A specialty area of my practice
Body image and body dysmorphic disorder
Body dysmorphic disorder can consume hours of a person’s day and affect work, relationships, social life, and the ability to be present.
The concern may be difficult for other people to understand, but the distress is real. Effective treatment is available.
How BDD can show up
BDD involves a persistent preoccupation with one or more perceived flaws in appearance.
What they share
The specific concern varies. What these experiences have in common is the amount of time, distress, and restriction they create.
A common misunderstanding
This is not vanity
BDD is sometimes mistaken for vanity or a desire for compliments. It is neither. Many people with BDD feel ashamed of the concern itself and go to great lengths to hide how much they are suffering.
You will not need to persuade me that the problem is serious.
Treating the symptoms and understanding the person
I also pay attention to the broader context in which the symptoms developed. That may include experiences of shame, criticism, bullying, trauma, attachment, identity, or self-worth. The goal is not to force every person into the same explanation. It is to understand what is maintaining the symptoms for you and to build a treatment around that understanding.
EDWARD HOPPER, EAST SIDE INTERIOR, 1922
What working together can involve
Early work
Reducing rituals and reclaiming daily life
Early work may focus on understanding the pattern, reducing rituals, and helping you regain parts of daily life that BDD has restricted. We proceed collaboratively and at a pace that takes the severity of the symptoms seriously.
As symptoms ease
Exploring what shaped how you see yourself
As the symptoms become more manageable, there may be more room to explore the experiences and relationships connected to how you see yourself. Symptom relief and deeper understanding can be part of the same treatment.
My focus on BDD
BDD and body image are specialty areas in my practice. My approach is informed by relational and psychodynamic training, along with CBT and ERP methods used in BDD treatment. This allows us to address the symptoms directly without losing sight of the person experiencing them.
Also relevant
Body image concerns often sit alongside anxiety, self-criticism, and relational patterns that are worth understanding together.
Artwork
Edward Hopper, East Side Interior, 1922, National Gallery of Art (1949.5.71). Charles de Wolf Brownell, East River, Sunrise, 1862, National Gallery of Art (2005.146.1). All works are in the public domain and were obtained from the holding museum’s open access collection.