Body Image Coaching

Adolescents often grapple with self-identity, societal pressures, and the desire for acceptance. Negative words can deeply impact their self-esteem, potentially leading to mental health struggles. How we talk to our teens when we are coaching them is important to help them understand their own issues and where they are in their journey to a better relationship with their body.

 

Once adolescents are on the programme, we show them what stage they are at in their healing journey. This helps them understand how far they have come and what inner work needs to be done. From this, they can measure their success through a visual platform.

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STAGE ONE - THE ZOMBIE STAGE

 

On the 5th workshop, we show clients the ‘Zombie stage’ of their healing journey. This is the stage they were at before starting this programme, as they were unaware of their beliefs and habits that caused them mental health difficulties. We call this the 'zombie stage' because students have an awakening and go from the ‘zombie stage’ to stage two, the 'awareness stage'. Once at stage two, they can never go back to stage one, as they have become fully aware of how they are treating themselves. This means they are progressing in a BIG way!

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STAGE TWO - AWARENESS STAGE

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 This is where, once students have gone through the programme, or are going through it, they can see clearly how they are treating themselves, what their internal dialogue looks like, and all of those core beliefs and habits held inside of them, including their core identity. Once at this stage, they can never return to the ‘zombie stage’ around their body image, and this stage can be insightful and upsetting at the same time. We take it slowly with clients in Leeds, Bradford, and across West Yorkshire to ensure they get the support they need while going through these shifts. When they are ready, they move on to stage three, the 'practice stage'.

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STAGE THREE - THE PRACTICE STAGE

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The practice stage. This is where they gather all they have learned in the programme and start to use it to change their mindset. We often call this the ‘opening of a can of worms’ stage. Imagine a cog inside your mind, going anti-clockwise. Then we come along and explain that your cog is going in a direction that doesn’t lead you to happiness. We ask you to stop the cog and get it moving clockwise. As you can imagine, this is extremely hard, and many things will surface as your mind tries to keep the cog going anti-clockwise.

 

The secret to this stage is perseverance, practice, and patience. Without these three PPP's, your cog will retreat back to old ways. Getting an adolescent in Leeds, Bradford, or other areas of West Yorkshire to turn their cogs clockwise can be challenging, but that’s why we are here. This is by far the hardest stage, and we always say to our students: Do this in small doses. Steady and persistently wins the race. The great thing about this stage is that clients can flit between stages 2-3 until they enter stage four, 'mastery stage'.

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STAGE FOUR - MASTERY STAGE

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What’s great about all these stages is that a client can physically measure their progress, and they like this. Having only four stages to recovery helps them focus and feel nearer to the finish line. We've seen this firsthand. Knowledge of this stage brings them hope, and we support them all the way to this stage. This stage looks like when a client lets go of their debilitating habits, when they have practiced their new beliefs to the point that their new beliefs start to feel real and right. This stage is when clients claim their life back and tend to forget about their past problems. That’s when they reach the next stage.

 

The next stage is lifelong. It’s practicing everything they have learned and keeping up with this throughout their lives. Practicing self-kindness, speaking kindly to that inner critic, and educating it to love oneself. We show them how.