7 WAYS TO
SUPPORT
YOUR
CLIENTS’
GOALS
By making a few simple changes to how you work
with weight loss clients, you can ensure you aren’t
unwittingly party to the body shaming to which
they are often subjected.
WORDS: KYLIE RYAN
ody shaming has been all over the news in the past year,
from pregnant Studio 10 presenter, Sarah Harris telling
her body haters to ‘get stuffed’ to a recent study in
Psychological Science that proves weight discrimination can kill.
Body image issues are deeply embedded in our media, and our
collective psyche. How can you navigate the minefield of a client’s
relationship with their body to help them with their weight loss and
health goals without body shaming – and support them with their
mental-emotional health too?
Let’s examine what body shaming is, why it doesn’t work, and
seven ways you can help your clients without accidentally doing it.
B
What is body shaming?
Body shaming is the practice of insulting or judging a person due
to the way their body looks. While it seems obvious that no normal
person would indulge in this nasty behaviour, body shaming has
become so ingrained in our culture that it is almost invisible.
Celebrity body shaming is rife in glossy women’s magazines,
in which the tiniest ‘flaws’ in the celebrities’ bodies are zoomed in
on and analysed. It is on our TV screens in competitive weight loss
shows where participants are asked to do ridiculous amounts of
excessive exercise, and are then faced with ‘temptation games’ in
which they can gain an advantage by bingeing on cream pies. All in
the name of health.
Body shaming is hideously obvious when you see it on the street
like this: ‘Hey fattie, stop eating that ice cream and go for a run’.
But it is more insidious and harmful as the silent discrimination that
happens all around us. That bigger girl who was more qualified than
the slimmer girl being passed over for the promotion because of the
unspoken judgement that she would be lazier. The silent judging,
looks and stares of passers-by.
NETWORK AUTUMN 2016 | 43