03/05/2026
Being in this industry, I meet a lot of women who hate their body. And here is what I need her to hear.
hatred usually grows from disconnection. Dissociation is a survival response. It’s a brilliant tool the body uses to protect us under intense stress, but it was never meant to become a way of living. And yet for many women, it quietly does.
For generations women were taught, directly and indirectly, to disconnect from themselves. To tolerate discomfort. To perform. To shrink. Much of that comes from a long history where women were treated as property and dependent on others for safety and survival. Even though women have more autonomy today, the nervous system doesn’t just erase what was built into the culture before us. That history is still baked into the cake.
Part of the work I do with my clients through portrait therapy is slowly and intentionally guiding women come back home to their bodies. Session by session, over nine months, we rebuild trust, creating space to face what comes up and develop a healthier relationship with the body she lives in. We can’t do the work for her. But we hold her hand while she walks through some of the most vulnerable parts of herself and surround her with other women doing the same work. Because the real wound was never the body. And there is no diet, workout plan, photoshoot, therapist, or coach that can stop the bleeding for you.
Healing begins the moment you turn inward.
💪
That part… is an inside job.
