Stop the name calling!

“Disgusting.”

“Lazy”

“Weak-willed”

“No self respect”

“Desperate”

“Lonely”

“Pathetic”

These are things I have heard my clients say when I have asked them to verbalize the oppressive comments about fat and people with fat bodies.

It might seem counterintuitive to bring judgmental, false, and cruel comments into our safe therapeutic space. 

I believe it’s the only way of opening up the shame space inside of us, in order to let the air out of it.

Like any oppression, we internalize the hateful messages, which live in our bodies like a recording.

There’s nothing alive in them; they get played automatically as soon as we see a fat person, including ourselves. 

Shame builds up, and pressurizes our system. To let the shame escape, it must be voiced, given space to be seen, and have the lights turned on. Shame can only exist in the dark space of secrecy. 

As a therapist my job is not to believe the content of these recordings but to make it safe for the client to say them out loud, and possibly laugh, cry, shake or storm about them.

Usually it starts with laughter, since laughter is a release of light fears.

When we emote like that we are actually moving these recordings out of our body-mind and can therefore make space for true acceptance of others and ourselves, rather than having to fight these recordings and operate on top of them.  

Don’t be afraid to say out loud the dark or painful things you hear about fat bodies. They may sound ridiculous and untrue once you actually look at them head-on.

If you would like a safe space to be able to do this I offer Somatic Therapy sessions. You can book a free 20-minute consult with me by clicking the HERE.