Broken Mirrors

After interviewing 3,200 women in 10 countries, a 2004 study found that only 2% considered themselves beautiful, and nearly 50% believed they were too fat.

There's an obvious link between how you see yourself and how you feel about yourself, but your body image can actually have a powerful effect on your health, too. Eating disorders, for example, can be complex issues with many causes and many symptoms, but one constant between them is body image. In a recent German study of 56 people with eating disorders, each anorexic and bulimic overestimated their actual body mass.

While there is uncertainty as to what exactly precipitates the development of a distorted body image, it is clearly related to insecurity and self-worth. Our view of ourselves comes primarily from the outside world, including media, role models, peers, and family. In my private practice with clients, I've found that body image gets distorted over time through a process of frequent comparisons to others.

My method for treating eating disorders and body image distortion uses NLP and hypnosis to neutralize the representations created through harmful comparisons. The seven steps below use basic principles to normalize the body image and create positive feelings about self.

1. Elicit the current self-image (size, shape, location of image)
   
2. Regress to cause of the image distortion (use hypnosis or time lines)
   
3. Elicit and anchor resource states of safety, acceptance, love, and "good enough"
4. Link resource states to imprint memory & give supportive suggestions
   
5. Progress into the future and conduct an "As-If" frame (how did you overcome this issue?)
6. In the present time, holding an accurate picture of the client, begin to code the old self-representation to match
7. Fire off resource anchors again as they view the accurate self-representation
   

After completing these processes over a period of time, additional clean-up may be necessary. Be sure to address behaviors, such as binging and food choices, utilizing anchoring and hypnosis. You may also consider creating a new identity that involves healthy eating and emotions.