Body Image Workshop A workshop for gay men

List of Groups & Workshops Finding Our Path Home Coming Home Assertiveness Body Image

I'll never be happy the way I am.   No-one will ever want me. My friends tell me I look fine, but they're just being nice. I hate what I see in the mirror! Who could love someone like me? There's a right way to look and I just ain't got it! I'm just too fat/skinny/bald.   Do these statements sound familiar?

This workshop explores the issues that underlie such self-defeating beliefs: shame; the over-emphasis on appearance; the myth of perfection; the messages we have absorbed and taken on board - from our family, from the gay scene and from the wider culture.

We will look at how we objectify ourselves and others, what we lose from that and perhaps what we gain. We will consider:

       Is this how gay men are meant to feel or behave?
       What is really wrong with our bodies?
       What is "normal"?
       How can we treat ourselves with loving-kindness and have fulfilling relationships with others?
       What are specific strategies for living a more satisfying life?

If you want to discuss participating in the workshop and/or to reserve a place, please call 020 7243 6752 or email marcusgottlieb@gmail.com. The fee will be £160, of which £60 is due in advance. The venue is The Coach House, 14a St Luke's Road, Notting Hill, London W11 1DP (click here for location details). The fee includes lunch on Sunday.

Marcus Gottlieb, formerly a solicitor, has graduated from an 8-year training in humanistic and existential psychotherapy at Spectrum, a long established institute accredited to the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy. He uses gestalt, psychosynthesis, psychodrama and other models, and he is particularly interested in finding a synthesis of F.M. Alexander's bodywork method with Stanley Keleman's formative psychology.