When we think about winter in Utah, I think there is some mutual understanding that people’s moods can drop. The sun isn’t out, we are vitamin D deficient, the snow is difficult to drive in, and so on. We get each other for not liking Winter and for feeling a little more depressed. What may be a surprise to some is that my clients feel an onset of a new kind of emotional upheaval in the Spring and Summer. Depression and anxiety increase along with the temperatures.
Warm weather in Utah can lead to more body images issues
My clients have to wear fewer layers in the warmer months, and they hate it. Warmer months mean no layers to hide behind. It means shorts, tank tops, short sleeves, and worst of all, swimming suits. It also means seeing other people’s bodies in these types of clothes, which makes the comparison. Comparison, as we know, is a black hole where nobody wins. It’s a rough time for my lovely people.
The goal may not be to love your body but to feel neutral about it
My approach to body image in working with clients is often to refer them to resources in order to manage it better and focus more on getting to a place of body neutrality. However, I don’t like to spend sessions focusing on your thoughts about your body, but I like to go straight to the heart and go a little deeper It’s not just about you not having a thigh gap or hating your waist size. It’s that desire to hide and how you feel unacceptable to others. I think that goes a bit deeper than the number on your jeans, and we won’t get very far if we focus all of our attention on this.
The beliefs about your body are the problem, not your body
It’s the emotions and attitudes attached to how you feel about your body. It’s about those earlier experiences where you got the message that you needed to hide or change your body or else you aren’t acceptable. Somehow those have shaped your life, and now you have a rule that you can never wear shorts (insert another item of clothing), and that’s not fair. That’s what I’m here for. Not to battle you over if you can wear shorts or not but to help you heal from your unhelpful beliefs about yourself.
Body image therapy can help
You don’t have to keep living this way. You don’t have to spend your life avoiding the mirror or trying to hide your body. I don’t want you to feel ashamed of your body or force it into discomfort to change it. There are many things you might feel or think that you don’t have to keep dealing with. Body image therapy can help you learn to cope better and to address the underlying issues of why you hate your body. Surprisngly it’s not just about what you look like but what you believe about yourself that might be contributing to the problem.
Start working with a body image therapist in Utah
You can feel better about your body, but more importantly, you can feel better about what’s happened to you and who you are as a person. That truly is what counts. I know that’s hard to do on your own. I would that you’ve tried to feel better about your body on your own but haven’t been able to be successful. I want you to feel more at peace and at home in your body, and therapy can help. This Provo Utah Area Counseling Clinic has a body image therapist to help. To begin therapy, follow the steps below:
Complete online forms and schedule the first session with a mental health expert
Begin getting body image help
Other mental health services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy
Body image therapy isn’t the only therapy service I provide at this Utah County Counseling Center. Other Mental Health Services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy include anxiety therapy, EMDR and Trauma therapy, binge eating disorder treatment, birth trauma therapy and eating disorder treatment.