Building Your Body Image Bookshelf
Spring Psychotherapy & Wellness has been built by a book-loving team, so we’d like to introduce ourselves and our lens through the content and messaging of these books. The works mentioned here are anti-diet in nature and have a strong focus on loving ourselves and accepting our bodies. While Eating Disorder Recovery is a primary focus for us, we believe every human being can benefit from the messages here. Whether or not you or your child has been diagnosed with an eating disorder, most of us have struggled with our body image at some point in our lives. Perhaps that would’ve been different if we’d grown up hearing voices like this.
Reading these books will help to center and support the fat community by normalizing all bodies. This helps reduce systemic issues like the stigma around gaining weight or simply existing in a larger body. When we can acknowledge that all bodies are worthy of compassion, care, and representation, we empower people of all body types to experience more acceptance and respect in our society.
“Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach” (4th Edition)
While many Intuitive Eating books are out now, we believe it’s helpful to learn the approach from the ground up. This book teaches you the 10 basic principles of Intuitive Eating. It starts by exposing you to the science behind Intuitive Eating. Bet you didn’t know that it’s a research-backed method! Each chapter walks you through exercises to help uncover behaviors or thoughts that might be contributing to some of the struggles you have around food.
There are several assessment tools in the book to help you understand how to implant the Intuitive Eating principles into your life. If you are curious about Intuitive Eating, we recommend learning it from the women who designed it. There are some things we don’t love about this book, mainly that the people's stories are tied up in a nice little bow and that isn’t often how it works in real life, but we let our clients know what to expect. The fourth edition has fewer stories than previous editions, which was a positive update.
“The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love”
This is an essential read for anyone on a body image journey. The author, Sonya Renee Taylor, takes us through her personal journey while teaching us how inequality and injustice are at the root of many body image struggles. Early in this book there is a powerful statement about how we were not born to hate our bodies. It walks us through the ways we were taught to dislike our bodies and provides exercises for us to discover when that began happening for the individual reader.
Sanya Renee Taylor does a wonderful job teaching about influences and hierarchies that have led us to dislike our bodies or fat bodies in general. Throughout the book there are “unapologetic Inquiries” which are questions to reflect upon and can be used as journal prompts. This book has many uses and brings an important perspective to learning about your body, the way society teaches us to view bodies and how to approach yourself with self-love.
“Bodies are Cool”
As parents of young kids, this is one of our favorite books to read with our families. We want our children to grow up with better body image than we had, so we start by working on our own body image. Reading children's books allows us to examine ourselves as well. The art in this book is beautiful. Whether you are a child or not, exposing yourself to different bodies helps instill the message that all bodies are good bodies.
We often sing the words to this book as it lends itself to being read that way. Often our kids chime in with “bodies are cool”, and the imagery in this book is so detailed that it opens up conversations about different bodies. Our kids frequently have questions about some of the people they see, and this book allows parents to educate them about things that they might not yet know about; this includes wheelchairs, Hijabs, or freckles. I find reading this book can lead to a lot of constructive, open dialogue.
“Love Your Body”
This book by Jessica Sanders is a great resource for a tween or early teenager (think onset of puberty!). The overarching message of this book is that "all bodies are different... and all bodies are good bodies," addressing the multiple ways our bodies are powerful and special. What's unique about this book is the number of resources it provides the reader. From hotlines and websites, to exercises the reader can practice alone or with others, this text gives us options for changing the way we think and feel about our bodies.
For example, Sanders suggests that the reader write "a list of all the great things that your body helps you to do," and provides example responses like "I love that my ears can hear music and that my body can dance to the sound." This book could be a great fit for a young person who wants to be proactive in challenging the ways they think and feel. As a major bonus, Carol Rossetti's illustrations offer visuals of bodies of all types: diverse in shape, size, race and ethnicity, dis/ability status, and more.
“A Kids Book About Body Image”
This is a great tool for parents to use when starting conversations with their kids about body image. Author Rebecca Alexander uses a refreshingly direct tone to talk with the child reader, sharing with them just how hard it can be to move through the world in our bodies. She says, for example, "When people see me on the street, the first thing they notice about me is how fat I am... And sometimes when I notice them noticing how fat I am, I wish I could disappear." She doesn't sugarcoat it.
She acknowledges the real challenges folks experience with regards to their body image, but somehow simultaneously gives voice to just how awesome our bodies are. She tells our child reader: "Your body is amazing! It is so good at stuff... And this very special body of yours, it can tell you what it needs... Listen to it." This is a book that provides kids the space to think more openly about their relationships with their bodies, and gives parents an easy entryway into starting those conversations.”
Below is a list of the 10 core principles of Intuitive Eating with commentary from Molly Grimes & Stephanie Roth-Goldberg, co-founders of Spring Psychotherapy & Wellness. These ideas guide the way we practice therapy.
Reject a diet mentality (avoiding trends and fads)
Honor hunger cues (by eating regularly)
Make peace with food (stop labeling. Let go of ideas like “too many calories”, “junk food”, etc)
Challenge food rules (food is not good or bad)
Find satisfaction (eat satisfying foods)
Listen to your body to determine if it’s full (aim for overall satisfaction, not just physical fullness)
Be kind to your emotions (with and without the use of food)
Respect your body (positivity might be a goal, but neutral thoughts about your body are great)
Practice movement and exercise (Move in ways you enjoy, so you’ll want to do it often as a celebration of what your body can do)
Consider health and nutrition (science exists and it’s okay to consider recent research about food and eating, as long as it doesn’t cause disordered behaviors)