The Body Image Workbook: An Eight-Step Program for Learning to Like Your Looks

(Paperback)

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Description

Americans boast the largest waistlines in the world, suffering from epidemic levels of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Britain is not far behind and other nations with first-world affluence are all wrestling to varying degrees with this problem too. Even countries in the earlier stages of industrialization are starting to get caught up in the battle of the bulge. Despite the fact that we are all, on average, quite overweight, our cultural media promotes a "cult of the thin and beautiful". All of us are bombarded with images and messages all day that lead many to unhealthful obsessions with the shape of their bodies. At best, these body-image issues can be unpleasant and distracting from the goal of being healthy and happy. At worst they can lead to serious mental health problems like body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) or eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia nervosa.This revised edition of a classic workbook presents a complete approach to dealing with body image issues. It includes new evidence that confirms the effectiveness of its cognitive behavioural approach. The book presents new discussions of cosmetic surgery, weight loss, and other body-fixing options, as well as information for persons with physically disfiguring conditions. A major shift in this edition orients this book with others grounded in the tradition of mindfulness and acceptance.

Reviews

"Cash has produced an excellent revision of The Body Image Workbook. The content is clear, appropriate, and based firmly on published research evidence. Therapeutic techniques that we know are helpful are presented in an accessible and supportive style, with clear guidance and useful help sheets to enable readers to develop new skills and to monitor change. This is essential reading for anyone with body image concerns. It is also a useful resource for professional therapists who wish to help clients who are experiencing distressing body-related thoughts and feelings."
--Dr Sarah Grogan, professor of health psychology at Staffordshire University, Staffordshire, UK, and author of Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children

"Dr. Cash is one of the most sensitive and sympathetic voices on the subject of body image. He brings knowledge and care, intelligence and kindness to a complicated, loaded issue. The Body Image Workbook offers a clear road map to understanding body image problems and relieving them."
--Linda Wells, editor-in-chief, Allure magazine, former beauty editor, New York Times

"The problem of body image dissatisfaction is sadly epidemic in today's world. To dislike your own body is to dislike yourself. A negative body image needlessly diminishes the quality of your life. The arrival of The Body Image Workbook brings hoped-for relief. Dr. Cash is an acclaimed professional whose eight-step program is sensitive and solution-giving."
--Dr. Joyce Brothers

"Dr. Cash has a knack for translating the best of what science offers into something friendly, supportive, and helpful."
--Kelly D. Brownell, Ph.D., director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University

"The suffering associated with body image distress can dramatically undermine one's quality of life. Incisively extracting the most helpful findings from thirty years of scientific research and clinical experience, Cash has very effectively created a beautifully organized body image workbook that will help many people. His program offers both hope for relief from body image suffering and practical strategies that can make that hope a reality."
--Thomas Pruzinsky, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT

"This workbook admirably fulfills the author's objective and promise. It is useful, empathetic, thorough, and common-sensed. My feedback for the author Nothing, except congratulations!"
--Robert M. Goldwyn, MD, clinical professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, Division of Plastic Surgery, former chief of plastic surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Author Bio

Thomas F. Cash, PhD, is a true pioneer in the psychology of physical appearance. He is professor emeritus of psychology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. He is the founding editor-in-chief of Body Image: An International Journal of Research and has published six books and more than 200 scholarly articles on topics related to body image and human appearance, including What Do you See When You Look in the Mirror and The Body Image Handbook. Dr. Cash's professional website is located at www.body-images.com. He currently resides in Naples, FL.