How Body Image Therapy Can Help You Reconnect with Your Body.
Summit Counselling Blog — Body Image & Self-Compassion
Body Trust How body image therapy in Edmonton can help you reconnect with your body.
If you've spent years trying to change your body, control your eating, or silence your inner critic — healing isn't about achieving the "perfect" body. It's about building a healthier relationship with the one you have.
If you've spent years trying to change your body, control your eating, or silence your inner critic, you're not alone. Many people struggle with body dissatisfaction because of the constant messages they receive from diet culture, social media, and society's unrealistic beauty standards. At Summit Counselling Services, we believe healing isn't about achieving the "perfect" body — it's about building a healthier relationship with the body you have.
What Is Body Trust?
Body Trust is a weight-inclusive philosophy that encourages people to reconnect with their body's wisdom instead of fighting against it. Rather than focusing on changing your weight or appearance, Body Trust supports healing your relationship with your body, food, and yourself.
This approach recognizes that many people have learned to distrust their bodies because of experiences like diet culture and chronic dieting, weight stigma and body shaming, trauma or adverse life experiences, unrealistic expectations around health and appearance, and messages that your worth depends on your size.
"How can I fix my body?"
Body Trust asks instead ↓
"What happened that made it difficult to trust my body?"
This shift moves the focus away from blame and toward understanding, compassion, and healing.
Signs You May Benefit from Body Image Therapy
Many people seeking body image therapy in Edmonton don't realize how much energy they spend worrying about food or their appearance until they begin talking about it. These experiences are common — but they don't have to be permanent.
You may benefit from therapy if you
- Constantly criticize your appearance
- Feel guilty after eating
- Avoid social events because of body image concerns
- Believe your self-worth depends on your weight
- Feel anxious when your body changes
- Frequently start and stop diets
- Struggle to recognize hunger or fullness cues
- Feel disconnected from your body
What Is Weight-Inclusive Therapy?
Unlike approaches that focus primarily on weight loss, weight-inclusive therapy recognizes that health is influenced by many factors beyond body size. It creates space for healing without making weight the measure of success.
Weight-inclusive therapy emphasizes
- Respect for bodies of all sizes
- Compassion instead of shame
- Listening to your body's needs
- Flexible eating instead of rigid food rules
- Mental and emotional well-being alongside physical health
How Therapy Helps You Rebuild Body Trust
Healing your relationship with your body is rarely about learning one new skill. More often, it's about gently unlearning years of criticism, unrealistic expectations, and harmful beliefs.
Through Body Trust counselling, therapy can help you
- Understand your personal body story
- Explore the impact of diet culture on your relationship with yourself
- Challenge negative beliefs about appearance
- Build self-compassion
- Develop a healthier relationship with food and movement
- Reduce shame around your body
- Learn to trust your body's cues again
"Therapy isn't about forcing yourself to love your body every day. It's about creating a relationship built on respect, curiosity, and care."
Why Body Trust Matters
When we stop viewing our bodies as problems to solve, we create room for so much more. Healing doesn't mean your body never changes — it means your relationship with your body becomes less dependent on those changes.
Body Trust can help you
- Feel more present in your daily life
- Reduce anxiety around food and eating
- Improve self-esteem
- Increase body acceptance
- Make choices based on your values instead of fear
- Experience greater emotional well-being
You deserve a relationship with your body rooted in compassion rather than criticism. Whether you're struggling with body image, feeling exhausted by dieting, or hoping to reconnect with yourself — therapy can help. And you don't have to wait until you "feel better" about your body to begin caring for yourself.
Healing is possible — and it starts here.
Your first consultation is free and completely without pressure. Just a conversation about where you are and whether we're the right fit.
Work With a Specialist
Meet the therapist who offers this work
Cara-Joy Roeseler
Registered Provisional Psychologist
Edmonton · St. Albert · Windermere · Virtual Alberta
Cara-Joy provides compassionate, evidence-informed support for individuals experiencing body image concerns, chronic dieting, disordered eating patterns, and low self-esteem. She offers a safe, non-judgmental space where you can explore your relationship with your body and begin rebuilding trust from the inside out. Her work is weight-inclusive, trauma-informed, and grounded in genuine curiosity about your experience — not prescriptions for how you should feel or look.