BODY LIBERATION
Building grit, resilience and community
Abstract
“Humans are a varied and divergent bunch with all manner of beliefs, morals, and bodies. Systems of oppression thrive off our inability to make peace with difference and injure the relationship we have with our own bodies.”
Sonya Renee Taylor’s The Body is Not an Apology
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’ve fallen in.”
Bishop Desmond Tutu
As a mental health professional, you’re well aware of the body image challenges of youth and adults. For many, appearance is the focus of body dissatisfaction. For others, body esteem may be impacted by chronic or life-limiting health conditions and related body changes.
How can we as counselors and clinicians bring a Body Liberation perspective to our work and our own lives?
In this presentation, Dr. Youngs and Dr. Johnson draw on research and applications from Liberation Psychology, the Health at Every Size movement, and the Body Positivity movement to inform liberating clinical and social justice conversations and therapeutic activities. Walking alongside our clients on their body liberation journeys can be supported, in part, through applications of the work of: Janie Victoria Ward, Sonya Renee Taylor, Christy Harrison, and Robyn Goldberg.
By learning and applying the Body Liberation framework, we can help our clients, students, and ourselves find freedom from oppressive cultural body messages while recognizing our value is not determined by societal systems. We are valuable as we are, right now, in this moment.
Dr. Youngs and Dr. Johnson provide numerous examples and resources for your own clinical and counseling practices. As we work from a Body Liberation stance, we work to not only make a difference in the lives of our clients; we seek to “go upstream,” as Desmond Tutu notes, and change the culture in which body oppression takes place.
Review full course description, learning objectives, and schedule.
Date & Time: Friday, July 21 from 9am – 11am
Facilitators:
- Angela Youngs, Psy.D. Psychological Assistant (Reg 94026258) Supervised by Vicki Chiang, Psy.D. (PSY21136)
- Melissa J. Johnson, Ph.D. Licensed Psychologist (PSY 13102)
Location: Over Zoom
Cost: Early bird cost is $105 per session, $120 after June 16
Designed for: Educators, school counselors and administrators, mental health professionals, and youth program leaders
Continuing Education units: California mental health professionals will earn 2 continuing education units through IlluminatedEducation.com.