Body Image & Self-Compassion

My mother is 89 and has dementia. For much of her life, she cared about her appearance. Her hair mattered. The way she presented herself mattered. Like many women of her generation, grooming was part of how she moved through the world. Now, some of those things have faded from her awareness. She...

I've been thinking about a conversation I had recently with a client. The person I was speaking with has spent years thinking critically about the world. They understand how systems of oppression work. They've unpacked gender norms, challenged the rules around how women and femmes are supposed to look...

Somewhere along the way, most of us absorbed a picture of our best self. It isn't always fully formed or consciously held, but it's there. A little lighter, probably. More in control around food. Less preoccupied. Someone who has it sorted in ways you don't quite yet. And almost everything, every...

Moving into a new place is odd. You know it's home now, but it doesn't feel like it yet. You wake in the night needing the bathroom and walk straight into the wall, because your body still thinks it's in the old house. You lie there for a moment not quite knowing where you are. You reach for the lamp...

I want to ask you something, and I'd like you to really sit with it before you answer. When you imagine yourself thinner - what do you see? Not just the body. The life. Where are you? What are you wearing? How do you feel walking into a room? What are you doing that you're not doing now? Most women,...

There is a river in Scotland I should have swum in. I can picture it perfectly. Our daughters were seven and ten. We had stopped along a road - no one around for miles - beside a river that was black and clear and cold and utterly beautiful. My husband and our girls stripped off without hesitation...