The quote below was posted on Facebook today (11.1.11) by Marc David, the founder and director of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating…
“A postulation on Body Image: the only way to truly heal a negative body image is to ‘embody’ - meaning to land in our body right now, as it is - move it, breathe it, celebrate it, explore with it, get curious about it. Thinking we will love our body at some future time when it reaches perfection is a dead end strategy. The question is - what does embodiment mean to you?”
The subject fits very neatly in with my current PhD research topic where I’m researching the impact on the counsellor’s embodied subjectivity of working with clients presenting with issues related to disordered eating. This client group tends to have a poor body image and a negative or very fragile connection to their own body and I’m wondering if the empathic connection counsellors make with their clients has any effect on the counsellor’s own sense of themselves within their body.
Our bodies are how we visually present ourselves to the world. Our bodies are the vessel in which, and from which, we experience ourselves and our world. As babies, we were at one, we were fully connected with, and to, our bodies … babies respond automatically to their body’s needs and signals. But as we grow older, we are taught, and we introject, messages from people around us that cause us to disconnect, to varying degrees, from our bodies and its instinctive yearnings and needs. This, in many people, leads to a sense of shame; of their bodies … but also of themselves … for our bodies are our Selves.
And it’s this intrinsic connection between our bodies and our sense of Self that I’m interested in researching further…
I find I can get a real sense of your thoughts around how we attempt to feel and come to terms with our bodies. I say attempt because I as a person reflect daily upon how I feel in reaction to my appearance and the size and shape of my body. Following several days of exercise I have a sense of satisfaction about myself. After to big a meal the sense of self is more critical and so on.
ReplyDeleteHowever more specifically I can offer something to your reference around how as a therapist we extend an empathic connection and the effect it has upon my own sense of self. I've recently finished working with a client here in the Philippines. He was from the 'West' not a Filipino and presented with various issues including significant depression and a very low perspective of his physical body. His low sense of self had the impact of drawing my attention to myself during my reflections following sessions. I was able to convey this to him in subsequent sessions with him when he breached the issue of his body and how others saw it. This resulted in him expressing satisfaction towards my genuineness and enabled me to be congruent within the session. He was able to feel a sense of shared understanding and briefly but intensely we stood in the same place. For him in spite of the reassurance of others around him he feels a huge bodily dissatisfaction. What was striking for him which he took away from a later session was a discussion he initiated around the differing perceptions cultures have of bodily weight. More specifically he is aware that he is viewed favourably in Africa because of his size, which is considered 'over weight' in Europe, for there having a large body size is a sign of prosperity. His having spent time there, he expressed, was positive in terms of how he viewed himself. He actually felt proud of his size whilst there.
Sharon returning to your point around the impact of empathic connection upon the therapist. For me this is always apparent irrespective of the subject matter. By this I mean the sense of self is what I bring to the session and my body forms part of that sense of who I am. Furthermore to concrete my point bi polar is a part of my life and as a consequence depression when explored by a client in session draws my sense of self to my body and the scars it bears as a consequence of my past struggles coping with it.
I have experienced negative feelings around being/feeling 'over weight' and as a consequence I was disclosing with the client to enable a true conveyance of acceptance of his negative and poor self perception.
I take great care in when to self disclose so as not to contaminate the session with my own experiences but at times this is impossible if the moment warrants true empathic connection.
I enjoy reading your blog.
Thanks for sharing that Tony, and for your honesty. It's true ... if we're going to be there fully for our clients, we have to connect at that deep body level. Too often though in Western culture, we're working within a dualistic mind-body split ... so many people objectify their bodies and aren't able to connect from that holistic level. And yes, the research I'm doing could equally equate to the therapeutic experience in general, & that is maybe one of the future strengths of the research I'm carrying it ... I'm just focusing on eating disorders because that's where my special interest lies.
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