What is the Body Acceptance Project?
The Body Acceptance Project started as the supplemental readings and exercises for a Body Image support group in Austin, Texas. Each week, group members who knew they needed to heal their relationships with their bodies got a Thursday Email with a link to an activity for personal processing before the weekend group meeting.
It quickly became clear that group members who’d graduated from participation in the weekly meetings still wanted consistent support and inspiration, as they continued to develop their positive relationships with themselves.
More women began reaching out for help feeling okay in the body they were living in, especially during COVID. However the group meetings in Austin weren’t accessible to everyone. The Body Acceptance Project has made participating in this work available, wherever you are, at whatever point you may be in feeling better in your body.
Who is Kathryn Gates?
Growing up as a dancer makes any Midwestern girl well aware of the external pressures to have a body that may not be natural to her genetics. Auditions in the 90’s and early 2000’s often seemed to be more of a result of body type than skill or performance.
In 2005 when Kathryn first became certified as a personal trainer, she quickly learned how much psychology informed clients’ desire to change their bodies. A client’s psychology also had everything to do with how able they were to make the changes they said they wanted to make. There was and is so much more to feeling good about how we look and how we move than just changing our bodies. (Though there is nothing inherently wrong in changing our bodies.)
Certified by the American Council on Exercise and licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist, Kathryn has studied Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University in southern California. Kathryn has provided psychotherapy in-office and in the gym to women and teens who are recovering from eating disorders, compulsive over-exercise, anxiety and depression.
Why subscribe?
Every Thursday, you’ll receive action items, exercises, and experiments to try, or at the very least, ideas to journal on or discuss with someone else.
The truth is, anyone can find acceptance in the body they live in. Some societies make it harder than others. But this project wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t possible. And beyond being possible, accepting yourself and your body makes life so so so so much better.
You aren’t alone when you look in the mirror and feel worse than you did before. And you don’t have to feel that way. For weekly insights and action-items to feel better about your body, whether it gets smaller/leaner/stronger/shorter/lighter/bigger/curvier/darker/skinnier/straighter/softer or not:
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