I remember seeing something once in a video of a self-esteem workshop for teens, but it could work for older women, too.

They traced the outline of a Barbie body and blew it up to life-sized. Then they got butcher paper on a roll and had the girls trace their own bodies. They then talked about the differences, of course, and what the ideal was, and why that ideal was impossible, etc.

Hope that helps! This sounds like a great thing. Good luck and keep us posted!

Hi!

I did a pro-healthy body image workshop through my University's counselling centre a couple of years ago, and found it really helpful. I've been meaning to reply to your post for a few days, but wanted to wait until more of the workshop had returned to me!

It was a series of three two-hour meetings, each focusing on a different aspect of body image. In the first meeting, we were asked to keep a "body image diary" of all the things we noticed either in the media or otherwise that were harmful (or helpful, although that was rare) to developing a healthy body image. It was a small group of us, with two facilitators and probably 5 other women (we went through a screening process with one of the counsellors beforehand).

We also got handouts on nutritional information (the Canada food guide), and also other sheets about non-dieting, getting to your body's natural weight, and body acceptance. Together, we developed a handout called "strategies to develop a healthy body image", which I'll email to you when I'm finished this comment!

It was a great experience, and really opened my eyes to the way I was treating my body. It gave me so much confidence and self-acceptance. Good luck with developing your workshop, I'm sure it'll be a great success no matter how you end up doing it!

Hi again, just tried looking for your email and couldn't find it, maybe you can send something to me and I'll email you the strategies and also the names of the facilitators that started the workshop? (mikhailask at gmail dot com)