Is your body really yours or has it been hijacked by other interested parties who wish to control or objectify your body to attain an idealised standard of beauty and youth, or for their own commercial interest? Bodies, especially the female body, have been utilised and objectified for economic, political and sexual purposes over the centuries, to the extent that the question ‘to what extent we own our own bodies?’ – has perhaps never been more relevant. Increasingly bodies are appropriated by those who seek to control our bodies by imposing an idealised view of beauty, health, youth and sexual desirability leading to subjected, or docile bodies (Foucault, 1977) which are malleable and thus easier to control and regulate.  The use of social media exacerbates this through constant comparison, leading to body dissatisfaction and body shame when failing to compare favourably. This is further exploited by manufacturers, the fashion and cosmetic industry, as well as health, diet, fitness and the body modification industry.

This seminar will look at myriad ways in which we are encouraged to transform our bodies to adhere to a single idealised version of beauty and attractiveness ranging from the curation of social media profiles, dating apps, dieting and eating disorders, body modification through cosmetic surgery, skin whitening, and how body shame is utilised to objectify the body to market and sell products, and enhance sexual desirability.

It will also examine how body shame can lead to disavowal of the body, and how early childhood trauma, dissociation and fear of embodiment promotes the deletion of the body and concomitant alexisomia. Emphasis will be placed on how we can help clients to reclaim ownership of their bodies, to become more embodied, build somatic self-esteem and resilience to body shame and the objectification of their bodies. The focus will be on the range of somatic interventions that practitioners can use to enhance somatic literacy and enable clients to reclaim their bodies as their own.

Specifically, we consider:

• Identify the ways in which the body is utilised and objectified leading to docile bodies
• Make the link between the appropriation of the body by others and eating disorders such as anorexia and orthorexia, body modification, and cosmetic surgery
• Recognise the impact that pornography and the sex industry have on controlling the body
• Understand factors such as shame, early childhood trauma and social comparison that lead to disavowal of the body and alexisomia
• Identify the range of somatic interventions that can help clients to reclaim ownership of their bodies including somatic literacy
• Identify how clients and practitioners can become more embodied and maintain contact with the somatic self, befriend their body and increase somatic self-esteem.

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