| Eating Disorders |
| Spirituality |
| Psychology |
| Counseling |
| Religion |
| Psychopathology |
Summary
Summary
Many of us have a complicated relationship with our body.Maybe you've been made to feel ashamed of your body or like it isn't good enough. Maybe your body is riddled with stress, pain, or the effects of trauma. Maybe you think of your body as an accessory to what you believe you really are--your mind. Maybe your experiences with racism, sexism, ableism, heterosexism, ageism, or sizeism have made you believe your body isn't the right kind of body. Whatever the reason, many of us don't feel at home in our bodies. But being disconnected from ourselves as bodies means being disconnected from truly living and from the interconnection that weaves us all together.Psychologist and award-winning researcher Hillary McBride explores the broken and unhealthy ideas we have inherited about our body. Embodiment is the way we are in the world, and our embodiment is heavily influenced by who we have been allowed to be. McBride shows that many of us feel disembodied due to colonization, racism, sexism, and patriarchy--destructive systems that rank certain bodies as less valuable, beautiful, or human than others. Embracing our embodiment can liberate us from these systems. As we come to understand the world around us and the stories we've been told, we see that our perspective of reality often limits how we see and experience ourselves, each other, and what we believe is Sacred. Instead of the body being a problem to overcome, our bodies can be the very place where we feel most alive, the seat of our spirituality and our wisdom. The Wisdom of Your Body offers a compassionate, healthy, and holistic perspective on embodied living. Weaving together illuminating research, stories from her work as a therapist, and deeply personal narratives of healing from a life-threatening eating disorder, a near-fatal car accident, and chronic pain, McBride invites us to reclaim the wisdom of the body and to experience the wholeness that has been there all along. End-of-chapter questions and practices are included.
Author Notes
Hillary L. McBride (PhD, University of British Columbia) is a registered psychologist, an award-winning researcher, and a sought-after speaker who specializes in embodiment. She formerly cohosted The Liturgists podcast (averages 4 million downloads per year), hosts the Other People's Problems podcast, and has appeared on other popular podcasts. McBride's clinical and academic work has been recognized by the American Psychological Association and the Canadian Psychological Association. She is an adjunct professor in the department of counseling psychology at the University of British Columbia and has a private counseling practice in Vancouver. McBride is the author of Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image and coeditor of Embodiment and Eating Disorders . Learn more at www.hillarylmcbride.com.
Reviews (1)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Psychologist McBride (Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image) encourages readers to escape from damaged or harmful societal messages about their bodies in this insightful guide to being "embodied" in this "mysterious journey we each take from birth to death." Weaving in research and anecdotes from her professional life, such as her experiences with an eating disorder and a life-threatening car accident, she draws on the work of fellow psychologist Niva Piran to describe a sense of "disconnection from our body." She explores the phenomenon as it pertains to stress and trauma; appearance and image; feelings or emotions; pain, illness, and injury; sensuality and sexually; and spirituality, and in the context of the impacts of colonization, racism, sexism, and patriarchy, which she argues take their toll by making the implication that "you are less valuable in this society because of your body." The advice to become "embodied" can be felt as either "liberation or ache" depending on the reader's personal history, but the goal is a state of being completely present and connected to one's self and others, with thought and physical exercises suggested to get there. McBride's tone is gentle and instructive, displaying her amazement at how the body is made and of what it is capable. The result is an intelligent consideration on what and how to be "in" oneself in the world. Agent: Angela Scheff, Ferebee Literary Agency. (Oct.)
