Body image isn’t really about your body. It’s about how you feel in your body. It’s about the stories you’ve been told, the ones you’ve internalized, and the ones you’re still trying to rewrite. For many people, body image is not a surface-level concern. It’s a deeply personal experience shaped by identity, trauma, culture, and how the world has responded to you over time.
Struggling with body image doesn’t mean you’re vain or shallow. It means you’ve been human in a world that constantly sends messages about what bodies are supposed to look like, feel like, or be capable of. And when those messages have been loud for years, it can take time to learn how to relate to your body with something closer to care.
Therapy can help you do just that. Not by fixing your body, but by helping you heal your relationship with it.
Body Image is an Emotional Experience
Poor body image isn’t just about mirrors or clothing sizes. It often carries real emotional weight: shame, anxiety, disconnection, grief, fear. These feelings can affect how you show up in relationships, how you take care of yourself, and how much space you feel allowed to take up in the world.
Therapy offers a space to:
Understand how body image was shaped by early messages and experiences
Explore the emotions that surface when you feel uncomfortable in your body
Notice the impact of culture, media, and identity-based oppression
Begin to separate your worth from your appearance
Healing starts when you stop blaming your body and start listening to it.
From Body Fixing to Body Trust
Many people spend years trying to fix, change, shrink, or control their bodies before realizing that peace doesn’t come from the outside in. It comes from learning to trust your body, to care for it, and to see it as something more than an object to be managed.
Therapy can help you:
Practice self-compassion, even on hard body image days
Reconnect with hunger, fullness, rest, and movement
Interrupt body checking, comparison, or negative self-talk
Create space for neutrality, acceptance, or appreciation
You don’t have to love your body all the time to build a respectful and caring relationship with it.
Body Image Work Is Often Identity Work
How you feel about your body may be connected to your race, gender, sexuality, disability status, or lived experience. It may be tied to trauma, chronic illness, or experiences of being judged or excluded. This is why body image work must be approached with nuance, compassion, and a deep respect for the whole person.
You are not the problem. The systems that taught you your body was a problem are.
Healing body image from the inside out means getting to know your body on your own terms, and learning to relate to it with care instead of criticism.
We Are Here For You
At Nashville Therapy Group, our team of clinicians is here to help you work through what’s hard and move toward meaningful change. Connect with us today to get started. We’d be honored to help you heal.
