Facilitator: Naureen Hunani, RD

Topics Covered:

Part 1 explores body image as a multidimensional experience shaped not only by appearance concerns but also by sensory processing, interoception, emotional cues, and systemic forces that impact how clients inhabit their bodies.

We’ll examine mainstream body-image theories and what research shows about their strengths, followed by key limitations—including their focus on appearance dissatisfaction while overlooking the lived realities of sensory overload, shutdown, interoceptive confusion, and nervous-system dysregulation.

We will also explore how challenges with inhabiting a body can shape someone’s relationship with themselves in ways that appearance-based models alone cannot account for.

We’ll map how sensory experiences (feeling “too much” or “too little”), internal states, mismatched sensations, alexithymia, and misinterpreted cues can intensify body discomfort or collapse a client’s sense of embodiment.

At the same time, we hold space for appearance-based distress, acknowledging how cultural norms, anti-fatness, healthism, colonial beauty standards, and inaccessible environments compound the emotional and sensory load — especially for marginalized, fat, racialized, neurodivergent, or trauma-affected clients.

Together, we’ll identify the clinical gaps in appearance-only approaches and build toward a more holistic, affirming framework that integrates sensory and interoceptive understanding with anti-oppressive care. This prepares clinicians to work more effectively with clients whose body image struggles arise from both how they look and how their bodies feel, predict, and protect.

Facilitator: Naureen Hunani, RD

Topics Covered:

In this highly practical, advanced session, we move from theory to clinical application. You’ll learn how to conduct sensory and interoceptive inquiries that help you differentiate between appearance-based distress and experiences that arise from shutdown, overwhelm, hyper- or hypo-responsivity, or interoceptive confusion.

We will explore how sensory-based distortions of body perception show up in real time, why clients may misinterpret internal cues as appearance flaws, and how to map these patterns with clarity and neutrality.

You will also learn a range of bottom-up and top-down tools designed to support clients whose body image challenges are intertwined with sensory needs, neurobiological patterns, or nervous-system dysregulation. This includes sensory-first validation strategies, interoceptive translation practices, clothing-comfort assessments and sensory stabilization methods.

We emphasize building safety, predictability, and sensory comfort as foundations for body image work — while still honouring appearance-related concerns without reducing everything to cognition.

Together, we will look at interventions that move beyond body positivity and into embodied therapeutic work. You’ll learn how to decrease sensory–environment mismatch and support embodiment in clients who experience alexithymia, shutdown cycles, or difficulty interpreting internal states.

We’ll also explore how to address meaning-making without overriding or invalidating a client’s sensory truth.