‘New Year, New Body’

How Body-Focused Resolutions & New Year narratives impact the ED community & what we can do to help.

By Pippa Richardson, Therapeutic and Somatics Manager at Orri

Many of us recognise that the New Year can be a particularly vulnerable time for our clients.

Although I have come to expect a wave of ‘New Year, New You’ media and rhetoric, I am still saddened by the power and impact this narrative has, particularly on the eating disorder community each year.

The undercurrent of the ‘New Year, New You’ messaging is often, strongly connected to body-focused resolutions. It infers ‘New year, New body’ and encourages drastic transformation and diet-culture under the guise of a more acceptable, self improvement headline. Never in the year is there another moment where the collective consciousness places so much emphasis on self-mastery, achieving, goal orientated action and pressure to conform to unrealistic standards. All components of sustaining an eating disorder.

In sessions with clients we hear how this messaging can be harmful and exasperate challenges for those with pre-existing body image concerns. In a survey of young people conducted by Be Real, aged 13–19, 35% said their body image causes them to ‘often’ or ‘always’ worry. A study led by the Mental Health Foundation in partnership with YouGov found one in eight (13%) adults experienced suicidal thoughts or feelings because of concerns about their body image. It’s a worrying landscape for all.

In light of this I have been reflecting on what role can we play as clinicians to support our clients at this time of year and beyond.

As a somatic therapist, central to my work with clients is exploring their experience of being in their body (embodiment) and the complex, nuanced and unique experience of this. I often say to clients that ‘living in a body can be a difficult place to call home’. How someone relates to their body is impacted by many facets including (but not limited to) early experiences, trauma (physical and psychological), race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, media influences, parental attitudes, biological and genetic
factors and location. Part of ED recovery is exploring these factors and ultimately over time, supporting someone to develop improved body literacy, self and somatic awareness and compassion.


Some thoughts and suggestions for what we are focusing on here at Orri:

Somatic Enquiry
Pivoting the therapeutic exploration from someone’s belief system about their body and instead prompting an enquiry around how someone ‘feels’ in their body can be a powerful exercise. Part of the struggle at this time of the year is the subtle (sometime overt) encouragement to objectify the body and comparison culture. Somatic practices such as mindfulness, restorative yoga and somatic enquiry ask our clients to place their awareness ‘within’ – a counter practice to ‘looking outside’ in search of validation.

In clinic, my weekly group titled ‘My Body & Me’ is a space where we explore this in group therapy. Over the years I have found that although it can be challenging, clients grasp the understand that ‘body image’ is different to ‘embodiment’. They can recognise when their harsh inner critic objectifies their body and instead learn the skills to notice what they are ‘feeling’ and from here they are better able to meet their needs and develop healthy coping strategies instead of engaging in ED behaviour. E.g. “I am feeling sadness. What I need is a hug’.

Media Literacy
Supporting clients to mindfully navigate the media at this time of year can be a helpful and practical exercise. Teaching our clients that there is a commercial incentive behind New Year messaging (particularly our young clients) can be eye- opening and help give context to some of the ways they might be feeling. Many clients at this point in the year report feeling as though they are ‘failing’ or ‘falling behind’. Gentle challenging this and encouraging our community to reflect on their recovery and create intentions aligned with their values can support a sense of sustainable positive change.

Aligning with Nature
One of the principles I like to draw attention to is the rhythm of nature. The Northern Hemisphere is currently in winter, a time synonymous with resting and restoring. There is parallel between winter and recovery. Both invite a time of reflection, quiet and reduced energy. I have found that highlighting this with clients can sometimes bring some comfort which is a counter message to the initiatory, action orientated narrative of goal setting. Reframing this and asking clients to consider ‘Spring’ as the real new year when there has been sufficient time to rest and the body can be restored by more light and time outside can give clients reassurance if they feel at odds with the collective message of action.

Lastly I invite us as health care providers to get curious about our own language and belief systems about the new calendar year and what that represents for us.

I wish you all a wonderful year ahead and I look forward to connecting with over the coming months.

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