The Perfect Storm of Diet Culture, Weight Stigma and Psychological Distress


Body dissatisfaction in normative in our culture. The idealization of thinness and pressures to lose weight, combined with weight stigma, ensure that clients believe losing weight will make them happier, healthier, and more successful. At the same time, the focus on weight loss in diet culture means that clients often translate emotional issues into the language of body shame. In this workshop we’ll explore how diet culture creates a ripe arena for the body to get burdened by core psychological conflicts. We’ll consider how working must look at multiple sources of body dissatisfaction including weight stigma, internalized weight stigma, and unburdening the body from emotional issues so that clients can feel more at home in their bodies.