Body Image Issues

Do you find yourself spending hours in front of the mirror? Have you ever felt that wave of anxiety when your go-to pair of jeans fits a little different than they did yesterday? Your body image is not a superficial problem. Your body is your home, a place in which you deserve to feel safe, peaceful, and connected. When you're at war with your body, its exhausting, frustrating, and maybe even intolerable. It's time for you and your body to get on the same page. Let's talk about it.

A major area of my dissertation research, and an area of passion of mine, clinically and personally!

We live in a fatphobic society, and diet culture only makes it worse. It's hard to feel good about yourself when we receive messages to NOT be happy with ourselves, to always be striving for more. If you struggle with feeling comfortable in your own skin, I can help you build body tolerance. It's OK if you're not feeling positive about your body! I've treated restrictive eating patterns, binge-eating, and symptoms of Bulimia in my practice. Let's get you to a place of acceptance.

I am a Health at Every Size (HAES) practitioner and a fierce advocate for body acceptance and liberation. I believe all bodies are good bodies, regardless of size, shape, or ability.

We will deconstruct myths and perceptions about bodies and work toward removing value, stigma, and judgment from your relationship with your body. Accepting and working with the body you have today. Your relationship to food and your body are powerful entry points into exploring more about yourself and what you truly want out of life.

Unlearn diet culture and heal from weight stigma and fat phobia to create a secure relationship with your body -- one where you can trust your body's cues, meet your needs, and find moments of joy & pleasure in the body you have right now. I work from a Health at Every Size® foundation and know that your body is not a problem. Even if this feels daunting now, I can help.

You were not put on this planet to diet. Or obsess about your weight, or to lose weight, or hate yourself because you don’t look like a photoshopped model, or to loath yourself. You have such a larger contribution to make in this world. I see you, I know you, because I am just like you. Inner Life is a safe place to explore different ways to think and feel about your body. There is way more to your life then what your body looks like. Let's reveal more of of it!

You are tired of hating your body and the rollercoaster of dieting and weight loss. There is a different way. Let’s work together to heal your relationship with your body and food and start your journey toward radical self-love and acceptance. I practice therapy from a Health at Every Size (HAES), intuitive eating, and anti-diet approach.

Rita is trained in Intuitive Eating and is a Health at Every Size aligned clinician. She uses intuitive eating principles to help Clients heal their relationships with food and their bodies. Rita believes that health looks different for everyone and comes in all shapes and sizes.

Maybe you feel like you don't have a good idea of how you even appear, your appearance seemingly shifting from one moment to the next, a string that controls how good or bad your day will be. Maybe you feel caught in a cycle of the next diet or next skincare product, just waiting for the thing that will make you feel like you can inhabit your own skin. I'm here to offer a different way, and love helping people find an easier relationship to themselves and their bodies.

I'm aligned with Health at Every Size! Diet culture, fatphobia, and other forms of ableism are pervasive, widely accepted, and, ultimately, stem from larger systems of oppression. It's high time we look deeper into these systems and choose the values that truly promote health and peace! You're guaranteed to be in a relationship with your body for your whole life. It's worth making that relationship a kind and honoring one.

If you struggle with feelings of anxiety and self-judgment regarding your physical body's appearance or abilities, and feel overwhelmed and hopeless because of these painful feelings there are things we can work on together to help you find a more peaceful, kind, and functional way to relate to your body and food. I have worked in residential, partial hospitalization, and outpatient levels of care to treat eating disorders and body image concerns, and I want to share that experience to help you.

Healthy Body Image is not popping out of bed to wink at yourself in the mirror with a narcissistic grin. Just like feelings about anything else, how we feel about our size/shape/body parts fluctuates, for better or for worse, due to lots of factors. But how able are you to ACCEPT yourself physically right now? Your body IS what it is right now- whether that's optimal in your opinion or not. It is much easier to change, grow, and improve, when we can accept what currently exists.

Constantly criticizing our looks and having persistent low self-esteem in our appearance seems to be a norm in our culture. Finding freedom from our own negative beliefs can be the biggest act of kindness you give yourself.

I believe in health at every size. I am trained in Intuitive Eating and love to help individuals get to a place where they can appreciate and value their bodies, while also increasing health, no matter what the body presents like.

I am passionate about helping clients navigate their relationships with food and their bodies. I understand the complex interplay between cultural expectations, beauty standards, and personal identity. Together, we will work on decolonizing beauty standards, challenging harmful narratives, and fostering a positive body image.

We receive so many messages from the world about all aspects of our bodies that are filtered through the lenses of racism, ableism, sizism, hetero and cisnormativity. These understandably have an impact on how we ourselves see and value our own bodies. I support clients in recognizing and deconstructing these internalized harmful messages to clear the way for a more authentic and caring relationship with ourselves.

I am completing my certification in the Be Nourished program- one of the only training programs on disordered eating that centers anti-opppression curriculum! And I have been working in fat liberation spaces for the last 10 + years.

Diet culture is a system of belief that equates thinness to moral value, sees weight loss as a status gain, and oppresses people for not fitting their definition of “healthy”. It has been found to contribute to disordered eating behavior, fatphobia, and weight stigma. Many therapists reinforce these systems of oppression and stigma and can cause harm to their clients. These effects are often magnified for fat or larger-bodied clients. I believe in HAES, weight-neutrality, & body liberation.

Imagine spending your life with the people and things you love, without worrying about what you ate or how long you worked out today. Imagine feeling fulfilled, like you deserve to be happy: that you're good enough just as you are. Through therapy, you can feel at ease in your body, make peace with food, and live a life that reflects your true values.