We used this chapter from ‘Love’s Executioner’ to consider out personal responses to obesity. While we had varied experience of obesity in clients, we agreed that it is vital to find a way to talk about it. We acknowledged that it may take courage to broach such a potentially sensitive aspect of a client’s body image but that it was imperative to create the space to explore it.
A member of F and D with professional experience of disordered eating pointed out that many overweight people are blind to their size. She thought there would invariably be a reason for a person’s weight to be out of control and therapy is an opportunity to try and find the reason. Emotional emptiness seemed to be a common feature .
We considered the effect of gender on our responses to obesity and decided that social and cultural expectations were harsher on women than men.
