Do you wish you could lose 5, 10, 20 or more pounds?
Do you feel unhappy with your looks, no matter how thin you become?
Do you use eating disorder behaviors (meal skipping, purging) as a quest for thinness?
If you answered “YES” to any of the above questions, then The Body Project can help. The Body Project workshop, which is a described as a “dissonance-based body-acceptance program is designed to help high school girls and college-age women resist cultural pressures to conform to the thin-ideal standard of female beauty and reduce their pursuit of unhealthy thinness. The Body Project is supported by more research than any other body image program and has been found to reduce onset of eating disorders.”
At Positive Pathways, two of our therapists are trained to deliver The Body Project workshop. Our therapists are available to provide this workshop at schools in the Denver area – at no charge! In addition, our therapists can provide the concepts form The Body Project on a 1-on-1 basis as part of individual therapy, to help heal eating disorders and body image issues.
Why is a workshop like The Body Project necessary?
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While the average American woman is 5’4 tall and weighs 140 pounds, the average American model is 5’11 and weighs 117 pounds.
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In 1995, before television was first introduced to Fiji there were no cases of eating disorder. Sixty-five adolescent schoolgirls were followed over three years and after the introduction of British and American television, 12.7% of the girls had developed high eating disorder after one month and 29.2% after three years. Self-induced vomiting as weigh control went form 0% in 1995 to 11.3% by 1998.
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A study found that after just three minutes spent looking at models in a fashion magazine, 70% of women reported feeing depressed, guilty and ashamed of their bodies.
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In a survey of 548 girls in 5th grade through 12th grade 59% of girls reported dissatisfaction with their body shape and 66% expressed a desire to lose weight.
The Body Project defines the thin ideal as the thin, toned, busty woman we see in the media and is careful to distinguish between the thin ideal and a healthy ideal. The goal of a thin ideal is to attain thinness that is neither realistic nor healthy at any cost. With a healthy ideal the goal is to health, fitness, longevity and feeling good about how our body both works and feels.
The Body Project is effective because it helps women to distance themselves from this unrealistic beauty standard by identifying the costs of pursuing it (money, health, time, relationships) and recognizing who ultimately benefits from women conforming to a thin ideal (diet industry, media, fashion industry, cosmetic industry).
Once women feel disconnected from the unrealistic image of beauty that is being promoted in the media and internalize that their suffering to achieve the thin ideal only puts money in the pockets of the (usually male) CEOs of fashion and cosmetic corporations, they are better able to resist and reject this unattainable beauty standard. Beauty, health and bodies come in all shapes and sizes!
“Don’t change your body to get respect from society.
Instead let’s change society to respect our bodies.”
-Golda Poretsky
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Interested to learn more about EATING DISORDERS AND BODY IMAGE? Join our 8-week group, which starts June 16th, entitled “Learning To Love Our Bodies.” Learn more: http://positivepathways.com/workshops-and-groups/
Interested in a FREE consultation? Dr. Dorie would like to get to know you and give you feedback about how EDIT™ can help you achieve the results you desire. Call 720-606-3242 or learn more: http://positivepathways.com/free-consultation/
Interested in a FREE Body Project workshop at your school? Contact the author of this blog article, Jamie Doak – an EDIT™ Counselor Intern: Jamie@PositivePathways.com
All statistics in this article come from The Body Project: http://www.bodyprojectsupport.org
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