FAQ:

Am I the right person to come to your class?  

Great question.  My classes are accessible to a wide range of students, but are specifically designed for those who struggle with body dissatisfaction and dissociation and who want to feel more alive and engaged in their lives. 

You may be curious about how to improve your relationship with your body.   You may have struggled with your relationship with your body since you were a girl, and always assumed that if you just lost another five pounds that you would feel more comfortable in your body.  You may be sick of the empty allure of dieting, and looking for another way to feel okay in your own skin.  You may have a history of an eating disorder and still feel the shadow of body hatred follow you throughout your day.  You may be looking for a way to deeply return to yourself and your body.  I invite you to read through my website and see if you resonate with my approach.  If something inside of you is intrigued and excited by my words, we would probably be a good fit!

I am in a larger body and feel nervous to take a class from a thin person.  Is your class a good fit for me?

Here at Haven, your body is safe and it is welcome just as it is.  Your body does not need to lose one pound in order to begin cultivating body acceptance.  I have experience working with a wide variety of bodies and limitations, and can tailor class for most bodies and ability levels.  If you have more specific questions about this feel free to send me an email!

You don’t seem like someone who has had to work very hard to find body acceptance, why can I trust you to help me?

I struggled significantly with body shame and hatred throughout my adolescence and early adulthood.  It is true that because of my size and beauty privilege that I rarely had to battle against explicit external messages of body shame.  Some individuals have to struggle against the cruelty of parents, teachers, doctors, and peers telling them that their body or level of attraction is not quite good enough.  This was not my story, and yet I was still preoccupied with negative thoughts and feelings towards my body.  The level of insecurity I felt about my body had little to do with my actual body, and more to do with the implicit expectation of perfection we are taught when it comes to women’s bodies in our culture.  Almost every woman in our culture struggles with feelings of insecurity around her body, because our culture has set impossible ideals of what beautiful, ‘healthy’ bodies look like.  We can hate our body at any size or shape.  We can also learn to love our body at every size or shape.  

I spent the last five years excavating the social, emotional, and physical systems that keep us trapped in body hatred.  After pulling myself out of the trap of always hoping to change my body, I’ve found peace in my own skin.  I believe I can help you as well.