Body Neutrality: Leaning into gratitude & away from ‘body love’ as a place for healing
As humans, we’ve all got some kind of relationship with our body. And our physical bodies are a huge part of our existence, life, relationships, and mental wellbeing. When you’ve spent years in a complicated relationship with your body, being told to “just love yourself more” can feel obviously unrealistic and honestly even painful.
Whether you’re navigating an eating disorder, gender dysphoria, or the impact of trauma on our bodies, the pressure to jump straight to “body positivity” can sometimes feel like another unreachable goal. Especially if your body has felt like the enemy, wrong, permanently damaged, or like it failed you in some way. That’s where body neutrality comes in.
But I want to say, as a therapist that’s walked for years alongside clients with gender dysphoria, eating disorders, and body trauma, this is ALWAYS a complicated topic. So please have grace and patience for yourself and whatever this article might trigger or bring up. Perfect content for your next therapy session to explore whatever was triggering or hard about these words. They might not fit you right now, but don't hesitate to lean into that with your trusted therapist.
So, what is body neutrality?
Body neutrality is the idea that you don’t have to love your body to respect it. It’s about shifting focus away from appearance and toward function, care, and presence. It sounds like this:
You don’t have to feel “at home” in your body to begin healing
You can start by noticing what your body does for you, rather than how it looks or feels.
Your body isn't perfect; but its gotten you this far and can be a vessel for hope
You can build an alliance with your body and you don't have to celebrate the pains, struggles, hardship, or brokenness. Body neutrality opens the door to a new kind of relationship with your body. Less struggle and more acceptance of things you cannot change.
Why neutrality can be a healing starting point
If you’ve experienced trauma to your body, in your body, body shame, disordered eating, or gender-based body distress, body neutrality can feel more approachable than something like body positivity or body love. It gives you permission to just be with your body—without judgment, and without forcing a feeling that isn’t authentic yet. Your body isnt perfect, but this can take the edge off the pain your body causes you and gently allow a new feeling to emerge; gratitude.
This mindset often creates space for healing in therapy. Acceptance of the pain and releasing ourselves from wrestling with it directly. It allows us as humans to shift from fixing the body to listening to it. And from there, self-trust can slowly start to grow. From longing for a more perfect body, to simply acknowledging the body we do have, and what it does for us in its current state.
Body neutrality in therapy
At the Nashville Center for Trauma and Psychotherapy, we support clients through eating disorder therapy, gender dysphoria therapy, body image healing, trauma in and to your body, and so much more. For many, body neutrality and practicing this angle of gratitude for our bodies becomes a powerful bridge—offering relief from shame and a path toward self-connection.
You don’t have to love your body to begin talking about this with your therapist. And, like I mentioned above, this article might be triggering or challenging in a few ways. Bring that up with your therapist next session. And if you don't have a therapist yet, please reach out and we’d love to connect you with a stellar clinician to support you in this topic and beyond.