Body Image Therapy
Hi, my name is Amalia Miralrío, and I’m a body image therapist in Detroit, Michigan.
You may be feeling disgusted with your body, ashamed of your body, and completely tired of thinking about weight and food. I understand, and I’m here to help.
I help people make peace with their bodies using a fat-positive, HAES-informed approach.
If you’re ready to start feeling better, schedule a complimentary consultation with me today.
My approach to Body Image Therapy
As a body image therapist, I know how all-consuming thoughts about how you look can be. I understand that most people want to feel body positivity, but it might be out of reach. Many of my clients intellectually and politically align with body positivity or body neutrality, but still struggle with their own relationship to food, body shape, and weight.
To learn about Health at Every Size, body neutrality, anti-diet culture, and fat positivity are all wonderful first steps. You might have a beautifully curated Instagram feed of body diversity. You might be the first person friends reach out to when they’re feeling badly about themselves because they know you’ll have a kind way of reframing their thoughts for them.
Or maybe you’re brand new to the idea of leaving diets behind and are not sure where to start. Maybe you only know that you are exhausted and fed up with trying so hard to change your body. You see buzzwords about body positivity, but aren’t sure where to begin in making sense of these big concepts in your own life.
Whether you’ve listened to every imaginable podcast out there or are newly curious about leaving diet culture behind, therapy for body image issues can help you make peace with your body. My approach to body image counseling is to hold onto all of my knowledge without pushing it onto you. Rather, we gradually talk through your relationship to your body and explore where your feelings come from.
Diet culture is a large concept, and the specific importance it has had in your life matters. This is the piece that self-help resources can’t possibly attune to. Together, we move through and beyond the intellectual understanding of these ideas into how you’ve emotionally experienced the world in your body.
It’s important to me that we consider all parts of your experience in your body. I expect that your experiences related to gender, sexuality, race, size, disability, and class all connect to how you feel in your body. I expect that any experiences of body violation or sexual trauma also impact body image. Therapy for body image is not as simple as reframing negative thoughts about your body. Being a body image therapist means being okay with the messy, confusing parts of body image that cannot simply be reframed.
How Counseling for Body Image Works
The first step is to schedule a free consultation where we can meet via video and talk about what’s bringing you into therapy at this point in your life.
During our first three sessions, I’ll ask you to share as much as you can about your life. We can begin wherever you like, and I’ll ask follow up questions.
After we’ve met a few times, I’ll be able to share some initial themes I’m hearing and make a recommendation of what I think could best help you.
We will pick consistent times to meet and I will continue supporting your journey, encouraging honest processing, and highlighting themes I’m hearing.
Body Image Counseling FAQs
+ Can you still help me if I do want to lose weight?
Of course you still want to lose weight. I expect my clients to feel this way when we begin working together because our culture (U.S. Culture) places such an emphasis on weight loss. Therapy for body image is not about trying to convince you to feel differently, but more about beginning where you are and working at your pace. My commitment to you as a body image therapist is that I won’t encourage weight loss, but I welcome all honest reactions. The more we can be real about how you’re currently feeling, the more accurately we can work together to explore what that means for you. There is no one correct timeline for this work, and we will work at your pace. For most people, that includes periods of wishing to be able to lose weight. We treat these thoughts with curiosity and compassion, not shame and blame for not loving yourself enough.
+ How do I know if I have an eating disorder?
I don’t expect you to self-diagnose, and disordered eating behaviors are normalized in diet culture. Our first few sessions are part of the assessment process, and I will share my clinical assessment with you. If you have an eating disorder that can be safely treated within my care, we will talk together about what that may require of each of us. For example, you might need to meet more frequently or work with additional medical professionals as part of a treatment team. If you have already received an eating disorder diagnosis, we can talk about where you are in your recovery process during our consultation process. If you need more intensive treatment than I can provide, I will work with you to find the appropriate care. Even if you do not meet the diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder, working with other medical professionals like a registered dietician can greatly improve your treatment outcomes.
+ How is therapy for body image issues different from working with a HAES-informed dietician?
I love to coordinate care with registered dietitians and am happy to provide referrals to people I trust. There’s certainly overlap between the coaching or counseling a dietician can provide and the work of a body image therapist. It’s wonderful to work with both a therapist and a registered dietician. In therapy, we go more in depth about your personal history and emotional experience of your body. We explore trauma history, family messages, and how your relationship with your sexuality, food, family, and culture impact your feelings about your body. I am unable to give nutritional advice, and a good dietitian can help you work towards a peaceful, intuitive approach to eating. It’s incredible to witness the positive impact that fueling your body has on the therapeutic process. It’s tough to do emotional labor on an under-fueled system.
+ What if I am in a large body or identify as fat?
One of the biggest issues with body positivity is that it’s often perceived as something that is only for young, thin, white women. I do not have the lived experience of living in a larger body and recognize my own privilege as a thin, light-skinned woman. However, when I talk about body image counseling, I am explicitly offering fat-positive services.
Get help from a body image therapist.
I’m here to support your journey of making peace with your body without ever saying that you should just love yourself.
Schedule a complimentary consultation today.