Better Body Esteem is an esteem-building program for people with eating disorders. It incorporates yoga, as well as classes about body image, meditation and mind-body connection. I’m also available to give presentations on this topic in the community, and in businesses and educational settings.
Yoga is really at the core of the program. We’ve found that yoga brings back such a kind, gentle and accepting perspective and connection with the body, that it has become one of our favorite tools to use and talk about.
Through the White Picket Fence Foundation, we have yoga therapy groups and a yoga class that are ongoing, along with a free meditation class. We also do individual yoga therapy and yoga sessions, and we’re adding to this program all of time.
Anyone who participates must be medically approved, but we’re able to make many adjustments for people’s individual physical needs, such as doing yoga from a chair instead of down on the floor.
Whether you need to gain weight or lose weight to be the healthiest version of you, any change in body size can be a difficult adjustment – even just a few pounds. For people who’ve undergone surgery and had a rapid change in body size, there can be an even bigger disconnect. Aging is another change that can affect ones’ connection to the body.
Re-establishing the mind-body connection is critically important for recovery from eating disorders, and yoga is a tremendously effective way to do that. That’s why we’ve made it a central part of the Better Body Esteem™ program.