TrueBody

Emotional Impact of Technology, Hacking Consciousness, Sat morning
ADOPTER(S)	Marina
FACILITATOR(S)	n/a?

The idea evolved from a seminar that I and a colleague of mine developed for people with weight problems (overweight). But soon it got clear that we were dealing with a very basic question that has to do with people's relationship to their body image. That's why we called our seminar TRUE BODY . We wanted to help people explore what emotional representation of their bodies they have, we wanted to find out by which ideals http://xstretchmarks.com/how-to-get-rid-of-stretch-marks/ (possibly mainly induced by advertisements and cultural preferences) people are guided or misguided where their bodies are concerned, as there is almost always a deep dissatisfaction with one's own body. Either you feel too fat or too unattractive or too clumsy or too whatever. Very seldom do you find a person totally in accordance with his or her body. We wanted to help people discover their own t r u e body beyond all the culturally induced body ideals and feel better or even really good about their body. In my eyes this is an eminently political question, of course. If you think of the impact of beauty ideals, of the more and more ubiquitous cosmetic surgery, of the diet industry, and in connection with all these factors of the increase of eating disorders in our culture, you start wondering about the ongoing alienation from our bodies in our society. This is all connected with the ideals of eternal youth (the Dorian-Gray-Syndrome has become something therapists started thinking about), the fear of decay, the denial of death that is going on in our society. To me it seems to make sense trying to find out about one's conscious and partly also unconscious conceptions of one's body, about one's more or less hidden false ideals. What I would like to offer in a session of (at least) 3 hours with interested people is an exercise in exploring their relation to their bodies verbally and non-verbally on very different levels: intellectuelly, physically with the help of different relaxation and visualization methods, emotionally with Gestalt and other methods from different schools. But it should be absolutely clear that this will not be an attempt at offering psychotherapy!