Body Image — The Body We Live In and the Body We See

Body image is the internal picture a person holds of their own body — not the body itself, but the mental and emotional representation of it. What it looks like. What it means. Whether it is acceptable. Whether it belongs to the person who inhabits it.

This internal picture can be profoundly disconnected from the body others see.

How body image forms

Body image is shaped by experience — what was said and not said about the body in childhood, how it was treated, what the culture communicated about which bodies were acceptable and which were not. A single comment, carelessly made, can install itself and remain for decades. A pattern of criticism, sustained over years, can restructure a person’s relationship to their own physical presence entirely.

“Many of my clients have been at war with their bodies for so long that they cannot remember a time when they were not. The body became the enemy somewhere in childhood, and it has remained the enemy since. The work is to find out when that happened — and what it meant at the time.” — Philippe Jacquet

Body image and eating disorders

Distorted body image is a central feature of eating disorders — not a side effect but a core component of the disorder. The person restricting food is not responding to the body as it actually is. They are responding to the body as they believe it to be, or fear it might become.

The body in therapy

Working with body image in therapy involves attending to the beliefs, not just the behaviours. What does the person believe the body means? What would it mean to inhabit it differently? These are not questions that can be answered quickly. But they are the questions that matter.

Book a consultation with Philippe Jacquet — eating disorder specialist and psychotherapist, London.