Psychology, Counselling and Therapy Workshops in Edmonton

This half-day workshop invites mental health professionals to explore how fat representation in society influences our client’s lived sexual experiences.

We choose to use the word fat rather than obese and we will explain why. “No matter how ‘enlightened’ our ideas, none of us is immune to the social, political, and cultural indoctrination of body shame. Without an intentional exploration of how (not if) we have adopted biased body shame beliefs and a commitment to interrupting them as we continually seek to uncover them in ourselves, we will continue to obstruct the full manifestation of someone else’s oak tree.” – from Sonya Renee Taylor’s The Body is Not an Apology (2021). 

Dr. Jones will share his dissertation research on fat sex. Questions that guided the research were:

1. How do fat women perceive their sexual experiences in the context of their weight and size?

2. How do fat women perceive the cultural messages about their bodies and their sexuality?

3. How do fat women struggle differently with perceptions about their sexual enjoyment and satisfaction?

Dr. Jones and Angela Corry, RN, will dive into the historical perspectives on fat, the development of fat phobia in society and the implications of fat phobia on the sexual experiences of our clients. We will be presenting the 7 themes from Dr. Jones’s research findings, as well as how those findings can be applied with couples and individuals seeking support for their sexual health.