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Positive Body Image Group Essay

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Body image disturbance, or BID, can have negative effects on individuals and can be found among many different ages of women. In fact, BID can even be found in girls as young as age seven. Many negative effects have been attributed to BID, such as increased anxiety, stress, and depression, which can cause issues both psychologically and physically (Devaraj & Lewis, 2010). Therefore, there is a need to help women combat these negative effects of body image disturbance and help maintain a more positive body image.
Body image disturbance can be defined as a maladaptive internalization of an individual's weight, shape, and/or appearance, usually involving any combination of attitudinal, behavioral, and perceptual components (Bhatnagar, …show more content…

It is important when developing a treatment module for BID that clinicians turn to prior research to guide them in the development of their therapy program.
Literature Review
It is evident throughout the literature that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in a group setting for BID appears to be the most effective and empirically supported treatment (Farrell, Shafran & Lee, 2006). CBT encompasses various techniques, including cognitive restructuring, behavioral experiments, and size perception training. An exemplar study that employed some of these different components of CBT would be Bhatnagar, Wisniewski, Solomon, and Heinberg’s (2013) study. The authors developed a CBT group intervention for body image disturbance in women who had diagnosed eating disorders. The intervention targeted both attitudinal and behavioral components. The group consisted of eight sessions and used a variety of techniques, including: (a) psychoeducation, (b) breathing and progressive muscle relaxation, (c) imagined and in vivo exposures to desensitize to appearance and body image triggers, as well as (d) relapse prevention techniques. Each session also included homework to be completed prior to the next session. Bhatnagar et al. (2013) found that upon completion of the group program, participants were more satisfied with overall appearance and with individual body parts. The authors also found that there was less

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