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BODY IMAGE
Touch and Intimacy When entering a training relationship with clients, a certain level of intimacy is established. Initial discussions with new clients are vital and a trainer with an authentic “bedside manner” is critical for new exercisers or people with negative movement histories to feel comfortable. As clients reveal the areas they feel less able to support themselves - they are reaching out for help. This can be a vulnerable place for many who in other areas of their life feel “in control”, or their weight or lack of fitness may be an area of sensitivity stemming from childhood. The resulting nervousness can perpetuate body-shaming statements, which may be aimed at eliciting a response from the trainer.
Be positive As body-centred professionals, we have to be careful not to perpetuate our clients’ negativity and instead to focus on helping rather than potentially harming. It is easy to over-empathise (“Oh, yes, I have love handles too!”, minimise clients’ statements, “Don’t worry, I’ve seen it all before”), deny clients’ feelings (“No, no, you’re not fat at all”), or to make a joke out of their statements (e.g. a client remarks ashamedly, “my upper arms are fat and wobbly” to which the trainer replies, “Don’t worry, we’ll work those ‘ bingo wings’!) All of these responses come from a place of judgement and move us out of the client- centred core that is at the heart of our profession – the place of “unconditional positive regard”, a term first coined by the pioneering psychologist and humanist Carl Rogers (11).
Unconditional positive regard is a place of acceptance that we can offer our clients, regardless of how successful their training regimen is, how much weight they have lost, what their body looks like or how they feel about their body. Researchers suggest that in women, both positive and negative body-oriented comments result in increases in body “surveillance” and body dissatisfaction (8), perhaps due to the indication that others are focusing on their outward appearance.
This supports the idea that even seemingly innocuous comments may have “detrimental consequences for women’s self-objectification and body image” (8). I would suggest that our role as professionals is not to label these types
“Therapists often underestimate the power of their words and actions”
of statements often made by our clients as “wrong” but to tread with caution when we hear people make such comments. We are in a position of power with our clients and have no idea whether our unintended flippant remark may initiate a downward cycle of anxiety or negative behaviour that could result in binge eating, exercise addiction, steroid use, purging or depression.
Trainer’s own body image As a former personal trainer and manager of a wellness centre, I have heard many clients make body-shaming comments about themselves and have heard trainers inadvertently respond in ways that support the culture of negativity around the less than “perfect” body. As fitness professionals, do we perpetuate our own anxieties about our bodies through the very work we do? Are we self-critical and judgemental? Do we hold ourselves up to be role models of the perfect body? Do we feel terrible if we gain weight?
As health and fitness professionals, we have a chance to educate our clients about their bodies and may have the luxury of time or an ongoing professional relationship that other health professionals such as general practitioners do not. If we can provide more neutral or body as a “functional instrument” rather than as a “decorative ornament”-type answers, then, although our clients may not recognise it, we are offering them a new way to relate to their body.
Conclusion In summary, if we can facilitate greater harmony and respect for the body, perhaps our clients will move towards wellbeing and we can help to maintain and facilitate this path for them, not just “fix” the machine when it breaks down. Box 2 shows some body image boosting activities. This message does not always have to be communicated overtly: if we come from a place of acceptance rather than judgement, if we are conscious of our own body-shaming statements and if we try to move towards more neutral responses when our clients state them, we can offer a truly unconditional approach– a rare but important gift.
References 1. McCabe MP, Ricciardelli LA. Body image dissatisfaction among males across the lifespan: a review of past literature. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 2004;56:675–685 2. McCabe MP, Ricciardelli LA. Body image and body change techniques among young adolescent males. European Eating Disorder Review 2001;9:1–13 3. Vincent MA, McCabe MP. Gender differences among adolescents in family and peer influences on body dissatisfaction, weight loss and binge eating behaviours. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 2000;29:205–211 4. Lorenzen LA, Grieve FG, Thomas A. Exposure to muscular male models decreases body satisfaction. Sex Roles 2004;51:743–748 5. Thompson JK, Stice E. Thin-ideal internalization: mounting evidence for a new risk factor for body image disturbance and eating pathology. Current Directions in Psychological Science 2001;10:181– 183 6. Haimovitz D, Lansky LM, O’Reilly P. Fluctuations in body image across situations. International Journal of Eating Disorders 1993;13:77–84 7. Field T. Touch therapy on development. International Journal of Behavioural Development 1998;22:779–797 8. Calogero RM, Herzobo S, Thompson K. Complimentary weightism: the potential costs of appearance-related commentary for women’s self objectification. Psychology of Women Quarterly 2009;33:120–132 9. Garner D. Surver says: body image poll results. Psychology Today 1997 10. Beat. Beating eating disorders. www.b-eat.co.uk 11. Rogers CR. Client-centered therapy: its current practice, implications and theory. Constable 1951. Current Edition ISBN 0395053226
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