Body Mapping
Just like the world around us, filled with trees and cars and volcanic eruptions and Olympic decathalons, our bodies are rich with diverse experiences that leave indelible imprints on our skin and soul. That's why it makes sense that therapists have used "body mapping" as a tool with patients suffering from chronic illnesses and, as I learned at the Menninger Clinic's 2008 Eating Disorders Conference in Houston, with men and women struggling with eating disorders.
I've done a very elementary body map of myself before, which only took my physical shape into account (as opposed to emotions, experiences, etc.) On a giant piece of paper, I was told to draw an outline of what I believed to be my figure. Head, arms, breasts, hips, legs, the whole thing. Then, I laid over the image and someone traced the real outline around me. Of course, my imagined body was much, much different than my actual. (See an example here.)
It was very useful in that it puts your distortion right there in front of you. According to the Rader Eating Disorder Programs website, one study found that women overestimate the size of their hips by 16% and their waists by 25% - yet the same women were able to correctly estimate the width of a box. Body distortion is rampant. We are smart, just deluded when it comes to our physiques.
After returning from my talk in Houston, I received an email from a woman in recovery named Amelia who had heard me speak. Amelia spent six months at the Menninger Clinic in 2005, where she made a body map with the help of a therapist.
"It still lives with me because it was so pivotal in my treatment," she wrote. "I knew going into this tracing that I would come out smaller than what I drew; that that was 'the trick' of it. I wasn't surprised, per se. But to really decide to work with the body map as a tool to get better, and have people who would run with that made the difference. To really decide that I would put as much on paper as I could, take things that were significant in the ED [in my case, pictures where my weight was significant to me] and associate them to the two different images, challenge the places where my perception did not reflect truth. To get up in front of that damn mirror as many times as it took. To let [clinic staff] take a picture on a bad body-image day, and see that it looked no different from the pic of me having a good body-image day. To be aware that body image was one of the hardest things to change, or at least one of the longer processes in recovery, and to be diligent about pursuing that change instead of just waiting for it to happen. To talk about body image and the map over and over and over, until that blue line lost its power."
I say more power to Amelia for taking back the power from that blue line. If any of you out there are struggling, perhaps this is an exercise you could try with your therapist. To find a good therapist, visit ANAD.
And check out Amelia's map, below. Thanks for sharing, A!
I've done a very elementary body map of myself before, which only took my physical shape into account (as opposed to emotions, experiences, etc.) On a giant piece of paper, I was told to draw an outline of what I believed to be my figure. Head, arms, breasts, hips, legs, the whole thing. Then, I laid over the image and someone traced the real outline around me. Of course, my imagined body was much, much different than my actual. (See an example here.)
It was very useful in that it puts your distortion right there in front of you. According to the Rader Eating Disorder Programs website, one study found that women overestimate the size of their hips by 16% and their waists by 25% - yet the same women were able to correctly estimate the width of a box. Body distortion is rampant. We are smart, just deluded when it comes to our physiques.
After returning from my talk in Houston, I received an email from a woman in recovery named Amelia who had heard me speak. Amelia spent six months at the Menninger Clinic in 2005, where she made a body map with the help of a therapist.
"It still lives with me because it was so pivotal in my treatment," she wrote. "I knew going into this tracing that I would come out smaller than what I drew; that that was 'the trick' of it. I wasn't surprised, per se. But to really decide to work with the body map as a tool to get better, and have people who would run with that made the difference. To really decide that I would put as much on paper as I could, take things that were significant in the ED [in my case, pictures where my weight was significant to me] and associate them to the two different images, challenge the places where my perception did not reflect truth. To get up in front of that damn mirror as many times as it took. To let [clinic staff] take a picture on a bad body-image day, and see that it looked no different from the pic of me having a good body-image day. To be aware that body image was one of the hardest things to change, or at least one of the longer processes in recovery, and to be diligent about pursuing that change instead of just waiting for it to happen. To talk about body image and the map over and over and over, until that blue line lost its power."
I say more power to Amelia for taking back the power from that blue line. If any of you out there are struggling, perhaps this is an exercise you could try with your therapist. To find a good therapist, visit ANAD.
And check out Amelia's map, below. Thanks for sharing, A!
