GENDER STUDIES GROUP
March 9, 2011 12:30-1:45
EATING AND BODY IMAGE PROBLEMS:
A FEMINIST-RELATIONAL PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH
Anne Wennerstrand will discuss a treatment model for eating and body image problems that takes into account the degree to which all women are affected by and struggle with internalization of cultural gender requirements at every stage of life. We live in a culture where the pressure for bodily transformation as solution to every dilemma exists in concert with products offered for consumption towards that end (the diet industry, reality television, cosmetic surgery, commercial gyms, etc.) In working with symptoms as challenging as eating and body image disturbances, the therapist must consider the daily bombardment by a uni-dimensional visual culture and its effect on her patient, herself and the treatment. This cultural environment tends to cause women to disassociate from their own internal functioning as well as their authentic desires, needs and wants. A feminist-relational approach involves creating a treatment that is non- judgmental, non- authoritarian, non- hierarchical, supportive and respectful of bodies and minds of every size, meeting the patient at the right level of her own development. Ms. Wennerstrand will describe a self-attuned model of eating and living in one’s body and how it offers an opportunity for healing across the problematic spectrum of eating and body image.
Anne Wennerstrand, MS, MSW, LCSW-R is on the faculty of the Women’s Therapy Centre Institute in New York City. She is a psychotherapist in private practice in Manhattan and Katonah, New York. She works clinically with girls, women and families who struggle with eating and body image problems. She has written and presented widely on the topic.
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