A Body Trust Certified Provider is someone who is committed to examining the harms perpetuated by the typical approach to food, body, weight, and health. A Body Trust Certified Provider is invested in discovering what is possible when humans are encouraged to trust their own body.
I’m Michelle F. Moseley, LCMHC, a licensed mental health counselor in North Carolina and a Body Trust Certified Provider. I have been providing clinical support since 2016 to folks who are navigating body image concerns or experiencing disconnection from their bodies. My path to doing this work involved my own lived experience of high-control environments that led to body disconnection, disordered eating, and an eventual eating disorder. This led me to pursue the credential of Body Trust Certified Provider from the Center for Body Trust in order to be able to offer well-informed and intersectional support to others navigating the path of building trust with their own body.
The Training for a Body Trust Certified Provider
What does the training for the credential of Body Trust Certified Provider include? It’s a 12-to-36-month program, depending on an individual’s pace in completing all the requirements. The training program includes different ways of engaging with topics and learning from individuals with a variety of intersecting identities.
Here is an overview of what’s included in the training program…
Twenty-four hours of live, virtual training and discussion of topics such as:
- Intersectional Frameworks (foundations for body trust)
- Disability Justice
- Body Sovereignty
- Navigating Healthcare
- Eating Disorders & Social Justice
- Trans Experience of Body Trust
- Reclaiming Movement
- Understanding GLP-1s (weight loss injectables and related meds)
Fourteen learning modules, about 5 hours each, on topics such as:
- Telling Your Body Story (understanding and communicating your experience in your body)
- Surviving & Coping with Diet Culture
- Developmental Theory of Embodiment
- Trauma-Informed Care
- Gentle Nutrition / Nourishing Your Body
Required reading of authors from various backgrounds, including:
- Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing & Liberation by Hilary Kinavey & Dana Sturtevant
- decolonizing trans/gender 101 by b. Binoahan
- Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings
- Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
- The Body is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor
Throughout the course of this certification program, participants interact with concepts and with one another in ways that challenge many societal conceptions of what it means to have a body and to live in a way that gives respect, honor, and autonomy to the body you have. Spending 250+ hours immersed in this content has helped shape my approach to working with body image concerns and assisting people in (re)building trust in their own body.
The Body Trust Framework
The framework of something can be thought of as the foundation and pillars upon which everything else is built. Without a clear framework, the commitments and work in an area are left blowing in the wind and are easily influenced by passing trends.
As a Body Trust Certified Provider, I am committed to the framework of Body Trust. This framework includes the following principles:
DIVESTING FROM DIET CULTURE. Diet culture is the system of beliefs that equates thinness with health or moral superiority. These beliefs permeate US culture and often lead to restrictive eating and other harmful behaviors in an effort to achieve an “ideal” body size or shape. In order to build body trust, one must recognize the impacts of diet culture and commit to remove those entrenched beliefs from their life.
EXPLORATION AND CURIOSITY TOWARD PARADIGMS THAT ARE ALTERNATIVES TO DIET CULTURE. One aspect of divesting from diet culture is being open to alternatives. What are other ways to approach bodies, health, and food? What can be learned from different cultures or various time periods? Building body trust involves exploring alternatives to diet culture and approaching them with curiosity rather than judgement or defensiveness.
EXPLORING MY OWN BODY STORY. It is difficult (maybe impossible) to take someone on a journey we haven’t been on ourselves. A foundational part of becoming a Body Trust Certified Provider was exploring my own body story, and continuing to explore my body story as new experiences occur. My own story includes the impacts of experiencing early-onset puberty, being a teen during the 1990s height of “heroin chic”, and religiously-based experiences that taught me body shame. Exploring my own body story allows me to support and guide others as they approach their body story with curiosity and compassion.
GRIEF. This can be an uncomfortable, but necessary, part of building body trust. Allowing room for grief helps to open up space for healing. Common areas of grief include:
- The loss of connection with your body’s needs
- The judgemental comments from caregivers about body size or food choices
- The lack of fun, appealing clothing options available for larger bodies
- The information / education about your body that you didn’t receive
ALLOWING FOR PLEASURE AND SATISFACTION. Many of the messages of diet culture place restrictions on pleasure or satisfaction related to food or your general experience of your body. Think of common phrases such as: “No pain, no gain” or “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” or “food is fuel.” Where is the room for fun, celebration, or tradition related to eating? What about the pleasure of moving your body in a way that makes you feel free or strong? Part of building body trust is making room for pleasure and satisfaction to be part of your experience with food and your body.
CONNECTING / RECONNECTING WITH NEEDS AND BOUNDARIES. A common experience for many people is to have their needs and boundaries denied from a young age, maybe even to the point that you are no longer aware of your own needs or boundaries. I recall as a young child that my statement of “I’m thirsty” was regularly met with some version of “No, you’re not. You had something to drink earlier.” This taught me that I couldn’t trust my own body to let me know her needs. (It also contributed to the fact that I always have a water bottle with me now.) I’ve also known many young athletes who were taught early on to “play through the pain”, ignoring the very real boundary that their body was communicating about its needs at that moment. Building body trust includes a pillar of reconnecting with your needs and boundaries, and likely connecting with some of them for the first time.
REDEFINING HOW HEALING LOOKS AND FEELS. Diet culture tells us that smaller bodies are better bodies, especially for women. Weight stigma is a normal part of US medical care, leading to a variety of poor health outcomes including delayed care for higher weight individuals and the prescription of disordered behaviors in an effort to shrink bodies. (Read more about this concept here). When I was actively experiencing an eating disorder, my body and behaviors were celebrated because the number on the scale was decreasing. No one was asking about what I was doing to cause that change because, even in a smaller body, I was still considered too large. Years of disordered eating caused irreparable damage to my body (not to mention my mental health) and actual healing has included living in a fat (neutral descriptor here) body. Body trust is built on redefining the definition of healing, and recognizing that healing will likely look and feel different for each of us.
What Next?
If this resonates with you and you’re interested in working with someone who approaches therapy from this perspective – even if your main concerns are not related to body image – I am able to work virtually with anyone located in North Carolina. You can learn more about Body Image Counseling and complete this contact form to schedule a free, virtual consultation to see if we might be a good fit for working together.
Not in NC? Check out the Body Trust Provider Directory to see if there is someone committed to this framework who offers services near you.
You deserve to have a relationship with your body that is built on respect, compassion, and trust!
Michelle F. Moseley (she/her) is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor in NC (#12491). She believes ALL people deserve respect, compassion, and access to mental and physical healthcare. Michelle specializes in working with survivors of religious trauma, and with those who have body image concerns, finding there is frequent overlap in these areas. She also frequently supports late-identified neurodivergent individuals as they navigate the grief and relief of a new understanding of self. You can learn more about Michelle by visiting her website at MichelleFMoseley.com or following her on Instagram – @therapy_with_michelle
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